Festival Customs

transcribed at

Festival Customs  [duchas:4861162]

On the Wren's Day four or five boys or less or more get together and dress themselves up in girl's old dresses and shirts. They turn their coats inside out and they get old worn hats and stick holly in them.Some of them

Festival Customs  [duchas:4861163]

get horse hair and make moustaches and more blacken theit faces with polish. The song they sing is :-
The wren the wren the king of all birds etc.
They go around from house to house singing this song. They get a penny or more in nearly every house. When the day is over some batches get a dance in some house and bring all the messages for the dance that is if they have enough money to rise the dance. Other batches divide the money between them. In Shrove a lot of people get married. It is the time for marriages. Shrove Tuesday is the last day in Shrove. More people get married that day. On Ash Wednesday, Mass is said in all the Catholic Churches and Blessed Ashes is given out. The Ashes that is given out is the ashes of an ash tree that has been burned. On Saint John's night fires are lit in memory of him. On Saint Martin's Day hens are killed and the blood of the hen is spilt in the four corners of the house in memory of Saint Martin.