Irish Catholic Easter Traditions and “Roseleigh”

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Roseleigh

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Irish Catholic Easter traditions include familiar eggs and greeting cards — Vintage Irish Easter greeting featuring eggs

Easter, a cornerstone of the Christian liturgical calendar, holds profound significance for Irish Catholics. Irish Catholics in Ireland deeply value Easter traditions, intertwining religious observances with unique local customs that reflect the country’s rich historical and spiritual heritage. My historical fiction work, Roseleigh, prominently features an Irish Catholic family, the Cavanaghs. Because of this, I represent them partaking in traditions around the Easter Holy Week.

The Lenten Journey

Easter traditions in Ireland begin with Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance leading up to Easter Sunday. For Irish Catholics, Lent is a time of self-reflection and spiritual preparation. Ash Wednesday marks the start of this period, when priests draw crosses in ash on the foreheads of the faithful as a symbol of repentance. Many Irish Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays, give up certain luxuries, and engage in acts of charity. Adherents see these Lenten sacrifices and practices as a way to purify themselves in anticipation of Easter.

During the Lenten season, people from all walks of life, including royalty, clergy, and commoners, widely observed the rigorous Black Fast. Its details are:

One may not eat or drink anything from midnight until sunset
One may not eat meat, eggs, dairy products, or alcohol
One may have one vegetarian meal per day
The meal during Holy Week may only include bread, salt, herbs, and water.

By the early 20th century, Irish Catholic traditions surrounding the Black Fast had significantly evolved. However, by the early 1900s, these stringent practices relaxed. The Catholic Church lessened the severity of The Black Fast, allowing for lighter meals and fewer dietary restrictions. These changes aimed to make religious practices easier for believers to follow. This shift allowed for a greater focus on spiritual reflection and charitable deeds during Lent, rather than purely on physical deprivation, thus aligning with contemporary interpretations of piety and devotion.

Irish Catholics often dressed in their best new clothes and took pictures at Easter — The Bourke family, County Clare, May 1916, the Haselbeck Collection

Holy Week: The Path to Easter

A series of solemn and significant events mark Holy Week, the final week of Lent. Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, begins the week. People received blessed palms at church to take home. In earlier times, men would also wear these blessed palm slips on their lapels. Additionally, people would hang palms in barns and on tree limbs to safeguard livestock. Palm Sunday was a day when people would also perform the spring cleaning of their homes.

Irish Catholic Easter traditions included blessed palm crosses for their homes and livestock — Palm Sunday palm crosses

Good Friday: Blessings and Prohibitions

Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, is significant in Ireland. It is a day of fasting, prayer, and penance, with many attending the Stations of the Cross, a devotional service that retraces the steps of Jesus to Calvary. Despite it being a favorable day to plant potatoes and grain, for the most part, people avoid work. People could not shed blood, slaughter animals, or launch fishing boats. Because of Christ’s suffering on the cross, adherents don’t burn, saw, or drive nails into wood. Traditional customs include covering mirrors in the home and avoiding unnecessary work, reflecting the somber nature of the day.

He, Fearghal, and Da rose at sunrise to take two large timbers representing the Cross to Father Dudley at Our Lady of Dolours for the Stations of the Cross and to attend the first mass of Good Friday. When they returned home, there was a small corner of Ma’s kitchen garden reserved for the garlic she said must be planted before noon. This done, the garlic would have significant curative properties. She would pull it in late summer for use between the Feast of the Assumption and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Ma made an awful-tasting cough tonic with the garlic, based on Da’s old-family recipe. Donnacha felt sure he and his siblings had developed excellent constitutions just to avoid her medicine.
Meanwhile, each of his four sisters would have lined up to have Ma cut their hair, none of them sure they should believe if they had a haircut on Good Friday their hair would grow twice as long and twice as thick but partaking in the ritual just in case. Ma and the girls would attend the 3:00 P.M. service Da found too theatrical, hating to see the girls cry, especially Cat, when they took their turns driving nails into the cross, and he’d refuse to go out in public without shoes for the Adoration. Their only meal today would be sowens — fermented oat milk…

The belief that hair cut on Good Friday would grow back thicker and longer was widespread. There was also a somewhat contradictory belief that hair cut during Lent (which includes Good Friday) would never grow back. People also believed that washing your hair at this time prevented headaches for the year to come. Yet another difference of opinion involved whether trimming finger- and toenails was a good idea on Good Friday or they would never grow again if you did.

Garlic played a crucial role in Irish folk medicine, believed to have healing properties for persistent coughs. There was a variety of recipes involving the ingredient, such as the Cavanaghs use in my novel, Roseleigh. However, garlic in goat’s milk was renowned for its curative properties. If any garlic was good, Good Friday garlic was especially so. In addition to its medicinal use, people also used it to keep hens and cattle healthy.

As on Ash Wednesday and Spy Wednesday, on Good Friday, those fasting would often drink sowens. The process of making sowens involved soaking oatmeal in cold water until it fermented, or boiling a handful of oatmeal in spring water to create a milk substitute. Because of the prohibition of dairy, sowens found its way into many other dishes. These included mashed potatoes and bread and the bases for white gruel dishes that also included nettles, turnips, cabbage, and herring.

Irish Catholic Easter week forbade milk, so sowens — fermented oat husks — was substituted. This makes an appearance in my historical novel, Roseleigh — Sowens

Holy Saturday: Readying the Feast

Holy Saturday, known as Easter Vigil, is a night of anticipation. A unique Irish custom also took place on this day — “gugging for eggs.” Children would dress in old clothes, including aprons and headscarves, cover their faces, bringing a basket and a stick. They would go from house to house asking for eggs, with phrases like:

Gugs, gugs, eggs or the money, ma’am.

My Aestar Egg on you, please.

With Lent nearly over, people were tired of eating fish and looking forward to better fare. In some areas of the country, including Cork, people held a procession called “whipping the herring” to herald the last day of Lent. Someone, possibly a butcher, tied a herring to a stick and carried it out of town while the crowd whipped it to pieces.

On Good Friday, Irish Catholics would anticipate the consumption of meat by “whipping the herring” — *Nathaniel Grogan “Whipping the Herring out of Town,” ca. 1800, Crawford Art Gallery Collection*

Many Irish Catholics would also take part in the Easter Vigil Mass, one of the most important liturgies of the year. The service begins in darkness, symbolizing the tomb of Jesus, and includes the lighting of the Paschal candle, representing the light of Christ’s resurrection.

Irish Catholic Easter traditions also included the lighting of a Paschal candle — Paschal candle

Easter Sunday: Celebrating the Resurrection

Easter Sunday is a day of joyous celebration, marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The day begins by breaking the fast of Lent with hen or duck eggs, preferably sprinkled with blessed salt. The children would also gather for a feast called a clúdóg, eating the eggs and other treats they had gathered the day before. Then there was a festive mass at churches adorned with flowers, and hymns of praise filled the air.

Irish Catholic Easter traditions included a number of symbolic foods

Symbolic Foods and Feasts

Food plays a central role in Irish Easter traditions, with many symbolic dishes and treats. Families gathered for a special meal, often featuring lamb, symbolizing Jesus as the Lamb of God. People would also eat other spring meats, such as veal or kid. Simnel cake, a light fruitcake topped with marzipan and originally associated with Mothering Sunday, came to be used simply as an Easter cake. People participated in cake dances at crossroads on Easter evening with the couple who dance longest winning a cake.

Cake dances awarded cakes to the winners on Easter evening in Ireland — Simnel cake

Easter Monday: A Day of Reflection and Celebration

Easter Monday is a public holiday in Ireland, often marked by parades, commemorative events, and family gatherings. Many visit the graves of loved ones, laying flowers and offering prayers. It is also a day for community activities, such as egg rolling competitions and other games, fostering a sense of togetherness and joy.

Modern Adaptations and Continuity

While traditional customs remain strong, modern Irish families often incorporate new elements into their Easter celebrations. The exchange of chocolate Easter eggs, a practice that gained popularity in the 20th century, is now a cherished part of the holiday. Easter egg hunts have become common, blending traditional religious observance with contemporary family fun.

The Easter Rising of 1916 transformed Easter in Ireland, blending religious celebration with a sense of national identity and the fight for independence. Historically a time of religious reflection, Easter took on new meaning as the Rising, which began on Easter Monday, drew symbolic parallels between Christ’s resurrection and Ireland’s hoped-for rebirth. The execution of rebel leaders, seen as martyrs, infused Easter with sacrifice and patriotic fervor. As a result, Easter in Ireland became a time to honor those who died for freedom, reshaping the nation’s cultural and political landscape.

Despite these modern influences, the core of Irish Easter traditions remains deeply rooted in Catholic faith and communal values. The resilience of these practices highlights the enduring nature of Irish cultural and religious identity.

Conclusion

Irish Catholic Easter traditions deeply intertwine religious devotion, cultural heritage, and national identity. From Lenten sacrifices to Easter Sunday celebrations, these practices have shaped the spiritual and communal life of Irish Catholics for generations. Despite modern adaptations and historical influences like the Easter Rising, the essence of Easter in Ireland remains rooted in faith, family, and community. These traditions, as depicted in Roseleigh’s historical fiction, showcase the enduring power of rituals in shaping identity. Irish Easter customs celebrate Christ’s resurrection and reflect the resilience and spirit of the nation, making Easter a time of reflection and renewal.

There are too many Irish Catholic traditions regarding Easter to cover here! Are there any you think I should have mentioned? What are some of your favorites? Let me know in the comments.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Cavanaghs and how Irish and Catholic traditions are represented in my historical novel, Roseleigh, please join my mailing list.