British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Folklore -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
In the County of Antrim this day is observed by several thousands of the
working classes of the town and vicinity of Belfast resorting to the
Cave-hill, about three miles distant, where the day is spent in dancing,
jumping, running, climbing the rugged rocks, and drinking. Here many a
rude brawl takes place, many return home with black eyes, and in some
cases with broken bones. Indeed it is with them the greatest holiday of
the year, and to not a few it furnishes laughable treats to talk about
till the return of the following spring. On this evening a kind of
dramatic piece is usually brought forward at the Belfast Theatre, called
_The Humours of the Cave-hill.--The Table Book_, p. 507.
CO. CLARE.
On Easter Monday multitudes go to Scattery Island for the purpose of
performing penance on their bare knees, round the stony beach and holy
well there. Tents are generally erected on this occasion, and often
times more whisky is taken by the pilgrims than is found convenient on
their return in crowded boats.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1814,
vol. ii. p. 459.
CO. DOWN.
At Holywood the trundling of eggs, as it is called, is an amusement
common at Easter. For this purpose the eggs are boiled hard, and dyed of
different colours, and, when they are thus prepared, the sport consists
in throwing or trundling them along the ground, especially down a
declivity, and gathering up the broken fragments to eat them. Formerly
it was usual with the women and children to collect in large bodies for
this purpose, though nothing can be, to all appearance, more unmeaning
than this amusement. They yet pursue it in the vicinity of Belfast. It
is a curious circumstance that this sport is practised only by the
Presbyterians.--Mason, _Stat. Acc. of Ireland_, 1819, vol. iii. p. 207.
On Easter Monday several hundreds of young persons of the town and
neighbourhood of Portaferry resort, dressed in their best, to a pleasant
walk near that town, called “The Walter.” The avowed object of each
person is to see the fun, which consists in the men kissing the females,
without reserve, whether married or single. This mode of salutation is
quite a matter of course; it is never taken amiss, nor with much show of
coyness; the female must be very ordinary indeed, who returns home
without having received at least a dozen hearty kisses. Tradition is
silent as to the origin of this custom, which of late years is on the
decline, especially in the respectability of the attendants.--_The Table
Book_, p. 506.
MARCH 24.] EASTER TUESDAY.
MIDDLESEX.
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