School: Kildavin, Ferns

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1. Festivals of the Year - May Day (continued)

   

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   themselves, it was the only time they ever got money of their own. The fair was a great day for fun, there were sports and games of all kinds and fortune - telling.
   On May day some women had the power of "taking the butter." They went to a well near a house and skimmed the top of the water with a cup and said "All to me, all to me." No matter how the people of that house churned they could not get any butter, it would all go to the woman. This woman must have a cow of her own. The butter in the month of May is the best butter of the year, that is why it is taken. The woman sometimes asks for the loan of your churn but no one would give it for they would be giving away their butter. If you put your finger in the milk to test it a string of milk would stick on to your finger and you could not break it, that is the milk from which the butter is taken, or you would have no butter till the priest came and got that woman and made her put her hand to the churn, then you would have more butter than ever. Some people used to drive their cows through fire so that the butter could not be taken. If anybody went into a house on May Day when the churning was in progress, they would put their hand on the churn.
   The old people would not give away butter

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
         1. May (~639)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eily Fennelly

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Mrs Nolan

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   73

   Occupation

   Shopkeeper

   Address

   Ballyshancarragh, Co. Carlow