Oliver St. John Gogarty's Bar, Temple Bar Area, Dublin
While there are certainly other things you must do while in Dublin (like see Saint Patrick's Cathedral, visit Kilmainham Gaol, walk the quays of the River Liffey, etc), stopping in a pub for a pint is great way to take part in Irish culture. My first introduction to pub culture was a lovely documentary I watched before ever setting foot in Ireland. PBS produced a wonderful piece called "The Historic Pubs of Dublin" hosted by the late, great Frank McCourt, a native Irishman. He takes you on a tour of some the oldest pubs in Dublin, imparting their rich history and exploring pub culture along the way. It is definitely worth a watch. You can watch the hour long video HERE on YouTube or at the bottom of this page.
M.J. O'Neill's on Suffolk Street Dublin
Inside O'Neill's Pub - lots of little rooms & snugs
We have chased down many of these old ancient pubs, many of which were frequented by some of Ireland's cherished personalities such as James Joyce, Brenden Behan, & Jonathan Swift. You might strike up a conversation with a local, witness a close football (soccer) game on the telly, or be delighted with some traditional music.
The Long Hall Pub on Georges Street
The Brazen Head, oldest pub in Dublin, established in 1198
Garden area of Brazen Head
Traditional Irish music will lure me straight into a pub and one of my favorite things to experience in Ireland. In Dublin, you can take part in a Musical Pub Tour which is a lovely way to visit some historic pubs while listening to great traditional music, learning about Irish music and pub culture from two guides who play for you at each place (this is not a raucous night of pint after pint, pub after pub). I've taken THIS TOUR twice and loved every minute and learned so much.
Our musician guides on the Musical Pub Tour
PBS Historic Pubs of Dublin with Frank McCourt:
The Temple Bar in the area known as Temple Bar - named after Sir William Temple and "Bar" used to refer to a raised estuary sandbank used for walking upon. Now, it seems to refer to a different kinds of bar. This particular pub, The Temple Bar, as well as this area, are considered to be very touristy and peopled by partiers. It's still a very interesting place worth visiting, even if you don't stay long. There are some very old and iconic pubs just up the street from here.
Statue of Saint Patrick outside Carriganass Castle, Kealkil, Cork
Well folks, St. Patrick's Day is creeping up along with the spring bulbs and thunderstorms - less than a month away! I am quite ready to bid farewell to Old Man Winter and welcome the return of Green. Saint Patrick's Day, March 17th, falls on a Saturday this year, which makes it even easier to host a celebration. Leading up to the great Irish celebration, I'll share the ways in which I celebrate & decorate for St. Patrick's Days. I'll share some of my Irish journeys and the culture and traditions surrounding the holiday. I'll also be hosting some flash sales in the Emerald Post Shop. Join the Newsletter HERE to get a heads up for flash sales and more. Follow along here, I'll even be hosting a giveaway before the big day!
Sacred Springs & Holy Wells can be found throughout the Celtic Isles of Ireland and Great Britain. At these revered sites, you may find candles burning as votive offerings, coins tossed into water with silent wishes, or ribbons & cloth hanging from a nearby sacred tree, tied in prayer. This candle, tied with ribbon & containing a lucky Irish (or British) coin at the bottom, signifies an ancient tradition of pilgrimage to holy places of prayer & healing, to sacred waters in sacred woods, welling up from the Otherworld.
Light this candle in prayer or meditation in the hearth of your home or in a place you find sacred, as a glowing manifestation of the unseen spirit. Give it as a gift to someone who cherishes the old ways of Ireland, Britain and Celtic spirituality. When the candle burns out, retrieve the lucky coin from the bottom and carry it with you, leave it for someone in need of a little luck, or toss it into the sacred water well of your choice.
Kindle the flame of Celtic Spirit with this 2 ounce - sage green or natural yellow - unscented - pure beeswax candle with an astonishing burn time of 12-14 hours! Poured into a lidded miniature mason jar with an Irish or British coin at the bottom.
May your All Hallows Eve be safe, joyous & macabre.
I'll be filling packages with extra Emerald Post treats for all purchases made today, Halloween, or tomorrow, All Saints Day. Hope over to the Etsy Shop to browse.
Happy Samhain!
For your enjoyment...some scenes from Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Scotland...
On All Hallows Eve, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, it is thought that the spirits of the dead can return to earth, that the threshold between the living and the dead is thin and can be crossed by spirits. Otherworldly creatures like goblins, faeries, banshees are also free to cross between the veil of this world and the other. Because all manner of spirits are roaming on All Hallows Eve, it became prudent to don a mask or costume, to dress up like a spirit of the dead in hopes of escaping their notice, offering protection by camouflage so to speak.
Many Halloween traditions are rooted in the belief that the souls of the departed are able to return during the last night of the Celtic Year. In addition to dressing up and lighting a bonfire to repel evil spirits, it was also customary to leave food out for the benevolent spirits of your departed ancestors who might visit in the night. Some folks also left food outside of their home, perhaps by a faerie hawthorn bush, to appease the faeries and other mischievous creatures.
The Halloween rite of trick-or-treat has its humble beginnings in the traditions called Souling. Children would go door to door, often dressed up as the departed dead, singing songs & asking for cakes (called soul-cakes) or other food or money, in return for saying a prayer for the souls of the dead. Below is rendition by Sting of a folk song which depicts this tradition....
As the nights grow longer, colder, and dark settles in, it is fitting that we welcome this time of year with light, with heat, with flame - with a Bonfire. It is an ancient Celtic custom, which still persists today in parts of Ireland & Britain, for people to extinguish the fires burning at home in their hearths. Then the community gathers for the lighting of a large Samhain fire. All Hallows Eve is considered to be a liminal night - meaning that the veil between this world and the Otherworld is thin and spirits, goblins, and mischievous faeries are thought to be active. The ritual fire is thought to ward off bad luck and malevolent spirits. Sometime folks cast objects into the flames, representing personal prayers. When returning home, folks would take embers from the bonfire back home to reignite their hearth fires. Where once you might have seen fires near and far across the countryside like constellations, you might now just see one like a beacon in the night.
Mural in a constructions zone in Kilkenny, Ireland
Tourism Ireland is joining in the Halloween festivities with some local hauntings. Check out their website HERE and a super Instagram page HERE. In a country as ancient as Ireland, there are sure to be more than a few spirits (whiskey included 😉 ). The only place below that I've visited from the Hauntings below is that lovely arched bridge on the River Nore in Inistioge but it was beautiful and idyllic when I was there, nothing spooky about it. HERE is another article about some famous haunted places. Explore More Irish Halloween HERE.
In the Celtic Isles, many of the old ways persist, remnants
of traditions from centuries ago are still loyally preserved or else they’ve
been distilled into common traditions whose roots lie hidden under the moss and
leaf litter of time. Peek behind the gauzy curtains of Halloween and we can
trace these old ways, see the persistence of age old traditions and uncover the
roots of our most common Halloween ways.
Ancient Celtic Wheel of the Year - The Four Festival Days: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, & Lunasa
and the 4 Cross Quarter Days arranged by the suns positions: Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, & Autumn Equinox
The ancient Celtic calendar was a wheel which turned little
by little through the seasons until it rolled right back around to Halloween or
Samhain as it was called. Samhain in Irish is pronounced SOW-EN and it means
summer’s end. It marks the end of the Celtic Year and so also the New Year. It
is a threshold, when crossed one passes from the summery light half, to the
wintry dark half. And entering the cold dark half has a lot to do with why
Samhain, Halloween, is associated with dark things. The sun grows cold and the
trees shed their final golden leaves, plant wither to grey then they are gone,
animals prepare for long winter sleep. Food and warmth are scarce. The harvest
has been stored, the wood gathered, and folks, too, prepare for the season of
Earth’s sleep. Because Samhain, summer’s end, is traditionally a festival day,
there are many folk traditions and rituals that accompany it. We'll explore those next...
The beginning of August marks the old Irish Gaelic festival day of Lúnasa, halfway between summer solstice & autumn equinox, marking the beginning of harvest time and the turn from summer to winter. (In Irish, the word for August is Lúnasa.) It is a time to honor the sun, for Lúnasa (or Lughnasadh) is named for Lugh, the old Irish god of the Sun. It's a time to gather the first harvests, to light a bonfire in thanks for your blessings, bake a pie with freshly gathered blueberries, for matchmaking and hand-fasting, for pilgrimages to holy wells and sacred trees. Here Lúnasa arrived on a cool front, one I was aching for, a blessed foreshadowing of Autumn and all her finery. Happy Harvest to come.
Ox Eye Daisy, Wild Hyacinth, Blooms from Rose Verbena, Leaves from Wild Bergamot.
With all the rain and storms that have washed over the Midwest of late, it didn't surprise me that I lost my internet for some time. That was the extent of damage from the storms that we faced. I'm quite fortunate that my hearth and home stayed dry unlike so many unfortunate folks who've faced recent flooding. So I've got some catching up to do here.
A week back was the 1st of May, May Day, or Beltane. On the old Celtic Calendar, which is wheel shaped rather than linear and based on the cycles and rhythms of the earth and plants, May 1st is the beginning of summer. It is a day to celebrate sunshine and blossoms, the return of the green, fertile earth. There are many folk traditions, such as bonfires, the May Pole and Jack in the Green, that still persist across Celtic lands, many are remnants from much older traditions. Below are a few sites that provide a lovely peak into the persistence of the old world in the modern day.
Happy Groundhog's Day here in America. Happy St. Brigid's Day in Ireland. Happy Imbolc in Ancient Ireland - the first day of Spring according to the old wheel of the year. The beginning of February is steeped in old folklore, traditions, and religion, though many only know of the infamous Punxsutawney Phil.
Traditionally, if the groundhog emerges from his burrow and it is cloudy, thus seeing no shadow, spring will come early. If it is sunny and the groundhog sees his shadow, he will retreat back into his burrow and winter will persist for six more weeks.
This tradition has trickled down from ancient times. February 1st is the Ancient Celtic Festival of Imbolc, which divides the winter from the spring, and honors the Celtic Goddess of fire and fertility, Brigit or Brigid. She dispelled the dark of winter and was "mistress of fertility"* to the land, animals and women, too. Later this day would be Christianized into St. Brigit's Day, the patron saint of mothers, cattle, and poets. Imbolc marked time to begin sowing seeds for Spring and reading the signs of nature to forecast spring weather. "An exceptionally fine day was regarded as an omen of poor weather to come."** Seeing a hedgehog was a good sign, because he would always return to the burrow if he sensed the coming of bad weather.** Traditionally, ancient civilizations also trusted the Badger to impart this important prediction because they lived beneath the earth where Spring might already be afoot. If the badger saw his shadow, winter would linger on. This tradition came over to America with German settlers and became the Groundhog Day we know today, once with a little more veneration.*
So many nearly forgotten or over-commercialized traditions are deeply rooted in the past. There is so much history in the transformation of traditions, from a Celtic Festival to Punxsutawney Phil, and much can be learned about our ancestors who settled this country and the places they left behind.
In Ireland, many traditions remain that are associated with both St. Brigit and her more ancient incarnation the Goddess Brigid such as making St. Brigid's Cross with rushes or straw, feasts, and visiting her holy wells. One fascinating tradition is to hang a piece of cloth outside for the day for the Saint to bless overnight. Throughout the year, this scrap of cloth could be used to treat headaches and other ailments.
Read more about St. Brigit's Day Traditions HERE or HERE .
Ornaments are some of my favorite things to bring home from trips as souvenirs. They are usually inexpensive, lightweight and small so they make the journey home easily (except that glass Guinness one). Every year as I trim my tree, I'm reminded of past journeys. Some of the ones below are from my trips to Ireland and Scotland, others are gifts given to me which are just as special. Nutcrackers hail from German culture but my collection of 40+ does, indeed, include a few from Celtic Lands.
