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May Eve

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  • 30-04-2017 9:13am
    #1
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭


    Will any of ye be marking today?Used to be a big day superstitions-wise.I still bless the land,animals and house.Im not interested in what you used to do or what your grandparents did....Do you still watch out for piseogs today?


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    #2
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Will any of ye be marking today?Used to be a big day superstitions-wise.I still bless the land,animals and house.Im not interested in what you used to do or what your grandparents did....Do you still watch out for piseogs today?

    Bump


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    #3
    Jellybaby1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    No. Absolutely not! Its for a different age. Not for the 21st century. But superstitious people will always be superstitious I suppose


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    #4
    riffmongous
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,625 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Will any of ye be marking today?Used to be a big day superstitions-wise.I still bless the land,animals and house.Im not interested in what you used to do or what your grandparents did....Do you still watch out for piseogs today?

    Mod note: As this is the History & Heritage forum people will be interested in posting and talking about old traditions and customs too. A discussion just on who is practicing nowadays or the modern relevance of such traditions would be better suited for another forum, perhaps Religion and Spirituality





    Personally I'm not too familiar with any specific customs, other than I remember the priest used to go round to a few farms and bless them, but I don't know what the blessing was, I would be interested to know


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    #5
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    Jellybaby1 wrote: »
    No. Absolutely not! Its for a different age. Not for the 21st century. But superstitious people will always be superstitious I suppose

    Not your version of the 21st century you mean.


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    #6
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Not your version of the 21st century you mean.

    Most people's version too. You had to bump your OP to provoke a response, it has had 120+ views so far and with one exception it has been ignored. The answer, no?
    Pedro,
    (who has worked up a sweat because he has not cast a clout while clearing the midden from outside his front door and replacing it with sweetly-scented flowers to ensure no fairies enter!)


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    #7
    leeside11
    Registered Users Posts: 147 ✭✭leeside11


    My Aunt used to go around the farm blessing animals and the buildings when I was young. First time I had seen anything like it.

    Now I do the same just for the tradition of it.


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    #8
    History Queen
    Registered Users Posts: 3,452 ✭✭✭History Queen


    We sprinkle holy water and say a quick prayer every may eve on the farmyard and on one field (as opposed to every field) years ago when we had rented land in different blocks we would sprinkle holy water on one field in each block. Never blessed the animals themselves.


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    #9
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    Obviously it's a dying tradition.Driving through Clare on may eve I saw two examples of the branch being put on the roof...isnt it strange some people here mock their own heritage?


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    #10
    Jellybaby1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Obviously it's a dying tradition.Driving through Clare on may eve I saw two examples of the branch being put on the roof...isnt it strange some people here mock their own heritage?

    Can't be my heritage if I've never heard of it.


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    #11
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,113 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    These were mainly dying out by the 1950s. Just before my memory. A lot about certain people stealing your luck.
    Really back two generations at this stage.
    One suspects the Catholic Churches May devotion to Mary was about contesting the old phiseogs and rituals of the day.


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    #12
    flutered
    Registered Users Posts: 6,667 ✭✭✭flutered


    my oh got a call asking was she going to go around the fields with water, her reply cannot be printed, saying that when i was a chap there was a neighbouring widow woman, who was handy and sucessfull with the phiseogs


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    #13
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Obviously it's a dying tradition.Driving through Clare on may eve I saw two examples of the branch being put on the roof...isnt it strange some people here mock their own heritage?
    What a strange response/comment, possibly due to you not knowing the difference between folklore and heritage?

    Putting a branch on the roof of my house never was part of my heritage, nor indeed that of the bulk of the population of this island. Why should I adopt it now, or take it seriously? Why should I put flowers on my doorstep & windows on Mayday to keep the fairies away? Why should I dance around a maypole, not an Irish tradition BTW, but an English one, introduced into parts of Tipp, Kilkenny and Wicklow by Crown Forces? Why should I carouse around a bonfire, semi-naked, like the gobs#1te re-enactors here and in Scotland, along with their Wiccan fellow travellers? Ah, shur, it’s keeping up the tradition, like.

    Of course Mother Church was dead set against May Day, the holy month of Mary, May altars. etc.; the poor old PP and his assistant, the lad with the egg, did their best to stamp all that out (thinks of Fr. Ted and his “Down with that sort of thing” placards). Nor did you mention a law of one of the Georges increasing the penalties for cutting down trees for maypoles.

    Well, if we are to take your version of ‘heritage’ seriously, why don’t we go the whole way and bring back the much more common /frequent bits of heritage and have some bear-baiting, a dog fight or two, a few cock-fights and for the crack of it, some bare-knuckle boxing? Or why not bring back the real deal, the faction fight, (although that is often re-enacted in rural GAA matches)?

    Bealtine, baal tine, a time for celebrating, the fire signifying purification and rebirth after the winter, a time for fertility rites and frequent mass drunkenness and sexual laxity, often including rape. Fun and games, even in cities, for example the old abbeys' tallboundary crosses in Finglas and Rathmines (or Ranelagh?) in Dublin first had prizes tied to the tops, then were soaped and youths tried to climb to retrieve them.

    The superstitious customs of folklore form a part of heritage, it is important to understand and record them, but it is asinine to blindly ape them. Heritage is a much wider topic. It's a pity your only contribution missed the relevance of the tine/fire, and mentioned a ‘branch’ (entirely missing the significance of the May Bush) and added nothing else..


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    #14
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    Jesus take it handy,I said I saw the branches being used in clare.I think its a pity to loseour traditons,not blindly ape them.Down here in the west,May Eve is still practiced by quite a large number of people,I wouldnt expect it to be as strong in Dublin.....cool down.


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    #15
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    pedroeibar1 wrote: »
    What a strange response/comment, possibly due to you not knowing the difference between folklore and heritage?

    Putting a branch on the roof of my house never was part of my heritage, nor indeed that of the bulk of the population of this island. Why should I adopt it now, or take it seriously? Why should I put flowers on my doorstep & windows on Mayday to keep the fairies away? Why should I dance around a maypole, not an Irish tradition BTW, but an English one, introduced into parts of Tipp, Kilkenny and Wicklow by Crown Forces? Why should I carouse around a bonfire, semi-naked, like the gobs#1te re-enactors here and in Scotland, along with their Wiccan fellow travellers? Ah, shur, it’s keeping up the tradition, like.

    Of course Mother Church was dead set against May Day, the holy month of Mary, May altars. etc.; the poor old PP and his assistant, the lad with the egg, did their best to stamp all that out (thinks of Fr. Ted and his “Down with that sort of thing” placards). Nor did you mention a law of one of the Georges increasing the penalties for cutting down trees for maypoles.

    Well, if we are to take your version of ‘heritage’ seriously, why don’t we go the whole way and bring back the much more common /frequent bits of heritage and have some bear-baiting, a dog fight or two, a few cock-fights and for the crack of it, some bare-knuckle boxing? Or why not bring back the real deal, the faction fight, (although that is often re-enacted in rural GAA matches)?

    Bealtine, baal tine, a time for celebrating, the fire signifying purification and rebirth after the winter, a time for fertility rites and frequent mass drunkenness and sexual laxity, often including rape. Fun and games, even in cities, for example the old abbeys' tallboundary crosses in Finglas and Rathmines (or Ranelagh?) in Dublin first had prizes tied to the tops, then were soaped and youths tried to climb to retrieve them.

    The superstitious customs of folklore form a part of heritage, it is important to understand and record them, but it is asinine to blindly ape them. Heritage is a much wider topic. It's a pity your only contribution missed the relevance of the tine/fire, and mentioned a ‘branch’ (entirely missing the significance of the May Bush) and added nothing else..

    You seem to have a lot of time on your hands,some of us dont have the luxury to sit on a throne and try to derail a genuine question.


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    #16
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    padohaodha wrote: »
    Jesus take it handy,I said I saw the branches being used in clare.I think its a pity to loseour traditons,not blindly ape them.Down here in the west,May Eve is still practiced by quite a large number of people,I wouldnt expect it to be as strong in Dublin.....cool down.
    A pity. I was hoping you might provide a better description and some examples of the May Day customs/activities in your area. You might br better off posting elsewhere if you are simply doing a poll.


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    #17
    padohaodha
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭padohaodha


    pedroeibar1 wrote: »
    A pity. I was hoping you might provide a better description and some examples of the May Day customs/activities in your area. You might br better off posting elsewhere if you are simply doing a poll.

    Well you should have read the thread title then or possibly you dont know the difference between looking for information and randomly attacking people.


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    #18
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    riffmongous wrote: »
    Personally I'm not too familiar with any specific customs, other than I remember the priest used to go round to a few farms and bless them, but I don't know what the blessing was, I would be interested to know
    I'm not familiar with blessings but in Iveragh there are many May Eve/Day pisheogs almost all based on giving or taking and bad luck. This is just one entry on Duchas


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    #19
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,113 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Yes, a lot of the stuff was to do with the dark side rather than blessings. I presume the church brought in those to counter the curses.
    A few vague memories. There was something about putting out rotten eggs to curse a neighbours fields, I think.
    People were fearful of certain people believed to practise some of these rituals.


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