Mooney.] ^OO [May 3, 



the one who kild the bird being permitted to take it home with him. 

 There is evidence to show that this custom originated in England, and 

 was probably intended at first to giv expression to the national hatred for 

 the French, a cock and a Frenchman having in Latin the same name. 

 Gallus* 



Little need be said of Ash Wednesday, rendered literally in Gaelic by 

 Cedia a Luait'rid' {Cedheen a Luaree). In accordance with the general 

 custom, it is observd as a day of solemn devotion. The ashes consecrated 

 in the church uix»n this day ar preservd with religious care as a safeguard 

 against evil influences, and with this intention mothers sometimes make 

 the sign of the cross with the sacred ashes upon the foreheads of their new- 

 born infants. In Ireland, as in all Catholic countries, branches of palm, 

 or some evergreen substitute, ar worn in the hat or upon the breast on 

 Palm SundaJ^ 



Good-Friday, in GaeMc Aoine Ceasdad' (Ena Caesdhu), or "Crucifixion 

 Friday," is also of but secondary importance in regard to any popular 

 customs connected with it, altho one of the most solemn festivals of the 

 Church. It is a day of prayer and rigid fasting, and in some parts of the 

 country even infants ar not allowd the breast unless they cry three times 

 for their accustomd nourishment. Brand states that it was formerly cus- 

 tomary for women to go along the roads with bare feet and dishevcld hair 

 in imitation of Christ's sorrowful journey to Calvary. f 



It is said that an eg laid on Good-Friday wil keep good until that day 

 twelv-month. The same belief is held in England and on the continent 

 in regard to bread baked upon this day. It is also customary to cut the 

 hair upon Good-Friday in order to cut away the sins of the past year and 

 begin a new life with the coming Easter, and any one doing so wil hav no 

 lieadake for a year thereafter. Among the west coast fishermen of Con- 

 nemara there exists the strange and barbarous practice of bringing home 

 on this day living fish, which ar afterward fried alive. 



Easter Sunday is the festival of colored egs in Ireland, as wel as else- 

 where in Europe and America, the eg being an ancient symbol of the 

 resurrection. Egs and bacon form the principal Easter dish, to which, in 

 Roscommon and adjacent districts, there is added a cake, with a dance in 

 the evening. According to an old writer, quoted in Brand, the egs and 

 bacon wer formerly prepared, in the central districts, late the previous 

 evening, but not toucht until the cock crew. Tlie company then clapt 

 bands with shouts of "Out with the Lent!" and made merry a short 

 while before f^oing to bed.:]^ 



Piers thus describes the Easter festivities in Westmeath, in 1682 : "On 

 the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, the more ordinary sort of people meet 

 near the ale house in the afternoon on some convenient spot of ground 

 and dance for the cake ; here, to be sure, the piper fails not of diligent 



* See Pop. Sup., 310, 311. 

 + Bri-nd, Antiquities, i, 152. 

 X Ibid., i, IGl, 



