Mooney.] doU [May 3, 



in that of several other holidays, begin on the preceding eve, as among 

 the ancient Irish the day was considerd to begin at sundown. This is a 

 peculiarly Gaelic festival, and its observance under this name seems to be 

 confined to Ireland and the remoter districts of Scotland ; but there is 

 every reason to believ that it was a part of a general European fire cele- 

 bration, which stil survives in Candlemas, the second of February. In 

 ancient Rome, as in Ireland, this festival was dedicated to a female deity, 

 Februa, in whose honor the people carried burning torches about the 

 streets just as the candles ar now lighted in honor of the Virgin Mary. In 

 ancient Ireland the day now consecrated to Saint Bridget was the occa- 

 sion of the first of the five great fire celebrations of the year, and it seems 

 probable that bonfires were lighted then as on the eves of May-day and 

 Saint John. 



Saint Bridget was one of the earliest disciples of Saint Patrick, the 

 apostle of Ireland, and founded a convent of nuns at Kildare in the year 

 484. This cloister, like that of the vestal virgins of ancient Rome, was 

 celebrated for its perpetual fire, which was fed and guarded by the nuns, 

 and which, with the exception of a short intermission in the thirteentli 

 century, burnd constantly for more than a thousand years until the sup- 

 pression of religious establishments by Henry VIII. It was permitted to 

 blow this fire only with a bellows and not with the breath.* This remark- 

 able incorporation of the old fire worship of the country into the service 

 of a Christian saint, together with the fact ihai Brig'id (pronounced Breej) 

 was the name of one of the deities of pagan Ireland, render it probab e 

 that the ceremonies now practiced in honor of the saint ar but modifica- 

 tions of the ancient rites intended to propitiate the heathen goddess, who, 

 from the character of the observances, would appear to hav been the 

 special protectress of cattle and the dairy. This is the more likely as it 

 is a wel establisht fact that almost every practice known to the holiday 

 calendar of modern Europe had its origin in the pagan ceremonials of pre- 

 Christian times. The date also corresponds closely with tliat of the first 

 of the five great annual fire festivals of ancient Ireland. The lark is held 

 sacred to Saint Bridget because its song used to wake her to prayers every 

 morning, and if heard singing upon her day it presages good luck and 

 fine weather.f 



The Gaelic name of Saint Bridget's eve is Okl'ce B'rig'kle (pronounced 

 £Jkha Vreja, or, incorrectly, Eel Vreja), "Bridget's Night." In the last 

 century, according to Vallancey, it was customary on this occasion for 

 every farmer's wife to bake a cake calld the bairg'enii breac {bawran 

 bi'dc) or spotted cake. The house was then set in order and the neighbors 

 invited, the cake sent round with ale and pipes, and the evening was spent 

 in mirth and good humor.:}: In the east and south-east young girls dress 

 up the churn-dash to represent Saint Bridget, and carry it in procession 



* Grimm, Mythologie, i, 578. 



t Lady Wilde, 11, 121, 136. 



% Vallancey, Collectanea (Ant. Ir. Lang ), 11, 291. 



