whit weekend..dont go near the water!

flanum · 01-06-2008 4:22am #1

i was asking my dad did he want to come fishing with me over the weekend, and he said that all his life he has never gone near river or lake during whit weekend! apparantly there is some old irish custom of avoiding rivers during whit! id never heard of it but he insists he got it from his parents etc.. and funnily enough somebody else mentioned it to me last week at work (maybe its an old cavan thing).

anybody else ever heard it before?

oh and what exactly on the religious calender is whit??

*goes off to google..*

flanum · 01-06-2008 4:24am

gottit... "Pentecost or Whitsun is observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter. The word Pentecost has its roots in the Greek "pentekoste" meaning the fiftieth day after Easter. Whit Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. The recent adoption of a Late Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May is an attempt to deal with the fact that Whitsuntide is a moveable feast dependent on the date of Easter. Although it is no longer necessarily at the church's Whitsuntide, the general public still refers to this holiday as "Whit Monday."

still doesnt explain the not going near water bit though!