Importance Of Calendar Customs

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Customs reflect what people usually do and the way how they do it and can be divided into different groups, such as: calendar customs which are activities related to certain days in the year or lifecycle customs which are activities connected with the key moments in people’s lives like getting married or dying. (GREEN, 169, 1997) This essay will describe 3 calendar customs which people in Ireland celebrated and will show how they celebrated them. The first one will be Saint Brighid’s day which is celebrated on 1st February between winter solstice and spring equinox. As a second one will be describe Halloween which is celebrated on 1st November between St Michael’s Day and winter solstice and Christmas as the last one. Saint Brighid’s Day Saint Brighid’s Day is celebrated on 1st February and it is consider to be the first day of spring. Saint Brighid is the second most favourite patron of Irish people. She is the patron saint of cattle and diary work. Since that day farmers and fishermen expected weather to get better, so they could get back to work soon. For example, seeing a hedgehog out of the hole…show more content…
People were cleaning their houses and dwellings. Men were mainly cleaning the buildings outside the house and the yard and women were cleaning inside their houses. People were decorating their houses with wreaths made of holly, ivy and other plants which leaves stayed green all year round. For example, decorating houses with mistletoe was not that common tradition in Ireland but going to the Christmas market was very popular. People could buy there almost everything beginning with eggs, turkey, whiskey, cakes, spices, tobacco and ending with clothes or toys. Sellers very often gave a little present to their customers and rich farmers very often killed some animal and gave it away to their friends, employees and neighbours. (DANAHER, 233- 236,

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