Irish Halloween

Many people do not know that Halloween comes from pagan Ireland when then celebrated the new year on November 1st making October 31st (Halloween) their "New Years eve." They believed that on that on that night the living and deceased walked together, the dead as animals. This spooky belief has changed a little but most people still believe in similar, scary things happening on Halloween.
When Christianity came to Ireland the holiday became known as all Hallows eve where people gave a day of respect and remembrance to Saints. This more religious take on the holiday has not traveled to the US but we still copy a lot of other traditions. Carving pumpkins for example comes from the times when Irish people put candles or coals in carved potatoes. The tradition carried when immigrants came to America and found a larger supply of pumpkins which are larger and easier to carve.
Halloween costumes also have an Irish history. In pagan Celtic Ireland the spiritual leaders (Druids) would dress up as evil or scary things in hopes that they would be protected from being noticed as humans by any evil creatures they may have met up with during that night when the two worlds combined. So this Halloween when your sitting around a bonfire your doing the same thing that the ancient Celtic people would have.

Irish Cinderella Story

The story of Cinderella is very popular in American culture and Ireland has their own version of the tale of Cinderella. There are three sisters named Fair, Brown, and Trembling. Fair and Brown are very mean to their youngest sister Trembling because she is very beautiful and don't want her to marry before they do so the older sisters make her stay home and tend to the house. One day when the older sisters are at church the henwife came to Trembling and, with magic made her a beautiful white gown, green shoes and white horse. Trembling rides to the church and when it ends she rides away so no one knows who she is but would like to! The older two sisters have no idea that the mysterious woman is their younger sister but are still very jealous and have dresses like hers made because they want to get the attention all of the men gave to her. The next Sunday Trembling comes to church in a black gown with a black horse and the sisters again have similar ones made. On the third Sunday Trembling wears the most beautiful gown ever seen. When she tries to ride away the kings son grabs her foot causing her to loose her shoe. He then searched Ireland for the woman who's foot fit the shoe. When he came to the sister's house they try to hide Trembling but by luck she is able to try on the shoe proving that she is beautiful woman at Church. Trembling marries the King's son and has two children with him. One day her jealous sister pushes her off a cliff and she is swallowed by a whale. Luckily a young boy sees this and when the enchanted whale spits her out at high tide Trembling tells him to notify the Prince to shoot the whale with a silver bullet so she will not parish. The prince saves his wife and they repay the boy with their daughter's hand in marriage. And they all live happily ever after.

The Unicorn Song

One of my favorite songs growing up was The Unicorn Song. A lot of Irish songs carry a story line, especially this one. The song starts off talking about God, Noah, and the great flood. The song follows the Scripture telling how Noah builds an Ark for two of every animal to live on so they are saved from the flood. But, when the rain starts to fall the Unicorns, who are very playful, don't get on the boat because they would rather play in the rain. This explains why we don't have Unicorns today. I think it is an entertaining way to educate children on the Story of Noah's Ark. This song is an Irish music classic and I believe will be around forever and I would ecourage others to listen to it.

The Children of Lir

The story of The Children of Lir takes place long, long ago in druid Ireland. Lir was the god of the sea and his four children were very gifted, having the most amazing singing voices ever heard. Their mother died in childbirth of twin boys. Lir was very sad until he met his dead wife's sister, Aoife. Lir and Aoife married and soon after she became jealous of how much lir loved his children.
Aoife devised an evil plan to get rid of the children. She took them on a walk and convinced them to go swimming and as they did she cast a spell, condemning them to 900 years as swans only the bell of a new God would set them free. Lir went looking for his children and found out what Aoife had done. He sent her to a deemed life in the sky and visited his children everyday for 300 years. The children were then sent to a different lake and never saw there father again. After 300 years at the new lake they went to another location where they met a christian missionary. They knew he could help them become free so they stayed with him for years learning about his Christian God and St. Patrick. One day he rang a bell for mass, turning the swans back into children. They aged very fast so the man baptised them immediately before they died.
I like this story because with their patience they were able to find happiness and God. It was terrible that they had to leave their father but if they hadn't they would have never learned about the Christian religion. Aoife's curse really saved them.

My Giant's Causeway

Here are some pictures of Giant's Causeway That I took when I visited it in July of 2008.

Giants Causeway

The story of Giants Causeway is amusing, like many Irish tales. It shows how being clever is sometimes much more valuable than being "big and strong". Finn MacCool is said to be the hero who made the Causeway so that a taunting Scottish Giant could come battle him. But, after seeing the size of the giant and being so exhausted from building the pathway across the Channel he realized he needed to come up with a plan. He dressed up like a baby and waited for the giant. When the giant saw Finn's "son" he was terrified of how big he must be if his baby is that huge! So the giant ran back to Scotland destroying the causeway as he went. This story is so intriguing because there are hexagonal stones on the coast of Northern Ireland and directly across in Scotland. These stones look like they have been hand made and fitted together and draw in millions of tourists a year, making this legend unforgettable.

For Starters

With this blog I would like to share my thoughts about traditional Irish stories. Irish folk tales are so entertaining and I would love to try and read them all and find there deeper meanings. I hope to find and read as many of these as possible. Irish literature is so entertaining and I hope to share my love with others and encourage people to read the stories I find and recommend. I would love for people to recommend stories through my blog also and maybe even share their family stories, because we all know how Irish people love to tell their family stories and have so many. So let the craic begin!