Happy Michaelmas

And a Happy Michaelmas to one and all...  so named as this is the feast day of Saint Michael.  At least, since Christian times, and it falls near one of the Celtic quarter days. The actual quarter day was 23 September on this year, but the festival is celebrated on 29 September in more recent times. In Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, this was, and still is, an important festival time. 

Saint Michael was an important angel in the Christian cosmology. He was a warrior, the leader of God's army. The festival is much older than Christian times however, and it was the Celtic god Lugh that was the original celestial being associated with Michaelmas. Lugh is the god associated with the harvest, with various arts, crafts, etc. There is a pseudo history of him being the 'sun god.' However, this is in error stemming from a mistaken etymology of his name that suggested his name was linked to 'light.'  The real etymology of Lugh is from the Indo-European word lewgh meaning 'to bind by oath.'  And Lugh was the god of oaths. 

And on that theme... the photo is of two Morning Glory flowers. This photo I took just minutes ago. The Morning Glory is the fancy name for a Sweet Potato. And, my garden, half of my garden in fact, has been taken over by Sweet Potato vines. Harvest date of these sweet potatoes will be in the first week of October, which is a fitting tribute to Lugh I think. 

Anyroad, a very happy Michaelmas to you all, and tip a cup to Saint Michael, or to Lugh, as they are pretty much the same entity.  A fire in the firepit and the drink of your choice are all that is needed to mark this day. Enjoy. 

Barry R McCain 

Beltane 2023

 

Beltane is the anglicised name of the Gaelic May Day festival.  May Day is on 1 May and is held on or near the halfway mark between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It is one of the oldest and most ancient festival days. It is widely observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and in modern times has spread to the Diaspora.  

In Irish Gaelic it is called Lá Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic, Là Bealltainn, an in Manx Gaelic Laa Boaltinn.  Beltane is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lughnasa.  There are several theories on the etymology of Beltane; the most accepted one is that it is from the common Celtic Belo-tenia, meaning 'bright or shinning fire,' which in turn goes back to the Indo-European 'Bhel (to shine) tepnos (warm).

It is not a 'fire festival,' but fire is a integral part of the festivities.  Prior to modern times it was a festival to mark and celebrate the moving of livestock to summer pastures and to honour the old gods and evoke the blessings of fertility of the tribe and the life giving cattle.  

Beltane is mentioned in the earliest written Gaelic literature when Christian monks began to write down Gaelic lore and myths in early medieval times.  The medieval accounts were ancient even then and date back before Christianity was introduced to the Gaelic homelands. 

On the Beltane Eve the festival began.  The people gathered to feast, have drink, and make offerings to the Aos Sí, who are the old gods of the Gaels.  Byres, the windows and doors of homes, etc., were decorated with flowers.  It was a joyous festival ushering in the bountiful time when the days grew longer, the sun shined more, and the weather grew warmer.

Beltane survived the coming of Christianity and continued on for centuries, despite the attempts of overly zealous Christian officials who wanted to stop the practice, as they were fully aware of the pagan origins of Beltane.  By the 20th century the festival had almost died out and was only celebrated and practiced in certain areas in Ireland, Scotland, and Man.  In the late 20th century there was a revival of Beltane festivities.  The focus of Beltane changed some in these modern times, but the main core beliefs did remain.  The concept of the season change, the coming of the sun, and the start of the season of growth and plenty, etc., remain.

Dagda

Fire was and is an integral part of Beltane.  All fires were put out on Beltane Eve and then rekindled starting with the lighting of the bonfire.  It was this holy flame from which the 'new' flames of the the folk began.  It was the 'force fire' and sacred.   Many will recognise the fire ritual as the same ritual used in the Catholic Church and several other Christian denominations in the Easter lighting of the Paschal candle.  There are too many Beltane nuances and rituals to describe here, but there is one core aspect of the ritual.  This is a Deiseal procession around the sacred fire.  Deiseal means 'right-hand direction' or Sunwise (clockwise).   The Deiseal procession around the sacred fire was a Blessing of the Cosmos upon all. 

Beltane is still celebrated and the practice is growing.  It is now held not only in the Gaelic homeland, but in the Diaspora, and has been incorporated into similar May Eve and May Day celebrations in Europe.  While many see Beltane as just a good time with a bonfire, there is also a growing interest in the spiritual aspects of the festival.  The concepts of the a new growing season, the connection to the Old Ways of ancestors, and reflection upon life, are also now part of Beltane for a growing number of people.

a sacred fire of Bealtaine

Do enjoy Beltane.  A bonfire is best way to partake of course and with a Deiseal (clockwise) procession around the sacred fire.  Followed by toasts to the Aos Sí, to Ancestors, to the coming season of Summer.  If you lack the means of a bonfire, a candle will do, or even a wee fire in your fire-pit.  Connect with your Ancestors and the Old Ways, as these are good things. 

Notes About Halloween!

I like Halloween, I always have and still do. Here is some basic data on this wonderful festival. The name Halloween is a contraction of the words 'All Hallows Eve.' This is a name created by Pope Boniface IV who proclaimed it 'All Saints Day' in AD 609.  Hallow is an archaic word meaning 'Saint' or 'holy person.' The plural is Hallows.  

From this we get to All Hallows Eve on 31 October and on 1 November we have All Hallows Day.  But, there was already an important festival at this time. In the Isles, there was Samhain (said Sow-in). Samhain was a festival that dates to early pagan times and it was an old festival already when Pope Boniface attempted to claim it. In Gaelic, Halloween is still known by its real name, Samhain and Halloween night is Oiche Shamhna (said ee-ah how-na).

Samhain has a folk etymology that goes back to the middle Gaelic word Samain (also said Sow-in) meaning summer. But, that is a pseudo etymology, the real origin is from the Proto Celtic word 'Samoni,'which means 'assembly' in this case the gathering of the living and the dead, which happened on 31 October to the daybreak of 2 November. The 1st century BC Gaulish Coligny calendar marks the date. So even in ancient time the Celts already had Samhain as a major festival time.

Samhain was important to the ancient Celts as it marked the change of season, i.e. the start of winter. At this time the cattle herds went from summer pastures to their winter pastures. Very important to the pastoral people in the Isles. On Samhain people gathered, feasted, held contests, and there were rituals associated with this time. This change from light to dark, from summer to winter, marked a time when the portals between worlds, our world and the Otherworld, opened up. Beings and entities from the Otherworld could and did appear and walk about in our world. 

These Otherworld beings included the Síthe (people of the mounds, also known today as the Fairies), the spirits of the dead, including one's ancestors, and other odd entities associated with the Otherworld. From ancient times to the present, it is in this context, that Samhain and 'Halloween' became the festival that we have today in the 21st century. 

carving the Jack o'lantern

The Gaelic people in Ireland and Scotland had many ways to commemorate Samhain. As already mentioned, the were assemblies, feasts, parties, bonfires, etc.  People also practiced seership (divination), and the use of costumes and icons to protect themselves from any malicious entities that came into our world from the Otherworld. 

Dagda, the Gaelic Sky Father, had control over time and the passages from our world to the Otherworld. Dagda is a psychopomp, i.e. a guide to souls to and from the place of the Dead. There were, and still are, bonfires lit up hills and mountains to commemorate Samhain.  These fires were part of the rituals associated with this movement of entities between the world. 

The Gaelic people also made toasts and left offerings to the Síthe. An example is seen in the Hebrides, on the island of the Lewis the population presented 'Seonaidh' with a cup of ale on the eve of Samhain. Seonaidh was a nickname for the Manannán, one of the Síthe, particularly revered in the Hebrides. This practice endured into the 20th century. Seonaidh is a taboo name, i.e. it was thought better not to say Manannán's name out loud. Important members of the Síthe often were known by pet names.  Much like the Síthe themselves were often called Na Daoine Maithe (the good people) rather than their real name.  

painting of Dagda by Howard David Johnson

Samhain/Halloween is a time of heightened spiritual activity, a time when the passages between the worlds opens. It is a time to revere ancestors, to be cognizant of the Síthe.

Guardians of the home 

Samhain was brought to America via the many Irish and Scottish immigrants that came here. It has evolved into the modern Halloween and has become a world wide festival.  It is good to remember its Gaelic origins. Many people, sadly most people, have little or no idea why we have all those curious customs associated with Halloween. The ghosts, the entities of the Otherworld, the feasts, candy, parties, bonfires, etc., have lost their meaning to many in our consumer, materialistic, post modern society. Too many people participate in Halloween not knowing what the festival is and the older spiritual connections. 

I have placed a Jack o'lantern out, and I will welcome trick or treaters to my door. Later tonight I will have a fire in my large firepit, have a salutation to Dagda and my ancestors.  I wish ever one a wonderful Halloween. 

© 2022 Barry R McCain 

Imbolc 2022

 

A Bríd's Cross

Today, at sunset, marks the beginning of the festival of Imbolc. This a Gaelic festival to honour the beginning of Spring and falls between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The festival is general to Celtic areas, but is perhaps most celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man - which are the Gaelic homelands. It is indeed an ancient celebration and is mentioned in the earliest Gaelic literature, and it was old even at that time. 

In Christian times Imbolc was conflated with the veneration of Saint Bríd. Bríd is also a goddess, a prominent member of the Tuatha Dé, and it is no accident that the Church synchronized Imbolc to Lá Fhéile Bríde (Saint Brid's Day). It was a way to allow the people to continue their ancient custom, but place it into the Judeo-Christian cosmology.

The etymology of Imbolc has several theories, but given its ancient origins, it is most likely from an early proto Celtic word 'embibolgon' which means 'budding.'  And, this is when the first buds on early blooming plants start to show the signs of the growing sunlight at this latitude.

Saint Bríd

There are several customs still observed on Imbolc - visits to Holy Wells, where one walks sunwise, known as Deiseil in Gaelic, around the Holy Well and leaves a Clootie on the Faerie Tree (or bush). A Clootie is a piece of cloth tied to a Faerie Tree. The Clootie is to invoke blessings on home, family, clan, and livestock and fields. The practiced is still done to this day. One will also light a fire, candles or a bonfire, and celebrate with a feast and libations. This was also a time when divination is done. 

In Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, there are numerous accounts throughout the centuries to the present, of people celebrating this festival. Saint Bríd is a very thinly Christianized form of the older goddess Bríd and the saint retains many of the attributes of the older goddess.

So I wish you all a Merry Imbolc and a Happy Saint Bríd's Day.  Light a candle tonight after sundown, and have a glass of drink and salute the growing daylight and wish the best to your family and loved ones.     


© Barry R McCain 

Finding the McCains

THERE are more worlds than one

 

THERE are more worlds than one, and in many ways

 they are unlike each other. But joy and sorrow, or, in

 other words, good and evil, are not absent in their

 degree from any of the worlds, for wherever there is

 life there is action, and action is but the expression of

 one or other of these qualities.

      After this Earth there is the world of the Shí.

 Beyond it again lies the Many-Coloured Land. Next

 comes the Land of Wonder, and after that the Land of

 Promise awaits us. You will cross clay to get into the

 Shí; you will cross water to attain the Many-Coloured

 Land; fire must be passed ere the Land of Wonder is

 attained, but we do not know what will be crossed for

 the fourth world.

 

James Stephens, from his story ‘Becuma of the White Skin.'

Barry R McCain

Sarah Pearl McCain née Tweedy

 Sarah Pearl McCain née Tweedy... born 1883 and passed in 1962. My grandmother, she gave me insight into another world. As I like to put it, she read Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories as they came out. Being with a person that grew up in the 1800s was interesting for me. The language was different, the intonation different, the concepts different. Of course, I just liked it, only many years later did I realise what a special time that was in my life and what a valuable gift she gave me.  

Her house (obviously) had no TV and there was a radio, but it was rarely turned on. She had the Second Sight, as do many in her Tweedy family, both past and present. I learned much from her.

Barry R McCain 

Autumnal Equinox 22 September 2021

 

Sliabh Na Caillí Meath

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. The begins the Fall season in the Northern Hemisphere. The days grow shorter and there is more night than day. In Gaelic it is called Cónacht Fómhair and it is the last quarter day of the year. The shortening evenings will bring us cooler temperatures and we await the darker, colder days of Winter. It is a time for reflection and remembrance of our ancestors. The green leaves turn brown, bronze, yellow, red and russet, and remind us of the great cycle. It is an enjoyable time of the year. 

On Sliabh Na Caillí, in County Meath, the rising sun of today illuminates the central chamber of this very ancient Sí (mound). This ancient burial place is indeed very old, ever older than Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange).  

Sliabh Na Caillí is also the Sí of An Cailleach Bhéara. Sliabh Na Caillí means the 'mountain of the Cailleach.' Cailleach is translated as 'the Hag,' but really means the 'Veiled woman.'  The woman is Béara, one of the Sí and is a mysterious Bean Sí (Faerie woman, or literally 'woman of the mound').  I had an interesting encounter with her one day on her mountain, the details of which I put in the last chapter of my book 'Finding the McCains.'  The photo at the top is my son Donovan on top of Sliabh na Caillí. 

Barry R McCain on Sliabh na Caillí

The Autumnal Equinox is a splendid day, a day to light a fire, pour a libation or three, and reflect upon the season change and to remember one's ancestors.  Here in the wooded hills of north Mississippi the weather is perfect, cool with bright sunshine. There will be a fire in the firepit tonight for sure. I encourage everyone to mark and enjoy this special day. Turn off your TVs, go outside and enjoy the Autumnal Equinox.

© Barry R McCain  

Imbolc and Saint Bríd's Day

 

Cros Bríde (Bríde's Cross) made of rushes

 

Today is Imbolc one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals. Imbolc is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The festival is associated with the goddess Bríd, who is one of Tuatha Dé. Bríd was the protectress of hearth and home, and of barns and livestock. She was invoked to bless the agrarian and pastoral production in the coming year.  Imbolc has been celebrated from ancient times to the present.  

In Christian times, Bríd was made into a Saint and there are many traditions and customs associated with Saint Bríd in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.  Imbolc is called Lá Fhéile Bríde also, i.e. the festival of Bríd.   

How to celebrate in the these modern times: Light a candle, a deiseal procession (sunwise or clock wise) three times around the fire and a toast.  This practice is called Saining i.e. a blessing, protection or consecrating. In this case to invoke Bríd... both the Naomh Bríd (saint Bríd) or Bríd, the ancient goddess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2020 Barry R McCain

Donations Welcomed

 

The Future

 To best way to predict the Future, your future, our tribe's future...

is to create it, with your thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Do the work. 

© 2021 Barry R McCain

Finding the McCains

The New Book

 My new book is finished... finally. A few months late, but done now. It will be out in later winter 2021. It is about the Scots-Irish and their beliefs in the Faeries. The book examines who and what the Faeries are and where those beliefs originated. The tale starts some 5,000 years ago and we follow the story from the Yamnaya migration from the Russian Steppe into Europe, to the Bell Beaker settlement of the Isles (Britain and Ireland), onto the proto Celts, and then the insular Celts. I use ancient DNA results, Gaelic literature and the living folk traditions of Ireland and Scotland to follow this long path to the Faeries. This is done however, with a specific focus on the Scots-Irish. 

The Scots-Irish were an integral part of the indigenous American society created by the early European settlers and it is for this reason I felt like a Scots-Irish perspective was useful.

Placing a Clootie on a Faerie Tree

Topics include the Scots-Irish Faerie beliefs, both in Ireland and the New World. Foremost, are the Faeries of course, better known as the Síthe (said Shee). I also will explore the Second Sight and traditional ritual magic and the elements of the Faerie Faith that still endure.

Chapters include:

1 McCuaig's Bar

2 Scots-Irish Ethnogenesis

3 Reverend Robert Kirk

4 Faeries in Ulster

5 The High Síthe

6 The Lesser Síthe

7 Across the Water

8 Seers and the Second Sight

9 Magic and Ritual

10 Old Faith Survival

 

Until the new book is out, my last book Finding the McCains is available on Amazon and makes a wonderful Christmas and Yule gift.

 

© Barry R McCain 2020 

 

 

Valentine's Day... Lupercalia

 

Lupercalia

From February 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated Lupercalia.  This festival honours Lupercus, a god of shepherds, their flocks, and fertility.  The priests of the festival were called the Luperci.  The Luperci were the masters of the festival's rituals. They sacrificed male goats and a dog.  The Luperci dressed in goat skins and used strips of goat hide from those sacrificed to strike, or mark, young women. This was done in a gentle manner and not painfully. Often young women would seek out the Luperci and hold their palms out to be struck. 

It was a joyous occasion, the air festive. The purpose of the ritual was to encourage fertility in women, to encourage lactation in new, or soon to be mothers, and importantly, to encourage matchmaking between couples. Childless women especially would seek out the Luperci to be marked and encourage pregnancy.  As noted, it was a festive time, and like the Valentine's Day of our time, things sometimes became too merry. The Emperor Augustus forbade men that were deemed too young from participating. They tended to drink too much and become overly enthusiastic with their reveling. Foods were given out, libations taken, and the colour and flavour of the festival was much like our modern celebration of Valentine's Day, but without the crass materialism of post modern consumerism.
 

Icon of Valentine

Like many of our ancient traditions, this old pagan festival was synchronized into Christian beliefs and Lupercalia evolved into Valentine's Day. There are several legends about a man called Valentine. The most common one is there was an early Christian named Valentine. He was executed on 14 February, in the 3rd century. Valentine was imprisoned in Rome for helping Christians and was known to have secretly married Christian couples in love. The lore states that while Valentine was a prisoner he tried to convert the Emperor Claudius to the new faith. Claudius was not impressed and had the poor Valentine beheaded.

Valentine became a saint and was the patron of lovers. In the late 5th century Pope Gelasius I banned the festival of Lupercalia and declared 14 February the feast day of Saint Valentine. Christians began to celebrate Valentine's Day... but the people continued to embrace all the customs and nuances of the old pagan Lupercalia. The colours red and white were used in Lupercalia, red for the ritual blood and white for milk to represent fertility. The memory and veneration of Valentine continued, but so did also the earlier traditions from Lupercalia. 

The god Cupid

Over the centuries, Valentine's Day picked up yet one more pagan relic from the past, in Cupid, another old god. Even before the Romans adopted Cupid as a god representing passion and love, he was already know in the Hellenic world as Eros, i.e the god of love. Cupid was an easy fit into the Valentine's Day complex.  He was armed with a bow and arrows - golden arrows to arouse desire and passion and leaden arrows to cause aversion. Cupid struck at the hearts of both gods and mortals to influence their emotions and passions. 

Victorian Valentine's Day Card with Cupid

Lupercalia was an old festival even in ancient Rome. It shares similarities to the old Celtic Imbolc which takes place on 1 February.  The festival and rituals ultimately go back to our distant past and shared Indo-European religious spiritual beliefs.


So there you have it on this Valentine's Day - I give you Lupercus, Cupid, and ole Valentine, we should celebrate them all on this day.  Do enjoy your Valentine's Day.    

Imbolc And Saint Bríd's Day

A Bríd's Cross

Today, at sunset, marks the beginning of the festival of Imbolc. This a Gaelic festival to honour the beginning of Spring and falls between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The festival is general to Celtic areas, but is perhaps most celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man - which are the Gaelic homelands. It is indeed an ancient celebration and is mentioned in the earliest Gaelic literature, and it was old even at that time. 

In Christian times Imbolc was conflated with the veneration of Saint Bríd. Bríd is also a goddess, a prominent member of the Tuatha Dé, and it is no accident that the Church synchronized Imbolc to Lá Fhéile Bríde (Saint Brid's Day). It was a way to allow the people to continue their ancient custom, but place it into the Judeo-Christian cosmology.

The etymology of Imbolc has several theories, but given its ancient origins, it is most likely from an early proto Celtic word 'embibolgon' which means 'budding.'  And, this is when the first buds on early blooming plants start to show the signs of the growing sunlight at this latitude.

Saint Bríd

There are several customs still observed on Imbolc - visits to Holy Wells, where one walks sunwise, known as Deiseil in Gaelic, around the Holy Well and leaves a Clootie on the Faerie Tree (or bush). A Clootie is a piece of cloth tied to a Faerie Tree. The Clootie is to invoke blessings on home, family, clan, and livestock and fields. The practiced is still done to this day. One will also light a fire, candles or a bonfire, and celebrate with a feast and libations. This was also a time when divination is done. 

In Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, there are numerous accounts throughout the centuries to the present, of people celebrating this festival. Saint Bríd is a very thinly Christianized form of the older goddess Bríd and the saint retains many of the attributes of the older goddess.

So I wish you all a Merry Imbolc and a Happy Saint Bríd's Day.  Light a candle tonight after sundown, and have a glass of drink and salute the growing daylight and wish the best to your family and loved ones.     


© Barry R McCain 

Finding the McCains

Faerie Lore Among the Scots-Irish

A Jackro aka a Brownie drawn from eyewitness encounter

There was a large migration of people from the north of Ireland to the English Colonies in the 18th Century. This event is called the Ulster Migration. This migration began in early Colonial times, from1690 onward, and grew into a large exodus by 1718. Many of these immigrant were Irish Protestants, with the majority of them being Scots-Irish. 

They came in great numbers and the migration had organization to it.  Often whole families, extended families, even villages, participated. One family would settle, and cousins, uncles and aunts, etc., would follow a few years later. The pattern continue from 1718 into the late 1770s. It was quite a remarkable phenomenon. These people brought with them their values, their folk beliefs, from Ulster to the New World. One aspect of these beliefs was their Faerie Faith. 

Some of the Faeries from Ireland followed these people to the Colonies. From the early 1700s into the early 1900s belief in Faeries endured. It was in the Southern Uplands and Backsettlements that these beliefs survived the longest and there are still a few people in these areas that see things and believe. 

Among the Scots-Irish, one type of Faerie was called a Jackro. They were also called a Brownie. This type of Faerie was well known in Ireland. There it had several names, in Gaelic it was often called a Gruagach (said grew o gach) or a Fear Dearg (Gaelic for a Red Man, so called because of their red hats). Brownie was a Scots-Irish term from the Lallans language (a dialect of northern English spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland, and Ulster). 

The Jackro and Brownie were simple Faerie folk. They were generally tutelary beings. These lived in or near settlements, in the attics, barns, and out-buildings, of some family they attached themselves to. There were also solitary Faeries. These lived in the lonely places; in the mountains, ridges, and hills, or in the deep woods, or near waterfalls.  

Sarah Pearl McCain née Tweedy circa 1900

My grandmother, Sarah Pearl McCain née Tweedy, was born in 1883. She passed away in 1962 when I was only twelve years old. I was fortunately to be able to spent a lot of time with her in my youth. She  She told me about the Jackros. From that time on I was fascinated by the topic.  My grandmother had the Second-Sight, an inherited trait that runs in her Tweedy family. Her family were typical Scots-Irish; to Ireland in the early 1600s, then on to the Colonies circa 1700. They eventually settled in southern Illinois circa 1805. This area is called the Illinois Ozarks. The geography there is a series of hills and ridges and the region was heavily settled by the Scots-Irish at an early date. Just across the Mississippi from southern Illinois are the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. Many of her Tweedy family moved west and were some of the first families to settle the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains. These Scots-Irish brought their folkways with them.

The Ouachita Mountain in Arkansas

As Faeries go, the Jackro, or Brownie is you prefer, was your typical type of Faerie known in Ireland and Scotland. They were hard to see, and often one would just catch a glimpse of the being going around a corner, or through a door way. Their size was small, about three feet tall. They were often dressed in brown or grey, but some were known to sport red caps. In older and more civilized times, some families would reserve a place by the fire for the Jackro; a small home made stool. Libations of milk, or something stronger was also set out. The solitary Jackros shunned men however, and chose to live the solitary life in the wild places.  They were thought of as dangerous.

The belief in Faeries has almost died out here, though not quite, and there is some revival of interest in them. An interesting sidebar, the belief in races of Faeries was also strong among some American Indians, particularly the Cherokee and Shoshone tribes. Their lore is remarkably like that of the Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish. 

I am collecting oral history on the Faerie Faith in America right now.  If anyone has a story, part of your family history, of encounters, do send me a note through my blog McCain's Corner.  I would love to hear it.  


 Link:  Finding the McCains 

© Barry R McCain 2019  

The Luchramán, or Leprechaun

Illustration from 1900 of a Luchramán

The Luchramán, which is anglicised as Leprechaun. They are mentioned in an 8th Century manuscript, which is a old reference even at that point in time. They have been around for a very long time it seems.  They are a diminutive Otherworld race, one of the lesser Sí (the Faeries). 

They and several similar beings migrated to the New World during the 1700s, along with the Ulster Migration. They were well known in the Backsettlements and Uplands where Ulster folk settled in large numbers. There are several races of them, but they are known in the aggregate as Jackros.  

They are most numerous in the Southern Uplands in Appalachia; perhaps best know in the mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. There are small groups of them in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and Arkansas, and the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas. However, there are sporadic accounts of them throughout the United States and Canada. 

Jackros are similar to the French Lutins. Lutins are another diminutive race of the Otherworld and they also migrated to the New World. They are found in those areas of large French settlements, such as Quebec, Newfoundland, parts of the northern USA, and even in south Louisiana. A Lutin is also called a Nain Rouge, i.e. a Red Dwarf.

a Lutin

The Jackros were well known and often seen from the 1700s well into the early 20th century, but of late, there has been very few sightings of them. On a personal note, I do know a few people that have seen one, on several occasions. I will write about this in more detail in a future post.

Link:  Finding the McCains

© Barry R McCain 2019

     

May Day-Lá Bealtainne

Well it is May Day... I remember well the May Pole ritual which was still around when I was a child.  And what is May Day? It is a very old celestial festival long celebrated in Europle. In Gaelic Celtic lands it is called Lá Bealtainne.  This is on 1 May, circa halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. 

May Day is still widely observed by the better sort of person and is particularly popular in Celtic areas. The festival ritual was, and still is, observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and throughout the Gaelic Diaspora. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lunasa.

On our earth, Lá Bealtainne is a transition between the seasons. In ancient times this was when cattle and other livestock were driven to the summer pastures. The old gods were evoked for blessings of fertility and growth for the new growing season. There are many rituals associated with Lá Bealtainne that date from ancient times and some have survived to this day. 

Foremost are the bonfires. In Old Times folk walked around the bonfires as part of a protective ritual. This is done in a Deisealach (towards the right, i.e. clockwise) fashion. People would jump over smaller bonfires also, which is still a common practice.

 Yellow flowers were, and still are, used as decorations on windows, barns, and on the folk and livestock themselves.  The yellow colour is a celebration of the coming summer, the warmth and fertility of the summer sun.  Holy Wells are visited with votives left in the well or on the Faery Tree. 

Lá Bealtainne was similar to Oíche Shamhna (Holloween) in that this was also a time when the Aos Sí moved about and the veil between the Otherworld and our world dropped.  An Dagda presided over Lá Bealtainne, as he does at Oíche Shamhna and the Aos Sí were about at this time. 

Dagda

So, Remember your ancestors on the Day, and if you can, do light the bonfire and celebrate tonight... If this is not possible, not to worry, just light a candle. It is the fire ritual itself that is important, even a wee fire will do. And, a libation for you and your loved ones and one for the Old Ones as well.  Enjoy your May Day.