The night before Christmas in Ireland (Advent Calendar: Christmas Eve)

Breaking the fast, watching for angels standing on the spike of every holly leaf, and being sure to say your prayers - because every Irish child knows that all prayers said on Christmas Eve are answered...

These are some of the memories of childhood Christmases in Ireland shared by Brigit Haggerty in her essay An Irish Christmas—The Night Before. Perhaps my favorite part of her descriptive remembrances is this recollection and realization:

Drifting off to sleep, I can vaguely recall hushed voices in the other room, bits and pieces of Handel's Messiah, and a feeling of pure contentment. It would take me years and years to recognize and realize that these are the gifts that go on giving.

For another look at Christmas Eve in Ireland, this time a humorous one, see the book An Irish Night Before Christmas, written by Sarah Kirwan Blazek and illustrated by James Rice. Nevermind the yule log on the fire and glasses of eggnog, here you'll find the turf blazing in the fireplace and glasses of Irish stout. This charming children's picture book will bring a smile to the face of children of all ages at Christmas.

Here's wishing you a warm candle in your window and an Irish blessing this Christmas Eve:

The light of the Christmas star to you
The warmth of home and hearth to you
The cheer and good will of friends to you
The hope of a childlike heart to you
The joy of a thousand angels to you
The love of the Son and God's peace to you.

Nollaig Shona dhíbh!

Image courtesy Tipperary of Tara, Ltd.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 24: Christmas Eve. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

On French Hens, a Partridge and God Himself (Advent Calendar: Christmas Music)

In the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas, I was planning to write a post about the well-loved carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. I had learned several years ago that the objects throughout the carol had hidden meanings - they represented various aspects of the Christian faith. I understood that the carol had been written for use by persecuted English and Irish Catholics during the time of England's Protestant reformation. Or so I thought...

After a little bit of research on the subject (much thanks to Douglas Anderson's Hymns & Carols of Christmas website) I have learned enough about The Twelve Days of Christmas to write a book, never mind a blog post. And, no, the background of the carol may not be exactly what I had thought. But it does have a fascinating history steeped in the joy and merriment of the Christmas season which traveled through several countries before becoming an international phenomenon.

The song probably had its origin as a French carol and was sung as a sort of "chanson de geste" by the medieval troubadours of France, according to The Folk Carol of England by Douglas Brice.

Elizabeth Poston writes in The Second Penguin Book of Christmas Carols that the earliest written version of the song appears in "Twelth Day", a 13th-century manuscript located at Trinity College, Cambridge. The Twelve Days of Christmas was first published in a children's book called Mirth & Mischief in 1780, with its first appearance in a collection of Christmas songs coming in 1868.

Just to clarify, the "twelve days of Christmas" refers to the period of celebration between Christmas day itself and Epiphany on January 6. The song was originally sung by the French on Epiphany, otherwise known as Twelth Night.

In its more recent history, The Twelve Days of Christmas song has become a favorite throughout the traditional Christmas season and now our modern extended secular Christmas season which gets rolling in late November (and perhaps even earlier) in some places.

As for the meaning behind the symbols, here is the story as best I could find it. It turns out that a Catholic priest by the name of Fr. Hal Stockert had done some research for a project years back. In the process he came across some letters from Irish Jesuit priests to the motherhouse in Rheims, France. According to Fr. Stockert's memory (he hasn't been able to relocate the letters) some of the documents had mentions of the symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas being used as a secret catechism for persecuted Catholics at the time. Fr. Stockert posted his findings online not "as a doctoral thesis", as he put it, but "simply as some delicious tidbit [he] thought the world would be delighted to share over a holiday season". (See more about his story at Catholic Culture or Catholic Information Network. For another interesting discussion on the topic and a list of the symbols, see this CRI/Voice webpage.)

So it turns out that the carol, not necessarily written as a tool of faith, may have actually been used that way. Whether or not this was the case, thanks to this song we now have an interesting and memorable way to remember various aspects of faith.

Here are the symbols, according to the Catholic Culture webpage:

• true love = God Himself
• partridge in a pear tree = Jesus Christ
• 2 turtle doves = Old and New Testaments
• 3 French hens = faith, hope and charity (the theological virtues)
• 4 calling birds = the four Gospels and/or the four evangelists
• 5 golden rings = the first five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch)
• 6 geese a-laying = the six days of creation
• 7 swans a-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and/or the seven sacraments
• 8 maids a-milking = the eight beatitudes
• 9 ladies dancing = the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
• 10 lords a-leaping = the ten commandments
• 11 pipers piping = the eleven faithful apostles
• 12 drummers drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

Click here for the tune for The Twelve Days of Christmas along with lyrics in English and Irish Gaelic.

As the twelve days of Christmas draw near, I hope you'll take the time to read the story of the "Partridge's" birth written by one of the "four calling birds" in one of the "turtle doves". Make sure you obey the "ten lords a leaping", and I wish you a holiday season filled with "French hens!"

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 21: Christmas Music. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

"Mass-going feet" and "a frosty dawn" (Advent Calendar: Religious Services)

Every child has strong memories of Christmas mornings. The joy of the long-awaited day's arrival; the gift-giving; the beauty of the morning shared with family. Many Irish children in days gone by remembered the outdoor beauty of the morning of Christ's birth as they made their way to early morning Mass with their families.

Patrick Kavanagh, a well-loved Irish poet of recent times, has written a beautiful poem which brings to life his memories of those Christmas mornings. Here is a portion of his poem, A Christmas Childhood. Kavanagh's vivid description of the morning preparations and the family's walk to church on "Mass-going feet" can't help but make the reader sentimental for Christmases past.

...Outside the cow-house my mother
Made the music of milking;
The light of her stable-lamp was a star
And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.

A water-hen screeched in the bog,
Mass-going feet
Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes,
Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.

My child poet picked out the letters
On the grey stone,
In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland,
The winking glitter of a frosty dawn...

You can read the full text of Kavanagh's A Christmas Childhood at this Irish Culture & Customs webpage.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 17: Grab Bag. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

"A fairyland of gold and glitter to feast the eyes of a country child" (Advent Calendar: Grab Bag)

Christmas 1858 must have been a time of joy and sadness for Patrick Tierney. Just eighteen years old, I'm sure that memories of childhood Christmases in Ireland were fresh on his mind as he celebrated the season with the hope of a new young immigrant to America.

Wondering what his memories of Ireland might have been like, I was happy to find an account written in the 1920's by Consiglio Murphy. She wrote her memories of Christmas in East Cork "sixty years ago" - which would have been around the 1860's, a few short years after Patrick Tierney had arrived in America from the neighboring County Tipperary.

I enjoyed reading her memories about the pre-Christmas plum pudding process, and how each family member was required to stir the pudding to prevent a death in the family in the new year.

Visits with gifts of fresh milk to neighbors "with many children" ended up with she and her siblings returning filled with rich cake or plum pudding and a chide from their mother, "You took more from those poor people than you gave."

She also tells about her memories of riding into town with her parents in the "pony and trap" to "bring home the Christmas". On the way back in the dark of the Irish late winter afternoon, she remembers enjoying the sights of the lit gas lamps, "a fairyland of gold and glitter to feast the eyes of a country child, who only had an oil lamp and candles at home."

I can't help but wonder what young Patrick Tierney, a country child from Tipperary, feasted his eyes on during his first Christmas in Boston in 1858.

You can read the rest of Consiglio Murphy's memories of mid-19th-century East Cork Christmas at this Irish Culture & Customs webpage or in the book No Shoes in Summer by Merlin Press.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 17: Grab Bag. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

Get in the Christmas spirit - do your housecleaning! (Advent Calendar: Grab Bag)

The Irish have only a few Christmas traditions that stand out as traditionally Irish and not borrowed from other cultures in recent times. Perhaps the oldest of these traditions is - housecleaning! And it may, too, have been borrowed from other cultures - although it was as long ago as before the birth of Christ.

This is not your typical housecleaning. Traditional Irish "whitewashing the house" for Christmas involves cleaning and polishing the house and everything in it. As this Christmas Archives webpage puts it, "The cleaning of the house from top to bottom...Every window and glass sparking, all the silver polished till it shone." Take a drive through the Irish countryside in December and you may see a farmhouse that has the freshly whitewashed look.

Supposedly the "holiday cleansing" tradition originated in the purification ceremonies of ancient cultures, including the Mesopotamians circa 4000 B.C. It has long been a part of the preparations in Ireland (and some other European countries) for Christmas day, and can still be found in many rural areas today.

So get yourself in the Christmas spirit - go do some housecleaning! Whitewash your outhouse (if you have one); clean out the stables (if you're lucky enough to own livestock). If not, put up some fresh curtains and put out some new table linens. If you want to have a traditional Irish Christimas, it's time to purify and freshen up your home for Christmas in honor of the coming of the Christ Child.

Better get to work!

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 9: Grab Bag. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

On Santa and how he immigrated to Ireland (Advent Calendar: Santa Claus)

According to Irish tradition, which appears to have some possible basis in fact, Saint Nicholas may very well have been an Irish immigrant. Yes, you may know that he was St. Nicholas of Myra and spent his youth in Turkey. According to the story, however, he may have unknowingly been moved to the land of Eire after his passing by Irish-Norman knights traveling home from the crusades in the Holy Land.

Take a look at the Saint Nicholas Center's Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus website for the full story along with a photo of what is believed to be the gravestone of Saint Nicholas himself.

The site has a charming poem written about the legend (should we call it that?) by Bill Watkins. I've included a two-stanza preview here. Visit the Saint Nicholas Center website for the rest.

The Bones of Santa Claus

An Irish Saint Nicholas Folk Tale

by Bill Watkins

Where lie the bones of Santa Claus
To what holy spot each pilgrim draws?
Which crypt conceals his pious remains
Safe from the wild wind, snows and rains?...

...That saint protector of the child
Whose relics pure lie undefiled
His casket safe within it's shrine
Where the shamrocks grow and rose entwine...

True or not true, it sure makes a good story. Thanks be to God for the Irish and their gift of blarney.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 6: Santa Claus. Make a visit to Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.

Deck the halls with boughs of cuileann (Advent Calendar: Outdoor Decorations)

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la..."

This beloved carol, believed to be originally of Welsh origin, had already been around for quite awhile when Mozart used it for a piano duet in the 18th century. You can read more about its interesting history in William Studwell's A Christmas Carol Reader.

Even older than the song is the actual tradition of using holly to ring in the Christmas season. In fact, it may have even been used in Ireland during the time of the winter solstice long before the advent of Christianity. But for many, many centuries now, the Irish have celebrated Christmas and holly has been a part of that celebration.

Here's how it went in the olden days, according to Bridget Haggerty's An Irish Christmas - Then and Now. In preparation for Christmas the women cleaned the inside of their homes, the men cleaned the outside, and the children's job was to "scout the countryside for appropriate decorations to be cut and brought home on Christmas Eve." Holly, cuileann in Gaelic (pronounced "qwill-un"), was considered one of the best finds because of its colorful berries. After the "gathering of the greens", sprigs of these glossy leaves and clusters of red berries graced mantles, doorways and other places of the Irish home at Christmastime. According to Christmas in Dublin, the plant came to symbolize the Savior: the spiky holly leaves were the crown of thorns and the red berries were drops of blood from Jesus' face and head.

Lucky children in a few particular counties in the south of Ireland might be able to add mistletoe, or drualas (pronounced "dhroo-ah-lus") to their collection of greenery. Mistletoe also had a long-standing role in Celtic culture, symbolizing peace and fertility.

Many Irish emigrants took the tradition of decorating with holly and mistletoe to their new countries, and that may be why many of us hang holly and mistletoe at Christmastime today.

Image of the holly courtesy of Scenic Reflections.

The vintage postcard images above (circa early 1900's) are courtesy of twogatos.com. Visit the website to view more beautiful postcards.

This article is part of a series written in celebration of the Advent and Christmas seasons. It will be included as part of the GeneaBloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2009 Day 5: Outdoor Decorations. (Apologies to Thomas MacEntee for taking liberties with the outdoor decorations theme for today and discussing indoor decorations with an outdoor flavor.) Make a visit to Thomas's GeneaBloggers website for some additional inspiration to get yourself in the holiday spirit!

The article originally appeared here at A light that shines again and was included in Thomas MacEntee's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2007.