IrishShop.com

Blog

  • Home
  • Categories
    • IrishShop News
    • Irish Christmas
    • Irish Holiday
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Irish Clothing
    • Irish stuff we like
    • Irish Jewelry
    • Guinness
    • Irish Collectibles
    • Valentine’s Day
  • Shop

Happy New Year!  Wondering What Lies Ahead?

  • Irish Holiday
samhain 6

 

Samhain was the ancient Celtic New Year’s Eve that evolved into today’s Halloween celebrations so of course, the first day of the Celtic year is November 1st.  Pity our poor ancestors who were isolated from other cultures and only got to celebrate one New Year a year, whereas today we live in a more connected and diverse world where we can enjoy different cultures’ New Year celebrations throughout the year.  So how does one properly celebrate Celtic New Year the Irish way?  By predicting what will happen of course.

While Halloween and Jack-o-lanterns are more well-known Irish gifts to the world, barm brack has a lower profile.  The reasons for that are mysterious.  It is a delicious, round loaf of light fruit bread.  Now in our liability conscious world, it is sold minus the best bits – the wee tokens that foretell what will happen in the coming year.  Traditionally, tokens such as coins and rings were baked into the loaf.  If you got a token in your slice of brack, it told you what to expect in the coming year.  A coin means prosperity, and a bit of cloth represents the rags of poverty.  A ring is for romance, and a thimble if for another year of being single.  

Among many of the Irish gifts of foresight or fortune telling are taken seriously, even today.  A generation or so ago, reading tea leaves was another popular form of divination – or an entertaining way to wind up your friends, depending on who you ask.  After drinking nearly all of a cup of tea brewed with loose leaves, the leaf reader would swirl the last bit of tea around the cup and quickly empty it into the saucer, pause, and then turn the cup upright again.  The wet tea leaves stuck to the bottom of the cup can, like clouds, look like different shapes to different people.  Those shapes are supposed to symbolize things in the past, present and future.

Omens were very important to the ancient Irish – and to plenty of more modern Irish people too.  Irish folklore is full of superstitions about what various things mean.  It’s very good luck for a bride to see or hear a cuckoo bird on the way to her wedding.  Bees were considered omens too.  If a bee buzzed at the window, it meant a visitor was coming, and if one came into the house, it foretold of future wealth.

Save the champagne and dancing for January, but in November you can try your hand at making barm brack with traditional tokens and maybe even a few you devise yourself.  Invite a few friends over, get out the good tea set and have some fun trying your hand at the Irish gifts of divination.  If you see a bee buzzing around the door when they arrive, don’t be in such a hurry to shoo it away.  Who says you can only celebrate the New Year once a year?

IrishShop.com

 

October 29, 2014 IrishShop

Post navigation

Irish Gifts to Keep You Warm → ← From Searching Spirits to Sugar-Fueled Superheroes

Related Posts

Do You Know These Irish Christmas Traditions?

In many parts of the world, once people have unwrapped their Christmas presents (including any lovely Irish gifts) and eaten their Christmas dinner, the holiday is pretty much over. Not […]

Full Circle to Halloween’s Irish Origins

Did you know that Halloween is as Irish as St. Patrick’s Day?  And it is much, much older.  The ancient Celts had a different calendar, along with a whole different […]

5 Telling Signs that Your Dad Might Be Irish

His big day is just around the corner.  You might already be shopping for Irish gifts for him, or you might be wondering just how Irish your dad really is.  […]

Perfect Irish Gifts for Valentine’s Day

It’s coming to that time of year again when you decide do you stick or twist? Do you stick with the traditional, tried and trusted and go with the cliche. […]

Recent Posts

Connemara Marble Irish Jewelry: A Green Gem from the West of Ireland

Connemara Marble Irish Jewelry: A Green Gem from the West of Ireland

Connemara Marble Irish Jewelry: A Green Gem from the West of Ireland One of Ireland’s 40 shades of green deserves a special mention. Connemara Marble Irish Jewelry, named for the […]

More Info
How to celebrate and mark this year’s St. Patrick’s Day

How to celebrate and mark this year’s St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day is the most important day in the Irish calendar and we want you all to celebrate it in some way this year. We won’t have any parades […]

More Info
Irish Wedding Gifts for Newlyweds

Irish Wedding Gifts for Newlyweds

Weddings in 2021 won’t be like weddings just a couple of years ago, but people will still get married and you can still send on some personal Irish Wedding Gifts […]

More Info
What’s Special about an Irish Wedding?

What’s Special about an Irish Wedding?

What’s Special about an Irish Wedding? In Ireland, life’s milestones are marked in a big way. From a baby’s christening to a funeral, families and communities acknowledge and celebrate the […]

More Info
Powered by WordPress | theme Dream Way