We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Flaming Sods of Turf and an Old Rope Beard: The Cosmogony of Kerry's New Year Traditions.
- Authors
Lehane, Shane
- Abstract
This article provides detail of two New Year's Eve traditions presently observed in the County Kerry towns of Annascaul and Portmagee. The vernacular communal pageants involve processions with burning sods of turf through the villages and, at midnight, both emphasise the decline of the aged and the emergence of youth. In the case of Portmagee, the origin of the long-lived ritual is said to stem from its days of smuggling in the early eighteenth century, though it is equally possible that it may be connected with Scottish New Year Fire traditions brought by the arrival of Scottish boats engaged in mackerel fishing in the late nineteenth century. The Portmagee ritual of killing the old man representing the old year and his resurrection as a young man in the new year shares certain characteristics with some well known plays from the native mumming tradition, some of which will be discussed. This artice will also explore these rituals in the context of Turner's theories regarding liminal time and Eliade's ideas relating to the re-actualisation of the cosmogony and the mythical events that took place in illo tempore.
- Subjects
SCOTLAND; NEW Year; SMUGGLING; RESURRECTION; COSMOGONY
- Publication
Béascna, 2022, Issue 12, p100
- ISSN
1649-2137
- Publication type
Article