Script

DURING PREGNANCY:
Irish Health Beliefs and Practices during Pregnancy
While some Irish traditions and superstitions are still believed today, many have
been left in the past, but all stemmed from a belief that during pregnancy, a baby
was easily impacted by outside conditions. These included everything from foods,
animals, spirits, and powers and meant that the baby needed constant protection.
DURING PREGNANCY
•Never enter a graveyard while pregnant.
It’s believed the spirits of evil would starve a baby and leave him weak. If you
happened to find yourself in a graveyard, do not twist your ankle on a gravestone.
It could lead to your baby being born with a club foot. (Just skip graveyards for
the next 9 months.)
•Wear a medal of your patron saint.
If you do not have a patron saint, stick with St. Brigid or St. Elizabeth for
protection. You can also wear blessed holy water.
•Avoid rabbits and wear skirts.
A rabbit that crosses your path is believed to mean your baby will have a cleft lip;
however, you can prevent this if you rip the hem of your dress or skirt
immediately after the bunny encounter.
•Say no to cats.
Cats are believed to steal a baby’s soul during pregnancy and infancy.
•Pour on the honey and toss out the spice.
The more honey you consume, the sweeter your baby will be. (Make it Manuka
honey and get the health benefits, too.) It’s also said that you’ll have trouble on
your hands if eat a lot of spicy foods. Make sure you eat your carrots (for your
baby’s eyesight), corned beef, and cabbage, but skip green potatoes, they can
cause birth defects .

•Hold off on becoming a godparent.

The Irish believe that if you become a godparent while pregnant, only one of the
babies will survive. It can’t hurt to accept the role after your baby joins you earth
side!
•Leave the cleaning to someone else.
It is believed that cleaning windows or lifting both arms above the head can twist
the umbilical cord around the baby’s neck.
•Irish Superstitions and Traditions for Postpartum
Tie a bow on the bed. To protect your baby from being stolen by fairies, you
should tie a red ribbon on the bed where he sleeps.
•Never rock an empty cradle.
It’s believed that rocking an empty cradle or rocking chair will curse a mother and
her baby.
•Eat your meat and veggies.
To keep your milk supply up, have energy, and keep your baby happy, it’s
believed that plenty of meat and vegetables should be eaten every day. However,
you may want to skip the onions, as they are thought to cause colic and
crankiness. A cup of warm milk with cinnamon in it can calm you and, in turn,
your baby through your breastmilk.
•Spend 30 days together.
The first 30 days after birth should be spent only with immediate family. The Irish
believe that a newborn is susceptible to the evil spirits that come with visitors.

Child Birth
•Traditionally in Ireland, great emphasis was placed on conception and
childbearing. But a number of obstacles could stand in the way. According to folk
belief, a malicious person, by tying a knot in a handkerchief as the couple
exchanged their vows, could prevent them from conceiving. If a pregnant woman
encountered a hare, her child could have a hare lip; to prevent this, she should rip
her blouse or dress to pass the blemish onto the clothing instead. And a pregnant
woman was not supposed to enter a graveyard, lest she come too close to death.
A number of customs were associated with the birth itself. A child born at night
was said to have the power to see ghosts and fairies, but only after midnight and
not if he or she was born on a Sunday. An older custom said that a child born on
Whit Sunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter, would either kill or be killed; to
avoid this fate, a worm was crushed into the baby’s hand, thus ensuring he or she
did not later kill a person. A person born on May Day was said to be lucky.
A child born with a caul (a membrane covering their head) was said to be lucky,
and the ca 3ul was kept. Sometimes, fishermen took the caul to sea for good luck
and to protect against drowning. According to contemporary folklore, a child born
with a caul may have special abilities, particular physical gifts or extraordinary
powers of intuition or perception which are sometimes linked to the
supernatural.

Death
The Irish wake tradition is believed to be a mixture of Paganism and Christianity.
Up until the 19th century, with the development of modern cities and deathcare,
an Irish wake started with women washing the deceased, dressing them in their
finest clothing, and placing the body on a large table in the main room of the
house with candles placed around it. The body would be wrapped in a shroud,
tied and decorated with ribbon or flowers. Everyone was encouraged to touch
the body, but it was not a solemn occasion. Men would partake in smoking
tobacco together to socialize and keep evil spirits away from the body. Each male
visitor was expected to take a puff of tobacco from a pipe that was left near, or
sometimes on the body.
•Stopping Clocks, Opening Windows and Covering Mirrors
- Stopping clocks, opening windows and covering mirrors are all part of the
Irish Wake tradition, and similar rituals can be found in other cultures
around the world. All clocks are stopped at the time of death. This marks
the time out of respect, and also prevents bad luck. All the mirrors in the
house are covered so the spirit of the deceased is not trapped inside. All
the windows in the house are opened so the spirit of the deceased can
leave the home.
•Keening
-In ancient Ireland, you weren’t supposed to cry until the preparation of the body
was complete. Crying or wailing too soon was believed to attract evil spirits that
would capture the soul of the deceased. Once the preparation of the body was
completed, a lead keener would begin. She would be the first woman to weep
over the dead body and recite poetry. After she began, the other women would
join in.
•Sin Eater
-A Sin Eater was a person who was tasked with eating the sins of the dead in
order for the soul of the deceased to avoid damnation. When someone died
without being able to confess their sins, a Sin Eater would be called upon and
given bread and ale that was either passed over the body, or eaten in front of the
corpse. They would then say a short prayer and would essentially ‘eat’ the sins of
the deceased, absorbing the sins into their own soul. This allowed for the soul of
the dead to pass into heaven and rest in peace. When a Sin Eater died, his soul
would be carried to hell, weighted by the sins he had eaten throughout his life.
•Funeral Procession
- After the wake is finished, the body is removed from the house and
transferred to a local church for the funeral mass and burial. The coffin is
traditionally carried by 6 male pallbearers, who are often family. The body
is either driven in a hearse or carried by the pallbearers at the front of the
procession, with friends and family following behind. People in the streets
will stop and allow the procession to go ahead of them out of respect.

Irish Health Beliefs and Practices in General

From Friday the 13th and black cats to tossing salt over one’s left shoulder to ward
off evil spirits, superstitions and rituals are rooted in a mixture of religion,
mythology, and folklore. They have the power to ward off evil, bring good luck,
cure sickness, even stop people from performing certain activities on certain days.
Where a black cat can be thought to mean bad luck, in Ireland it may lead to
fortune as “several of the great lake serpents and water-cows of our Irish Fairy
Mythology are supposed to guard treasurers; in some instances black cats are
similarly employed”. Then there are those that involve fire, most notably on days
of celebration such as May Day and St. John’s Eve or Midsummer’s Eve:
“If a man was to perform a long journey, he leaped backwards and forwards three
times through the fire to render himself invulnerable” (Wilde, 49).
“When the fire has nearly expired, and the dancing, singing, and carousing are
over, each individual present provides himself with a braune, or ember of the fire,
to carry home with him, which, if it becomes extinguished before he reaches his
house, it is an omen of impending misfortune” (Wilde, 49).
“Walking around a burning flame during St. John’s Eve or Midsummer’s Eve
spares one from being sick the whole year” (Putzi, 196).
Other curious Irish rituals include keeping spiders in a bag to be worn as a
pendant or necklace to cure fever. However, if the bag is opened it will cause back
luck. To remove a sty on one’s eyelid, the person should point to the direction of
a gooseberry thorn nine times while chanting “Away, away, away!”.