There were four great festivals held in Ireland from the most ancient
pagan times, and these four sacred seasons were February, May,
Midsummer, and November. May was the most memorable and auspicious of
all; then the Druids lit the _Baal-Tinne_, the holy, goodly fire of
Baal, the Sun-god, and they drove the cattle on a path made between two
fires, and singed them with the flame of a lighted torch, and sometimes
they cut them to spill blood, and then burnt the blood as a sacred
offering to the Sun-god.
The great feast of Bel, or the Sun, took place on May Eve; and that of
Samhain, or the Moon, on November Eve; when libations were poured out
to appease the evil spirits, and also the spirits of the dead, who come
out of their graves on that night to visit their ancient homes.
The Phœnicians, it is known, adored the Supreme Being under the name of
Bel-Samen, and it is remarkable that the peasants in Ireland, wishing
you good luck, say in Irish, “The blessing of Bel, and the blessing of
Samhain, be with you,” that is, of the sun and of the moon.
These were the great festivals of the Druids, when all domestic fires
were extinguished, in order to be re-lit by the sacred fire taken from
the temples, for it was deemed sacrilege to have any fires kindled
except from the holy altar flame.
St. Patrick, however, determined to break down the power of the Druids;
and, therefore, in defiance of their laws, he had a great fire lit
on May Eve, when he celebrated the paschal mysteries; and henceforth
Easter, or the Feast of the Resurrection, took the place of the Baal
festival.
The Baal fires were originally used for human sacrifices and
burnt-offerings of the first-fruits of the cattle; but after
Christianity was established the children and cattle were only passed
between two fires for purification from sin, and as a safeguard against
the power of the devil.
The Persians also extinguished the domestic fires on the Baal festival,
the 21st of April, and were obliged to re-light them from the temple
fires, for which the priests were paid a fee in silver money. A fire
kindled by rubbing two pieces of wood together was also considered
lucky by the Persians; then water was boiled over the flame, and
afterwards sprinkled on the people and on the cattle. The ancient Irish
ritual resembles the Persian in every particular, and the Druids, no
doubt, held the traditional worship exactly as brought from the East,
the land of the sun and of tree worship and well worship.
May Day, called in Irish _Là-Beltaine_, the day of the Baal fires, was
the festival of greatest rejoicing held in Ireland. But the fairies
have great power at that season, and children and cattle, and the
milk and butter, must be well guarded from their influence. A spent
coal must be put under the churn, and another under the cradle; and
primroses must be scattered before the door, for the fairies cannot
pass the flowers. Children that die in April are supposed to be carried
off by the fairies, who are then always on the watch to abduct whatever
is young and beautiful for their fairy homes.
Sometimes on the 1st of May, a sacred heifer, snow white, appeared
amongst the cattle; and this was considered to bring the highest good
luck to the farmer. An old Irish song that alludes to the heifer, may
be translated thus—
“There is a cow on the mountain,
A fair white cow;
She goes East and she goes West,
And my senses have gone for love of her;
She goes with the sun and he forgets to burn,
And the moon turns her face with love to her,
My fair white cow of the mountain.”
The fairies are in the best of humours upon May Eve, and the music of
the fairy pipes may be heard all through the night, while the fairy
folk are dancing upon the rath. It is then they carry off the young
people to join their revels; and if a girl has once danced to the fairy
music, she will move ever after with such fascinating grace, that it
has passed into a proverb to say of a good dancer, “She has danced to
fairy music on the hill.”
At the great long dance held in old times on May Day, all the people
held hands and danced round a great May-bush erected on a mound. The
circle sometimes extended for a mile, the girls wearing garlands, and
the young men carrying wands of green boughs, while the elder people
sat round on the grass as spectators, and applauded the ceremony. The
tallest and strongest young men in the county stood in the centre and
directed the movements, while the pipers and harpers, wearing green and
gold sashes, played the most spirited dance tunes.
The oldest worship of the world was of the sun and moon, of trees,
wells, and the serpent that gave wisdom. Trees were the symbol of
knowledge, and the dance round the May-bush is part of the ancient
ophite ritual. The Baila also, or waltz, is associated with Baal
worship, where the two circling motions are combined; the revolution of
the planet on its own axis, and also round the sun.
In Italy, this ancient festival, called _Calendi Maggio_, is celebrated
in the rural districts much in the Irish way. Dante fell in love at the
great May Day festival, held in the Portinari Palace. The Sclavonic
nations likewise light sacred fires, and dance round a tree hung with
garlands on May Day. This reverence for the tree is one of the oldest
superstitions of humanity and the most universal, and the fires are a
relic of the old pagan worship paid to the Grynian Apollo—fire above
all things being held sacred by the Irish as a safeguard from evil
spirits. It is a saying amongst them, “Fire and salt are the two most
sacred things given to man, and if you give them away on May Day, you
give away your luck for the year.” Therefore no one will allow milk, or
fire, or salt, to be carried away from the house on that day; and if
people came in and asked for a lighted sod, they would be driven away
with curses, for their purpose was evil.
The witches, however, make great efforts to steal the milk on May
morning, and if they succeed, the luck passes from the family, and the
milk and butter for the whole year will belong to the fairies. The best
preventative is to scatter primroses on the threshold; and the old
women tie bunches of primroses to the cows’ tails, for the evil spirits
cannot touch anything guarded by these flowers, if they are plucked
before sunrise, not else. A piece of iron, also, made red hot, is
placed upon the hearth; any old iron will do, the older the better, and
branches of whitethorn and mountain ash are wreathed round the doorway
for luck. The mountain ash has very great and mysterious qualities. If
a branch of it be woven into the roof, that house is safe from fire
for a year at least, and if a branch of it is mixed with the timber
of a boat, no storm will upset it, and no man in it will be drowned
for a twelvemonth certain. To save milk from witchcraft, the people on
May morning cut and peel some branches of the mountain ash, and bind
the twigs round the milk pails and the churn. No witch or fairy will
then be able to steal the milk or butter. But all this must be done
_before sunrise_. However, should butter be missed, follow the cow to
the field, and gather the clay her hoof has touched; then, on returning
home, place it under the churn with a live coal and a handful of salt,
and your butter is safe from man or woman, fairy or fiend, for that
year. There are other methods also to preserve a good supply of butter
in the churn; a horse-shoe tied on it; a rusty nail from a coffin
driven into the side; a cross made of the leaves of veronica placed at
the bottom of the milk pail; but the mountain ash is the best of all
safeguards against witchcraft and devil’s magic. Without some of these
precautions the fairies will certainly overlook the churn, and the milk
and butter, in consequence, will fail all through the year, and the
farmer suffer great loss. Herbs gathered on May Eve have a mystical and
strong virtue for curing disease; and powerful potions are made then by
the skilful herb women and fairy doctors, which no sickness can resist,
chiefly of the yarrow, called in Irish “the herb of seven needs” or
cures, from its many and great virtues. Divination is also practised to
a great extent by means of the yarrow. The girls dance round it singing—
“Yarrow, yarrow, yarrow,
I bid thee good morrow,
And tell me before to-morrow
Who my true love shall be.”
The herb is then placed under the head at night, and in dreams the
true lover will appear. Another mode of divination for the future fate
in life is by snails. The young girls go out early before sunrise
to trace the path of the snails in the clay, for always a letter is
marked, and this is the initial of the true lover’s name. A black snail
is very unlucky to meet first in the morning, for his trail would read
_death_; but a white snail brings good fortune. A white lamb on the
right hand is also good; but the cuckoo is ominous of evil. Of old the
year began with the 1st of May, and an ancient Irish rhyme says—
“A white lamb on my right side,
So will good come to me;
But not the little false cuckoo
On the first day of the year.”
Prophecies were also made from the way the wind blew on May mornings.
In ’98 an old man, who was drawing near to his end and like to die,
inquired from those around him—
“Where did you leave the wind last night?” (May Eve.)
They told him it came from the north.
“Then,” he said, “the country is lost to the Clan Gael; our enemies
will triumph. Had it been from the south, we should have had the
victory; but now the Sassenach will trample us to dust.” And he fell
back and died.
Ashes are often sprinkled on the threshold on May Eve; and if the print
of a foot is found in the morning, turned inward, it betokens marriage;
but if turned outward, death. On May Eve the fairy music is heard on
all the hills, and many beautiful tunes have been caught up in this way
by the people and the native musicians.
About a hundred years ago a celebrated tune, called _Moraleana_, was
learnt by a piper as he traversed the hills one evening; and he played
it perfectly, note by note, as he heard it from the fairy pipes; on
which a voice spoke to him and said that he would be allowed to play
the tune _three times_ in his life before all the people, but never a
fourth, or a doom would fall on him. However, one day he had a great
contest for supremacy with another piper, and at last, to make sure
of victory, he played the wonderful fairy melody; when all the people
applauded and declared he had won the prize by reason of its beauty,
and that no music could equal his. So they crowned him with the
garland; but at that moment he turned deadly pale, the pipes dropped
from his hand, and he fell lifeless to the ground. For nothing escapes
the fairies; they know all things, and their vengeance is swift and
sure.
It is very dangerous to sleep out in the open air in the month of May,
for the fairies are very powerful then, and on the watch to carry off
the handsome girls for fairy brides, and the young mothers as nurses
for the fairy babies; while the young men are selected as husbands for
the beautiful fairy princesses.
A young man died suddenly on May Eve while he was lying asleep under
a hay-rick, and the parents and friends knew immediately that he had
been carried off to the fairy palace in the great moat of Granard. So a
renowned fairy man was sent for, who promised to have him back in nine
days. Meanwhile he desired that food and drink of the best should be
left daily for the young man at a certain place on the moat. This was
done, and the food always disappeared, by which they knew the young man
was living, and came out of the moat nightly for the provisions left
for him by his people.
Now on the ninth day a great crowd assembled to see the young man
brought back from Fairyland. And in the midst stood the fairy doctor
performing his incantations by means of fire and a powder which he
threw into the flames that caused a dense grey smoke to arise. Then,
taking off his hat, and holding a key in his hand, he called out three
times in a loud voice, “Come forth, come forth, come forth!” On which a
shrouded figure slowly rose up in the midst of the smoke, and a voice
was heard answering, “Leave me in peace; I am happy with my fairy
bride, and my parents need not weep for me, for I shall bring them good
luck, and guard them from evil evermore.”
Then the figure vanished and the smoke cleared, and the parents were
content, for they believed the vision, and having loaded the fairy-man
with presents, they sent him away home.