, Ireland
Saint Brigid's Day
Saint Brigid’s Day - dates back to mid 7th century
The first of February is Saint Brigid’s Day and also around the time of Imbolc, a traditional festival marking the beginning of spring. There is some debate over whether Brigid was a real person. She has the same name, associations and feast day as the Celtic goddess Brigid, and there are many supernatural events, legends and folk customs associated with her.
Some scholars suggest that the saint is a Christianised form of the goddess. Others that she was a real person who took on the goddess' attributes. Early Christian monks could have adapted Brigid the goddess, and grafted her name and functions onto her Christian counterpart. It has also been suggested that Brigid was chief priestess at the temple of the goddess Brigid, and was responsible for converting it into a Christian monastery. After her death, the name and characteristics of the goddess became attached to the saint.
We call her Saint Brigid and my earliest memory of her was when my parents brought me to the Curragh of Kildare and told me the story of how Brigid gained the Curragh plains for her church and the people of Ireland. There are different versions of the story, some involving a king with the ears of a horse or ass who Brigid cured. But the one I heard begins with young Brigid born into slavery, her mother a slave and powerful chieftain father. Growing up she was noted as generous to those less fortunate and possessing healing powers, curing the sick, and even giving away her mother and father’s possessions to help the poor.
Her father was annoyed at this and tried to sell her as a slave to the King of Leinster. However while her father was talking to the king she gave away his best sword to a beggar so he could sell it to get food for his family. The king was amused by this act, and it impressed on him a fondness for Brigid, so he convinced her father to grant her freedom.
Sometime later, Brigid asked the king for land to build her convent, she had identified a place in Kildare which would provide everything she would need. The king was not known for his generosity to the poor and laughed at her request, but Brigid prayed and asked him if she could have as much land as her cloak would cover. Seeing her little cloak, the king agreed. But when Brigid spread her cloak on the ground, it spread North, South, East and West until it covered the Curragh of Kildare.
After witnessing this miracle, the king changed his ways, became a Christian and vowed to help the less well off in his kingdom. He helped Brigid build her convent and kept his promise to let her keep the land that her cloak had covered. And there it remains to this day, the plain of Brigid, the Curragh of Kildare.
We still have traditions associated with Saint Brigid’s day, one of which is the Brat Bríde, nothing fancy, just a piece of cloth or ribbon left outside the house on the night before St Brigid’s day, in the belief that Brigid will bestow a cure on the garment for the year ahead. In some areas the cloth was said to have the power to cure headaches.
...wells devoted to the Saint would attract huge crowds on the first of February. This and other Holy Well sites demonstrate old beliefs meeting new. As pilgrims visit the site to avail of the holy water, and also leave votive offerings to the saint/ deity. The rag tree is perhaps a throwback to more ancient beliefs. Whereby a piece of clothing from a person suffering illness or problem is dipped in the holy water and then tied to the tree. In the belief that as the rag rots away, the affliction will also depart. Rag trees can also be used by those who have a wish or aspiration they seek to have fulfilled. If you are tying some cloth to a rag tree, make sure it is a very small piece, biodegradable, and not tied too tightly around the branch or it can harm the tree.
The Brigid’s Cross was traditionally made the night before and hung up to seek her protection from ill health and illness in the coming year. We are all familiar with the cross made from rushes and rushes seem to be the most popular material, but crosses would be made from whatever was available and there were many different versions and materials used, records show crosses made of straw, or even bits of sticks tied together to make a cross. After the crosses were made, the people would bless them with holy water, whilst making the sign of the cross. Oftentimes, children of a household would bring spare crosses they had made, to the homes of elderly family members and neighbours as gifts. Crosses would be hung up in the house and left for the year ahead, assuring good luck, and abundance for the year ahead. The cross making tradition is very much alive and well, and from what I am informed on here, it is even growing in popularity around the world.
In many of parts of Ireland an activity took place reminiscent of the Wran boys St Stephen’s day tradition. As part of the St Brigid’s day festivities, boys and girls, sometimes called biddy boys or Brideogs, dressed up in old clothes and went from house to house singing songs and collecting money and food for a party to be had in her honour. The Biddy boys or girls sometimes carried Brideogs, which were home made dolls/ human figurines sometimes made from sweeping brushes or a churn dash, other times from straw or sticks with a dress on it, they could be small like dolls, or human sized depending on what the tradition was in that part of the country, sometimes a decorated carved turnip was used as the head, other times a ball of straw or a piece of timber was used. In all cases, whatever was used, was supposed to represent Saint Brigid. These events carried on well into the twentieth century in parts of Kildare, Kerry, Fermanagh and Cork and are making somewhat of a comeback in some parts..
Irish Genealogy Research Society on Facebook
Visit Ireland
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.