The first Sunday of Lent was once widely known as Chalk Sunday from the Irish tradition of marking the clothes of unmarried persons at the chapel gate as they made their way to or from Mass on the first Sunday of Lent. With Shrovetide past anyone who had failed to marry by Shrove Tuesday were expected to remain single for another year and therefore seen as fair game for a chalking. Traditionally marriage in Ireland elevated a person’s status, as Kevin Danaher noted in The Year in Ireland, “An unmarried man of fifty was still a ‘boy’ while his married nephew of twenty-five was a man; the young wife of twenty had the full status of a matron while the spinster of forty-five was practically nobody.’

Many nineteenth century accounts of Chalk Sunday depict gangs of jovial adolescents, both male and female, chasing unmarried members of the congregation as they entered or left chapel, marking their Sunday best clothes with multiple chalk-drawn lines or x’s. An article in an 1859 issue of the Illustrated London News outlined the difficulty that bachelors of Kilkenny had in escaping home from Mass without having their clothes covered with chalk by gangs of young girls, ‘for if he escapes one party he is certain of being caught by another; until, at last he is striped all over in such a style of variegation as might excite the envy of a harlequin. Dexterity was also used on Chalk Sunday the clothes by slyly smudging the Sunday costumes of their unaware victims by placing a generously chalk-dusted hand on their clothing in a manner that appeared natural and friendly to their unmarried target – who could wear the mark unbeknownst for the remainder of the day. A much more formal version of the tradition was described in an article that appeared in the Journal of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society, 1895, were anyone who remained unmarried ‘had to run the gauntlet between a double row of persons standing at either side of the chapel gate on this Sunday, and each individual of which was armed with a lump of chalk, for the purpose of “chalking” or marking the clothes (coat or shawl or mantle, as the sex might be) of the delinquent.’

Sources

Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland. Dublin, 1972.

Haddon, A.C. ‘A Batch of Irish Folklore’ Folklore 4, no. 3 (1893), 349-364.

Joyce, Patrick Weston. English As We Speak it in Ireland. Dublin, 1910.

Kinahan, GH. ‘Notes on Irish Folklore’. The Folk-Lore Record 4 (1881), pp. 96-125.

Mac Lir, Mananaan. ‘The Folklore of Months’. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Second series II (1896), 157, 316, 365.

Moutray Read DH. ‘Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore.’ Folklore 27, no.3 (1916), pp. 250-278.

Ó Súilleabháin, Amhlaoibh. The Diary of an Irish Countryman 1827 – 1835. Translated from the Irish by Tomás de Bhaldraithe. Cork/Dublin 1970/1979.

Illustrated London News, 19 March 1859.

Illustration ‘Chalk Sunday in Kilkenny’ from the Illustrated London News, 19 March 1859.

In the south of Ireland up until the early years of the twentieth century Shrove Tuesday was popularly known as “Skellig Night” and named after a belief that Lent began a week later on the Skellig Rocks, a set of islands which lie off the west-coast of Kerry. Those who were thought to be eligible to marry, but had failed to do so during Shrovetide, were mockingly encouraged to go to the Skelligs on Shrove Tuesday night where there was still a chance to be wedded before Lent.* Skellig Lists were drawn up, written by local poets in doggerel verse, these lists were less concerned with naming courting couples, but were often used to link names of persons from the community who were considered the least likely to marry each other; so that old were matched with young, rich with poor, and foes with each other. The Skellig Lists were widely distributed within the community, and sold in large quantities, while also appearing in newspapers, on lampposts, on church doors and the fronts of other public buildings, where they were recited before large crowds of spectators, embarrassingly the crowd would often include those whose names appeared on these lists. The following example of a Skellig List was provided by Patrick Weston Joyce, who recalled hearing this list ‘sung to a spirited air’ during his youth in the 1830s in the townland of Glenosheen in County Limerick:

“As young Rory and Moreen were talking,

How Shrove Tuesday was just drawing near;

For the tenth time he asked her to marry;

But she says ‘time enough till next year.’

Then ochone I’m going to the Skellig:

O Moreen, what will I do?

’Tis the woeful road to travel;

 And how lonesome I’ll be without you!

As the evening wore on more boisterous activities were resorted to, with many symbolically being encouraged to make a trip to the Skelligs. The late nineteenth century American folklorist Jerimiah Curtain noted that in the village of Cahirciveen, County Kerry, the ‘boys and girls from eight to fifteen years of age were out with ropes to lasso any girl of marriageable age whom they could find. If they caught one, they tried to drag her to the river and throw her in, because the time had expired and she was not married.’ While an article from a 1916 issue of the Folklore Journal explained that previously Macroom, County Cork, it was the men who were targeted by bands of youths for their failure to marry before lent; ‘the party holding a rope, would watch for his approach, and then divide and half would go one way, the rest on the other side round their victim, to wind him in the rope. Meanwhile a song would be improvised, to the effect that “Paddy Leary is an old man and ought to be married,” setting forward the merits and demerits of the accused, his worldly possessions, and the reasons why he ought to marry. This in rough rhyme would be chanted, and the doggerel sent round to the neighbours that they might sing and laugh him into matrimony.’

Going to the Skelligs seems to have been literal as well as symbolic, according to an 1895 article in the Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, it was claimed that previously those who had failed to marry, male and female, were forced to walk barefoot on Skellig Rocks on Shrove Tuesday night, and that additionally they were expected to gather amounts of bogwood in proportion to the number of Shrovetides they had let pass without marrying. While the Reverend Patterson, the chaplain of her Majesties Forces in Cork in 1889 mentioned that the priest in the parish which includes the Skelligs, reportedly used to marry couples on the Great Skellig during Lent, Patterson maintains word of these wedding spread throughout Munster and gave the Skellig Islands their reputation as a place where couples could be joined in holy matrimony after Shrove Tuesday.

             *Shrove Tuesday was at one time the most popular day of the year for weddings in Ireland. As the Catholic Church previously forbid weddings to take place during Lent and Easter those who failed to get married by Shrove Tuesday were forced to wait till Low Sunday; the Sunday after Easter. Often if one had not married by Shrove Tuesday a year could lapse before an opportunity presented itself again; responsibilities to the land with tilling and harvest work prevented many from marrying from late spring until winter, while Advent and Christmas were also times when marriage was forbidden, leaving Shrovetide as the best opportunity for many to marry.

Sources

Curtin, Jeremiah. Memoirs of Jeremiah Curtin. Edited by Joseph Schafer. Wisconsin, 1941.

Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland. Dublin, 1972.

Joyce, Patrick Weston. English as We Speak it in Ireland. Dublin, 1910.

Kinahan, GH. ‘Notes on Irish Folklore’. The Folk-Lore Record 4 (1881), pp. 96-125.

Mac Lir, Mananaan. ‘The Folklore of Months’. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 1895.

Moutray Read DH. ‘Some Characteristics of Irish Folklore.’ Folklore 27, no.3 (1916), pp. 250-278.

Patterson, Rev P.S, Chaplain to Her Majesty’s Forces in Cork, Notes & Queries, 1889.

Painting titled ‘Skellig Night on South Mall,’ by James Beale, 1845. Available to view at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

James Mooney, 1889; ‘In the evening, the young folks – and the old ones as well – gather round the turf fire to learn by “tossing a pancake,” what is to be the of their future marriage ventures. A crock of butter having been prepared a part is poured out on the pan to form the first cake, which is consigned to the care of the oldest unmarried daughter.

At the proper time she turns the cake with a dexterous toss up the chimney, and if it comes down smoothly on the other side in the pan, she can have her choice of a husband whenever she likes, if, on the other hand, it falls into the ashes or comes down with a corner doubled over, she cannot marry for at least a year. This is also regarded as an omen of ill-fortune with an accepted lover, and is so strong in the feeling that engagements have been broken off for no other reason.

The lucky tosser of the first cake at once shares it with the other girls. On eating it there is generally found in one slice the mother’s wedding ring and in another a piece of furze, both having been put in the batter before baking. Whoever gets the ring will be most happy in her future choice, while the other will remain unmarried.’

Sources

Mooney, James. ‘Holiday Customs of Ireland’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Vol. 26 Number 190. 1889.

Illustration ‘Tossing Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday’ by Daniel Maclise, 1806-1870.

Up until a couple of generations ago Shrovetide, which begins after Old Christmas, 6 January, and continues until Shrove Tuesday – 21 February in 2023, was the traditional time for marriages in Ireland. In those days the responsibilities of farm-work prevented many from marrying during the spring or the harvest seasons. While Advent and Lent, which fall respectively directly before and after Shrovetide, were both periods of devotional abstinence when the Catholic Church forbid the laity from taking vows of holy matrimony. Aside from the above-mentioned restrictions many people thought that it was unlucky to marry at any other time of the year, with some months even having sayings that discouraged marriage, an example of which is ‘marry in May rue the day.’ So strong was the belief of ill-fortune would accompany a marriage at any time of year outside Shrovetide that, according to an account from the late nineteenth century,* the people on Tory Island would get half-married; if the seas were too wild or rough to bring the priest across during Shrovetide, he would perform a half-marrying ceremony from the mainland with the islanders standing opposite to him on the east shore of Tory Island, and once the storm abated he would go ‘to the island and did whatever more was necessary to render the marriages valid in the eye of the law and of the Church.’

In some areas the Shrovetide season would be regularly punctuated with weddings. For example, in The Islandman, the first of the Great Blasket autobiographies, Tómas Ó Crohan noted that ‘Some years the whole island gets married, and for seven years after that, there won’t be a single wedding.’ Ó Crohan continues ‘I refer to this year (1878) of which I’m talking – for not a single boy or girl was unmarried by the time Shrove was over.’  Ó Crohan’s account of Shrovetide traditions is unusual in that it is one of the few accounts that I’ve come across that seems to smuggest marriages were performed throughout the Shrovetide season rather than on the last day of Shrovetide – Shrove Tuesday.

For some Shrovetide seems to have been treated and considered as a period for marriage preparation rather than for weddings; Timothy Buckley remarked in The Tailor and Antsy that during Shrovetide ‘there would be ‘matches’ and talk of ‘matches’, while The man from Cape Clear Conchúr Ó Síocháin made the following statement; ‘As you know there is a season for everything, and Shrovetide is the time for matches.’ The lengthy negotiations of match-making may have encouraged people, if not the Church, that Shrovetide was a time for bargaining, and that Shrove Tuesday, as it is the end of the season, is the best time to marry.  Another probable factor for clusters of marriages falling on Shrove Tuesday was its position as a feast day which falls directly before the fast of Lent. Feasting was usual on Shrove Tuesday in our ancestors’ times, with the tradition of eating pancakes a survival of the feasting that was formerly undertaken to clear the larder in preparation for the Lenten fast, while special treats including meat, which was only eaten by many people three days a year, often features in older accounts of feasting on Shrove Tuesday .

Shrovetide was a particularly difficult time to be wilfully single, as marriage, in the past, gave a person significantly more status than it does today. Terms like boy or lad could be applied to any male who failed to get married, and unmarried females were often referred to as spinsters at any age past 21. Whereas a married individual regardless of age was often considered and treated as an adult. Marriage did provide opportunities, and doweries from the bride’s family often trumped love in those days. However, financial stability was seldom the only factor in choosing to marry. As I have outlined in previous posts on Skellig Night and Chalk Sunday, social pressure and the threat of being humiliated seems to have played a significant part in encouraging marital unions. I’ll leave you with the following example of a scalding the famous Irish playwright John Millington Synge, who couldn’t have finished his twenties and was probably far away from turning thirty, received from a group of local women on Inishmann; ‘The women were over-excited, and when I tried to talk to them they crowded round me and began jeering and shrieking at me because I am not married. A dozen screamed at a time, and so rapidly that I could not understand all they were saying, yet I was able to make out that they were taking advantage of the absence of their husbands to give me the full volume of their contempt.’

Sources

Cross, Eric, The Tailor and Ansty. Cork 1942.

Kennedy, Patrick. Banks of the Boro. Dublin, 1867.

Le Fanu, William Richard. Seventy Years of Life in Ireland, London, 1893.

Mason, William Shaw. A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland. Dublin, London and Edinburgh, 1814-19.

Ó Crohan, Tomás. The Islandman. Translated by Robin Flower. Dublin, 1929; 1937.

Ó Síocháin, Conchúr. The Man from Cape Clear: The Life of an Islandman. Translated from the Irish by Riobard P Breatnach. Cork and Dublin, 1975.

Synge, J. M. The Aran Islands. London, 1907.

Illustration by Harry Clarke, 1924.

“If Candlemas Day be dry and fair,

The half the winters to come and mair;

If Candlemas day be wet and foul,

The half a winter’s gane at yule”

Candlemas Day, observed on the second of February each year, is a Christian festival that marks the presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the purification of the Virgin Mary. In Ireland, Candlemas Day is the first of three annual Lady Days dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which also include the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, and the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August. As the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary the second of February is one of the Christian Churches oldest feasts stretching back to the fourth century AD, when it began to become a substitute for a number of pagan spring festivals that it would eventually displace. In Ireland the succession of Candlemas Day from Saint Bridget’s Feast Day, first of February, is so immediate that many of the traditions of these two feast days have become confused or intertwined. The following Irish legend explaining the close association of the two days was provided in an article that appeared in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in 1895. The article explained that the Virgin Mary gave Saint Bridget her feast day on the first of February as an expression of her gratitude to the Irish Saint for distracting crowds of onlookers in Jerusalem by wearing a headdress adorned with lit candles, and in so doing enabling the Virgin Mary to go unnoticed with the infant Jesus to the Temple.

Traditionally Candlemas is a day for devotion and prayer. On this day people brought candles to their local places of worship. In return for the candles bequenthed to the church a blessed candle would be handed back to each member of the congregation. These candles would be put to use during sacraments that occurred in family homes. Visits to graveyards were also popular on this day, with families and friends attending to the graves of their departed loved ones. In the late nineteenth century Lady Jane Wilde provided the following account of how the dead were honoured by their loved ones on Candlemas Day: ‘people make a cake of yellow clay taken from a churchyard, then stick twelve bits of candle in it, and recite their prayers, kneeling round, until all the lights have burned down. A name is given to each light, and the first that goes out betokens death to the person whose name it bears, before the year is out.’

As Candlemas Day occurs at the beginning of spring it is hardly surprising that many of the day’s traditions are concerned with the lengthening of days and forecasting weather. Traditionally on, or from, Candlemas Day the stretch in the evenings was believed to be great enough for people to restrict their activities to daylight hours, and to dispense with artificial light. An old popular saying in Ireland advised that “On Candlemas Day throw the candle and candle stick away.” The weather on this day was also thought to be significant; many hoped that Candlemas would bring bad weather as it was widely believed that the weather for the remainder of February would be the opposite to the weather that accompanied Candlemas Day. A County Galway account from the Schools’ Collection noted that on the second of February a shepherd ‘would sooner see the wolf come into his flock, than see the sun shine through the window,’ while a popular saying maintained that “If Candlemas is bright and clear there will be two winters in one year.”

Sources

Danaher, Kevin. The Year in Ireland. Dublin, 1972.

Frazer, W. ‘On Rude Crosses Made from Twigs with interlaced Straw or Rushes. Used in Some Country Districts.’ The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 2, no. 2 (Jul., 1892), pp. 185-186.

Mac Lir, Mananaan. ‘The Folklore of Months’. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 1895.

Mason, William Shaw. A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland. Dublin, London and Edinburgh, 1814-19.

Wilde, Lady Jane, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland. London, 1888.

Wilde, Lady Jane, Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages in Ireland. London, 1890.

The Schools’ Collection http://www.duchas.ie

Illustration is from the Dublin Penny Journal, 1845.