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Irish Easter traditions

Back in time, the Irish Easter was a time of religious contemplation, fasting, feasting and dancing.

'Holy Week', the week that includes Good Friday, used to be a full seven-day period of extreme denial. Black tea, dry bread, potatoes with salt (but no butter or buttermilk) and perhaps a little porridge made up the daily fare of this difficult week until Friday when some families denied themselves anything other than dry bread and water.

Coming as it did after a five-week period of semi-fasting, when salted herring and a bit of milk might have additionally been allowed (but no meat), Holy Week was tough. So tough that the Holy Week fast was officially relaxed to two days by the Church authorities in the mid-19th century.

Good Friday in Ireland

Since medieval times, all bread baked on Good Friday was marked with a cross in remembrance of Christ's crucifixion on this day. The custom survives in the Hot Cross Buns we eat in modern times. But it doesn't just stop there.

This most simple of Irish Easter traditions can be witnessed every day of the year; the custom of marking home-made bread with a cross persists all over Ireland.

Eggs that hatched on Good Friday were thought to produce particularly healthy birds while eggs that were laid on this day were, like bread, marked with a cross and then saved for eating until Easter Sunday.

Depending on the date of Easter, it was also traditional to sow corn on Good Friday, but this would only be done if the potato seed had already been planted.

Irish Easter Saturday traditions - pity the poor herring

Dried fish, particularly herring, varied the meagre diet of our rural and coastal ancestors for the six-week fast from meat. By the time Easter Saturday arrived, hungry minds were avidly anticipating a good meal of roasted or boiled meat. Pity the poor herring! Having provided such sustenance, the population made it the scapegoat for their hunger in a ceremony known as Whipping the Herring.

Butchers, happy in the knowledge that they would soon be selling meat again, were usually the organisers of the procession which involved hanging a dead fish from a pike and carrying it through the streets. Everyone was invited to whip it as it made its journey to the nearest river where it was discarded in the waters.

On the way back from the river, the procession would carry a dead spring lamb, dressed in ribbons and flowers.

This Irish Easter tradition was known across the island and persisted right into the 20th century.

Irish Easter Sunday customs

The fast of Lent finally came to a close on Easter Saturday, so the next day was a day of feasting. Lamb, veal and chicken were part of the festive fare of the well-to-do. They might also be on the menu for the neighbours of a generous farmer who was prepared to share his livestock. But for the majority, the centrepiece of the feast consisted of corned (salted) beef, a baked Easter ham or boiled bacon served with cabbage and potatoes.

The day began with eggs. And plenty of them. The average Easter breakfast for an Irish man consisted of six eggs. Yes, Six! They might be fried or boiled. If the latter, natural colourings from herbs or lichens were added to the boiling water to dye the shells which were then kept to decorate the May bush, another Irish custom.

Children had their very own Irish Easter traditions known as the clúdóg. This involved calling on neighbours and family to collect gifts of eggs, potatoes, cakes, bread and butter, and milk or flavoured water. The children would then gather in a field, a makeshift 'den' beneath a tree, or a fireside (if the weather was poor) to cook their eggs and enjoy their feast.

Other Irish Easter traditions were the rolling of hard-boiled eggs down the nearest hill, giving roasted potatoes to any beggar who called at the door, and the Cake Dance.