School: Lúbán Díge (Bodyke)
- Location:
- Bodyke, Co. Clare
- Teacher: Bríd, Bean Uí Chadhla
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0591, Page 328
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Lúbán Díge (Bodyke)
- XML Page 328
- XML “May Customs”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- The month of May is regarded here as a very unlucky month.
May Day is the day that the wicked fairies did harm to a person they disliked.
Cows no matter how fine the weather are never left out at night till after May Day.
People plant Quick beam (game) on the head lands of the crops to avoid this harm.
Now they put the Easter Water which they keep portion of all the year round on the crops.
People will not give new milk that day nor a coal of fire.
I heard a story about a tailor who was working in the kitchen of a farmer's house on a May Day.
A women came in and said the fire went out on her and could she get a coal of fire as seed.
She took it and went out. The tailor jumped from the table and took another coal and put it into the bucket of spring water behind the kitchen door.
The woman soon returned saying the coal quenched.
She got another coal and left. The tailor again came down with a coal and threw it into the bucket of water.
She returned for the third time saying the coal quenched and the tailor put another coal into the water.
She did not return again because she knew she was defeated in her object which was to take the woman's butter.
The farmer's wife said, why did you put in the coals? Go said he, to the bucket and there she found 3 large lumps of butter.(continues on next page)
