Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Forget Elf on the shelf. Chris Grayson’s robins are up to morning adventures as well.
Ballylongford in Winter 2017 Photo by Ita Hannon
<<<<<<<<<
The Wind by James Stephens
The wind stood up
and gave a shout
He whistled on his
fingers and
Kicked the
withered leaves about,
And thumped the
branches with his hand.
And said that he’d
kill, and kill, and kill
And so he will!
And so he will!
<<<<<<<
Athea’s Local Chronicler
Domhnall de Barra does his local district a great service by bringing them a regular update soon local happenings in his
Here is some of what he has to say in Christmas 2017
The Festive Season
Domhnall de Barra
Christmas time is upon
us again and the buying frenzy has already started. In trying to understand
why, I googled Christmas and found a lot of information about the origins of
the feast and how it developed over the years. You can do this yourselves so I
won’t go into it except for the following passage:
The celebratory customs associated in various
countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian,
Christian, and secular themes
and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving,
completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath, Christmas music and caroling,
lighting a Christingle,
viewing a Nativity play,
an exchange of Christmas cards, church services,
a special meal,
and the display of various Christmas
decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe,
and holly.
In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known
as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas,
and Christkind,
are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and
have their own body of traditions and
lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival
involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant
event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact
of Christmas has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of
the world.
That passage sums
up in a few sentences what Christmas is about but it does not tell the
whole story. With all the ballyhoo, the real meaning of Christmas can easily
get lost. It was created to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, an event
that is central to Christian beliefs. December 25th may not be the real date of
the Lord’s birth but it was chosen because it was the shortest day of the
year in the Roman calendar and marked the beginning of the longer days to
come and more light. When people celebrate they often do so by eating together
so the Christmas dinner began. It was, and still is, a great family occasion
and a time for loving and sharing…..
<<<<<<
Cork in 1920
<<<<<<
A Heartwarming Story
This is Eunice Perrin of Duagh. Eunice loves to knit and every evening she knits little hats for premature babies as she watches her favourite TV programmes.
I met her in Scribes on Saturday where she was meeting up with another very generous soul. Namir Karim is closing down his craft shop in Church Street and he gifted Eunice twenty balls of knitting yarn for her charity knitting. Maureen Connelly agreed to be the liaison person to deliver the yarn and collect the caps.
Three kind people
<<<<<<
Getting Ready for Christmas in Asdee in the 1950s
by Jim Costelloe in his book…Asdee a Rural Miscellany
Whitewashing the
dry walls around the house was one of the jobs that had to be done for
Christmas. The outer walls of dwelling houses had to be lime washed also. The
lime had to be prepared a few days beforehand and I have a memory of rocks of
lime in the bottom of a bucket being covered with boiling water as the mixture
stewed a combination of steam and lime into the air, Some blue dye which was also used for
bleaching white clothes on washday was also added to make the lime wash brilliant
white. The yard and the bohreen near the house were also brushed and a general
clean up was done.
There were no
commercial;l Christmas decorations for sale in the shops, or, if they were,
they were not bought by most rural householders. Holly and ivy were the only
decorations I remember with the odd simple crib. We were aware before Christmas
of the holly with the “knobs” was as we would have been hunting and searching
the fences for plums and sloes during the autumn.
<<<<<<<
Well deserved Cultural Archive Award for Listowel’s Lartigue
<<<<<<
The sea gives up its secrets
As Noelle Hegarty was taking her morning walk on Beale strand yesterday, she noticed that the tide had washed clean the sand that usually covers the old slipway.
<<<<<<
A Poem for Christmas 2017
sent to us by Mary McElligott
