Characteristics Of Calendar Customs

Customs reflect what people usually do and the way how they do it and can be divided into different groups, such as: calendar customs which are activities related to certain days in the year or lifecycle customs which are activities connected with the key moments in people’s lives like getting married or dying. (GREEN, 169, 1997) This essay will describe 3 calendar customs which people in Ireland celebrated and will show how they celebrated them. The first one will be Saint Brighid’s day which is celebrated on 1st February between winter solstice and spring equinox. As a second one will be describe Halloween which is celebrated on 1st November between St Michael’s Day and winter solstice and Christmas as the last one.

Saint Brighid’s Day
People were cleaning their houses and dwellings. Men were mainly cleaning the buildings outside the house and the yard and women were cleaning inside their houses. People were decorating their houses with wreaths made of holly, ivy and other plants which leaves stayed green all year round. For example, decorating houses with mistletoe was not that common tradition in Ireland but going to the Christmas market was very popular. People could buy there almost everything beginning with eggs, turkey, whiskey, cakes, spices, tobacco and ending with clothes or toys. Sellers very often gave a little present to their customers and rich farmers very often killed some animal and gave it away to their friends, employees and neighbours. (DANAHER, 233- 236,
Sons and daughters who worked in the city went back home for Christmas to spend some time their parents. They finished their work around noon and joined the family in the evening for the dinner. They also did not forget to bring small presents. On Christmas Eve, people throughout Ireland were lighting candles and saying little prayer. Lighting candles and placing them at the window meant that Mary and Joseph would be welcome in their house. Most people were fasting that day and finishing the last preparations for Christmas day. Once it was all done, people had dinner and the traditional Christmas Eve dinner was fish with potatoes. People also had fruit cake and tea or punch. People were having really nice time while sitting around the fire enjoying themselves until late night. On Christmas day the family was gather together and no one was supposed to enter some one else’s house unless he or she was invited. Christmas Day usually started with going to the church. After that, women started to prepare the Christmas dinner and men and boys spent some time outside playing games, for example hurling was very popular. The Christmas dinner was the best and the biggest meal of the year. Typical Christmas dinner was composed of roast or boiled beef or goose or chicken followed with cakes, puddings or pies. After the dinner was time to relax around the fire and have a nice conversation with the others. (DANAHER, 236- 241,