St John's Eve (or Oiche Fheile Eoin) is celebrated in many parts of Ireland with the lighting of bonfires. This ancient custom has its roots in pre-Christian Irish society when the Celts honored the Goddess Áine, the Celtic equivalent of Venus and Aphrodite. She was the Goddess Queen of Munster and Christianised rituals in her honour (as Naomh Áine) took place until the nineteenth century on Knockainy, (Cnoc Áine – the Hill of Áine) in County Limerick. During the festival, people would say prayers, asking for God's blessing upon their crops. They would also take ashes from the fire, and spread them over their land as a blessing for protection for their crops. It was also common to have music, singing, dancing, and games during the festival. The fire was used for destroying small objects of piety (rosary beads, statues, etc.) without disrespecting God. It was also common for people to jump through the flames of the bonfire for good luck.
mikemac wrote: » I'd never even heard of this A quick wiki check Sounds religious, the heathens on boards won't have anything to do with it Are you doing the last part conlufc?
jam_mac_jam wrote: » aw you country folk, how quaint.
Itssoeasy wrote: » Twas brought up on ray foley today and apparently Mayo is a hotbed for it on the 23rd of June. Dublin Louth and Tipperary it appears fo not be a big thing. So which counties is it big in and when isn't it ? Tis big in cork.
The King of Moo wrote: » I may be mistaken, but as far as I know it's Halloween in the cities (was here in Galway city) and midsummer in many rural areas. It's a remnant of Bealtaine, the summer fire festival (they still have a big shindig full of crusties in Edinburgh in the summer, with lots of fire eaters and such), they used to pass animals through it to ensure good harvest and milk and meat and such. And if they didn't survive you'd at least get a nice few steaks out of it.
Ally Dick wrote: » Do people in the West light bonfires to celebrate a wedding ? I was at a wedding in Tuam once and was driving to the reception in Ballinasloe. There were people lighting fires and waving at the wedding procession. Never saw that before anywhere else
Duckworth_Luas wrote: » Bonfires at Halloween is a recent urban thing. Where I grew up we had loads of Halloween traditions, bonfires was certainly not one of them.
starbelgrade wrote: » Ray Foley - proving how pointless radio shows can be, every Monday to Friday 12 - 2.30pm.
si_guru wrote: » I am guessing but maybe this stemmed from the UK having bonfires on November 5th.
Duckworth_Luas wrote: » Yes, people light small bonfires along the route taken by the couple from the church to the reception.
The King of Moo wrote: » Like games? My mother would always try to get us to play games like bobbing for apples or this one where you've got a mound of flower with a peanut on top and you had to cut off a "slice" off flour without knocking the peanut. I think she hated us being near the bonfire and wanted to keep us away from it!
Duckworth_Luas wrote: » The games originated from superstitious people being afraid to go out on that night. People stayed in doors and the games kept the children occupied. Young men however had no such fears. The result was that teenage boys had free reign to cause havoc unhindered. When these traditions traveled to America people would bribe boys with treats, hence trick-or-treat, which was itself imported into Ireland via TV.
The King of Moo wrote: » We kept the tradition of causing havoc, just restricted to the bonfire and how big/explosive we could make it. I'll never forget throwing in that can of oil
