Animal Folklore: A Mole in the Hand
Today, moles are usually unappreciated residents of our gardens and fields, but they are embedded in folklore and for centuries were used in remedies.
Harvest Folklore
Before the advent of agricultural machinery, harvest time was an important period of physical work and folk tradition and ritual amongst rural communities.
Putting Their Faith in the Fairies: BBC Northern Ireland’s Fascination with the ‘Wee Folk’
Fairies were frequently blamed in Irish culture for events out of the ordinary or scenarios that were difficult to explain. An interest, curiosity, and belief in the fairies also holds an association with Irish cultural identity.
From Cow to Kitchen: The Lore of Milking and Dairy Work
If a cow lost her milk, it could prove disastrous for a hard-up family. Witches and fairies were often blamed for this. It was commonly believed that witches took the form of a hare and suckled cows dry during the night.
A Spot of Easter Violence, Anyone?
Easter customs of old were many and varied but who would have expected so many of them to be nothing short of violent? Some believe Easter is named after the pagan spring festival celebrating Ēostre or Ostara; historically known as the spring equinox, this might explain why the date of Easter is calculated by the cycles of the moon. It falls on the Sunday following the full moon after the first day of spring — nothing Christian about that calculation! One would have thought the dates of Christ’s death and resurrection would have been more definitely commemorated but, no, we stick to celebrating the coming of spring. Compared to this oddity, some of the bizarre customs associated with Easter stop seeming so bizarre. The violence involved in some of them, though, is a little harder to explain…