{"id":3662,"date":"2020-11-13T09:15:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/?p=3662"},"modified":"2020-11-13T09:15:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:15:08","slug":"irish-superstitions-and-rituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/2020\/11\/irish-superstitions-and-rituals\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Superstitions and Rituals"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Friday the 13th<\/sup> and black cats to tossing salt over one\u2019s left shoulder to ward off evil spirits, superstitions and rituals are rooted in a mixture of religion, mythology, and folklore. They have the power to ward off evil, bring good luck, cure sickness, even stop people from performing certain activities on certain days.<\/p>\n

However, every culture is different and what is unlucky in one may be lucky in another. Instead of Friday the 13th<\/sup>, it is Tuesday the 13th<\/sup> that is thought to be unlucky in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico, and Serbia. For Italy, it is Friday the 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Where a black cat can be thought to mean bad luck, in Ireland it may lead to fortune as \u201cseveral of the great lake serpents and water-cows of our Irish Fairy Mythology are supposed to guard treasurers; in some instances black cats are similarly employed\u201d (Wilde, 98).<\/p>\n

Some of Ireland\u2019s other superstitions and rituals revolve around fairies and goblins, stating,<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026if you cast the dust that is under your foot against the whirlwind at the instant that it passes you, \u201cthem that\u2019s in it\u201d (that is, if they have any human being along with them) are obliged to be released\u201d (Wilde, 130).<\/p>\n

Then there are those that involve fire, most notably on days of celebration such as May Day and St. John\u2019s Eve or Midsummer\u2019s Eve:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a man was to perform a long journey, he leaped backwards and forwards three times through the fire to render himself invulnerable\u201d (Wilde, 49).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the fire has nearly expired, and the dancing, singing, and carousing are over, each individual present provides himself with a braune, or ember of the fire, to carry home with him, which, if it becomes extinguished before he reaches his house, it is an omen of impending misfortune\u201d (Wilde, 49).<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking around a burning flame during St. John\u2019s Eve or Midsummer\u2019s Eve spares one from being sick the whole year\u201d (Putzi, 196).<\/p>\n

Other curious Irish rituals include keeping spiders in a bag to be worn as a pendant or necklace to cure fever. However, if the bag is opened it will cause back luck. To remove a sty on one\u2019s eyelid, the person should point to the direction of a gooseberry thorn nine times while chanting \u201cAway, away, away!\u201d.<\/p>\n

But if things still go awry, you find your milk has curdled, you can always blame the fairies!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other superstitions and rituals can be found in:<\/p>\n

Putzi, S. (Ed.). (2008).\u00a0To z world superstitions & folklore : 175 countries – spirit worship, curses, mystical characters, folk tales, burial and the dead, animals, food, marriage, good luck, and more<\/em>. ProQuest Ebook Central\u00a0https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilde, W. R. (1852).\u00a0Irish popular superstitions<\/em>. J. McGlashan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Friday the 13th and black cats to tossing salt over one\u2019s left shoulder to ward off evil spirits, superstitions and rituals are rooted in a mixture of religion, mythology, and folklore. They have the power to ward off evil, bring good luck, cure sickness, even stop people from performing certain activities on certain days. … Continue reading “Irish Superstitions and Rituals”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":3670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[44,33],"class_list":["post-3662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives-and-special-collections","category-rare-books","tag-irish","tag-rare-books-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3671,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3662\/revisions\/3671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}