The day after St. Patrick’s Day is “Sheelah’s Day,” or the festival in honour of Sheelah. Its observers are not so anxious to determine who “Sheelah” was as they are earnest in her celebration. Some say she was “Patrick’s wife,” others that she was “Patrick’s mother,” while all agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of whisky. The shamrock worn on St. Patrick’s Day should be worn also on Sheelah’s Day, and on the latter night be drowned in the last glass. Yet it frequently happens that the shamrock is flooded in the last glass of St. Patrick’s Day, and another last glass or two, or more, on the same night deluges the over-soddened trefoil. This is not “quite correct,” but it is endeavoured to be remedied the next morning by the display of a fresh shamrock, which is steeped at night in honour of “Sheelah” with equal devotedness.--_Every Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 387. MARCH 19.] MAUNDY, OR CHARE THURSDAY. The day before Good Friday is termed Maundy Thursday, because, says the _British Apollo_ (1709, ii. 7), on this day our Saviour washed his disciples’ feet, to teach them the great duty of being humble; and therefore he gave them a command to do as he had done, to imitate their Master in all proper instances of condescension and humility. The origin, consequently, of this custom is of very great antiquity, and, unlike many other ceremonies connected with the Church before the Reformation, remains in existence in a modified form up to the present day. The original number of poor persons whose feet were washed by the king or queen was thirteen, but this number was afterwards extended so as to correspond with the age of the reigning sovereign. Matthew Paris mentions Maundy money, and the Benedictional of Archbishop Robert at Rouen, a manuscript of the 10th century, cap. xxix., contains a “Benedictio ad mandatum ipso die” (_Archæologia_, vol. xxiv. p. 119), and Wlnothus, Abbot of St. Alban’s, ordained a daily performance of the mandate. In other houses it was customary to wash the feet of as many poor people as there were monks in the convent, on Holy Thursday, and on Saturday before Palm Sunday: the day of the latter ablution received the name of _mandatum pauperum_, to distinguish it from the _Mandati Dies_. During the ceremony the whole choir chanted the words of Christ, “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“A new commandment I give unto you”). Du Cange quotes from the life of St. Brigida by Chilienus: “Proxima cœna fuit Domini, qua sancta solebat Mandatum Christi calido complere lavacro.” (Du Cange, _Gloss._, tom. iv., col. 399.) Archdeacon Nares, however, apparently following Spelman and Skinner whose opinion is adopted by Junius, in opposition to Minsheu, says that this day is so named from the _maunds_, in which the gifts were contained, and he maintains that _maund_ is a corruption of the Saxon _mand_, a basket.