School: Ballymore (C.) (roll number 7444)
- Location:
- Ballymore, Co. Westmeath
- Teachers: K. Kavanagh Mrs Kearney
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0743, Page 332
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- XML “May Day Superstitions”
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- May day superstitions are dying away now. Long ago people churned on May morning so that they would have butter all the year. They tied a red string on the cow’s tail as soon as she calved that she would give milk all the year. They also lighted a blessed candle and with it singed the hairs off the cows udder.
People washed their face in the dew that they would net get freckles and they washed their feet in the dew that they would not get chilblains. A branch of a white bush was planted in the dung-hill and decorated with primroses, cowslips and blue-bells. This is the may bush. It is left there till it is well withered.
