Valentine’s Day from an Irish Perspective
Ah, Valentine’s Day. The first thing that comes to mind is a heart-shaped box of cheap chocolates that should be directly applied to one’s hips. And then there is that sweet little cupid. He’s an overweight angel 
aiming a bow and arrow at you to inspire you to fall blissfully in love. I mean, let’s face it. Cupid’s arrow is a weapon that literally and metaphorically could be the death of you. But all jokes aside, do you even know why we actually celebrate Valentine’s Day? I didn’t think so.
The Legend of Saint Valentine
In ancient Rome, the date February 14th was a holiday to honor the Roman Goddess of women and marriage. The next day was celebrated as the pagan Roman Feast of Lupercalia. During this time in Roman history, young adults were strictly segregated by sex. No surprise, it was 269 AD. Eventually they needed to give…
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Irish New Years Tradition
New Year’s Day in Ireland also is known as the Day of the Buttered Bread. It’s called “La na gCeapairi”, Gaelic for “Day of the Buttered Bread” or “Day of the Sandwich”.
Irish tradition says buttered bread placed outside the front door
symbolizes an absence of hunger in the household, and presumably for the year to come.
Barm Brack (a fruit bread) is baked especially to be smashed against the door by the man of the house, to banish hunger from the land in the new year.
It is also said to chase the bad luck out of a house and to invite good spirits in.
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Irish Christmas Traditions
Ireland is a magical country, filled with tradition and folklore dating back many years. Christmas in Ireland is an especially magical time of year. Many Irish Christmas traditions have become part of the Christmas celebration of many nationalities and have made their way into main stream American Christmas customs.
In Ireland people say “Nollaig Shona Duit” pronounced NO-Lihg HO-nuh ghwich. This Irish Christmas greeting literally translates to Happy Christmas.
One beloved Irish Christmas tradition is that of the Christmas plum pudding. The traditional Irish Christmas plum pudding has had humble beginnings. Plum pudding was originally a porridge flavored with scraps of leftover meat or fish, thickened with bread crumbs and bound together with eggs, fruit and spices. During the Tudor and Stuart period in England, dried prunes were added to the pudding mixture which became known as a plum porridge. Eventually becoming called plum pudding.
Another very common…
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A Brilliant Irish Gift Giving Guide
Irish Christmas Traditions
Like most countries, #Ireland has many of it’s own wonderful #Irish #Christmas traditions. Ireland’s Christmas traditions that have survived to modern times are steeped in Celtic culture and religious faith. Some of our favorite Irish Christmas Traditions are placing a candle in your homes window, the Laden Table, St. Stephens Day, Plum Pudding, and Women’s Christmas. Read more about this treasured Irish Christmas. http://www.theirishjewelrycompany.com/irish-christmas-traditions/
The Dullahan – The Irish Headless Horseman
The Irish legend of the Dullahan, or English translation “dark man” is unnerving. The Headless Horseman or Dullahan is the Irish
foreteller of death. The Dullahan rides a jet black horse with flames shooting from its eyes, carrying his head under one arm. Irish folklore says that when he stops riding, a human dies.
There are many versions of this scary tale. Some say that the Dullahan throws buckets of blood at people he passes, while other say he simply calls out the name of the mortal that will soon die.
But as with most evil entities the Dullahan has a weakness. The Dullahan can not stand the sight of GOLD. So you would be wise when traveling on this Halloween to carry a wee bit of in case you have a run-in with this headless horror!
The Halloween Bonfire in Ireland
The Halloween bonfire is a tradition to encourage dreams of who your future husband or wife is going to be. The 
idea was to drop a cutting of your hair into the burning embers and then dream of you future loved one. Halloween was one of the Celt ‘fire’ celebrations.
Irish Fairies and Anti Fairy Measures
In Ireland there are fairies, good natured and there are FAIRIES. If you’ve ever traveled at night on the winding Irish back roads in the countryside of Ireland you would know it is a kind of eerie darkness that puts fear in your very heart. One can easily imagine something moving over the moors or hearing the forlorn screech of a dammed fairy.
As a child in Ireland you are warned to not play inside a fairy fort because the fairies don’t like it and might curse you or worse they might fancy you. Fairy forts are mounds or hills found all over Ireland. They are the ruins of circular mound dwellings in which people lived during the Iron Age such as Newgrange.
‘Away with the fairies’is an old Irish expression referring to someone whose mind is elsewhere. It originated with the belief in the folklore that mischievous…
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