Geraldine McCloatWhat memories are made of!
Bonfire Night (or Bone-fire night, as my Uncle Harry pronounces it) is something that is etched in my memories from a child visiting Ireland in the summer right up to last year as I watched our niece and nephew stand in a field watching the “big big fire” be lit.
When I was a child, we always visited Ireland for a few weeks in the summer. We would usually leave right after summer holidays and return to the States before the 4th July, which meant we were always in Sligo for 23rd June, which is Bonfires Night. The earliest memories, and most precious, of Bonfire night were captured on film by mom, as she had a video camera.
We all gathered down at Uncle Harry’s and we watched from their front garden as the fire was lit in the field. I didn’t know much about where all the material that was burned came from, but I do remember it being the biggest fire I had ever seen. There was no fire-pit or rocks to surround it like you would have seen in America, just a big triangle of fire in the field.
And as you looked out over all the other fields, you could see the billows of smoke rising up from evening time until dark.
My Aunt Marion had the record player outside the front door, my Grandad was holding my brother and dancing around while the girls were Irish dancing. My uncles were in the field trying to find whatever else they could to burn to make sure the fire didn’t go out! And all the kids had minerals, sweets and Taytos. We all watched the fire and had fun until it got dark.
Fast forward a few years, when we were teens, and we wanted to meet up with friends at The Beach Bar or the village of Dromore West, where the bigger fires and the fun was. But my Uncle Harry still had his fire in the field, and we were all still there to watch it, and this time my Aunt Nor and Uncle John (from America) were there with us.
We were all in the field watching the fire and Uncle John, who was a Fireman in Chicago, was keeping an eye on the fire to make sure Harry didn’t let it get too big. Then Harry’s donkey made its way over to where we were. John started to ask Harry about the donkey, and asked him if he would be able to ride on the donkey’s back. And Harry said, “Of course John, no problem”. So Harry held the donkey while John got up on his back…then he whacked him across the arse and the donkey took off down the field with John on his back!!!
With John out of the way, Harry threw a few more bits on the fire and up it rose. I can’t remember how high or big that fire was, but I can still see Uncle John riding off into the sunset on the back of Harry’s ass!
After I moved to Ireland, we still continued the tradition of Bonfire Night. As with everything, a bad night of rain, the talk of the Environmental impact of everyone lighting fires and what they were burning eventually led to this night dwindling a bit.
It was then that I started reading about the tradition of Bonfire’s night and the symbology of it. After all, most things in Ireland were rooted in folklore and traditions, and there had to be a reason why we celebrated Bonfires Night!
The “Bonefire”
In many parts of Ireland, bonfires were lit and, indeed, still are in particular in the West of Ireland. Traditionally, they were called “bonefires” and correctly so, since bones from oxen, sheep or pigs were often used as fuel. According to the authoritative mediaeval manual Festyvall, published in 1515, “in the worship of St. John the people made three manner of fires; one was of clean bones and no wood, and that is called a bone fire; another of clean wood and no bones and that is called a woodfire; and the third is made of wood and bones, and is called St John’s Fire.”
June 23rd, St. John’s Eve
The evening on June 23rd, St. John’s Eve, the eve before the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, which coincided with the June solstice referred to as Midsummer. However, this celebration did not start with the Catholic church, it was actually a pagan festival.
Earliest evidence of Midsummer celebrations date back to the early fourteenth century. Like a lot of pagan traditions, there is a link to Celtic mythology and it is no different with the Midsummer celebration.
It is thought that fires were originally lit to honour the goddess Áine, who is associated with sun, fertility, and protecting crops and animals. This would explain why the celebration aligns with the Summer Solstice, which falls half way through the growing season, and why some of the pagan traditions relate to the crops, marriage and protection.
The fires were communal, and for several days before the celebrations, children would go from house to house asking for donations for the fire. It was bad luck if you didn’t give something. There are many different variations of what happened when the fire was lit, but it was generally lit around sundown and it was tended to until the next day, the Feast Day of St. John.
The beginning of the celebrations began with prayers and rhymes to ensure a plentiful harvest and to protect the crops and animals from disease and troublesome weeds were burned to prevent fields from becoming overgrown. The young men used to walk through the fields with lighted torches and then cast these into the fire. This was supposed to bring a blessing on the fields and protect the crops from harm. Walking sunwise around the fire while praying was considered essential.
The rymes would turn to song, and that is when the merriment would begin.
There was much fun and music. A dance would start and games were played. The young men asked their partners to dance. Songs were sung and stories were told. While the games were being played, young men competed in casting weights or in feats of strength, speed or agility. The whole exercise was very much concerned with wooing.
As the flames and sparks shot up, loud cheers would arise from the crowd, horns were blown and some people beat on tin cans. By now the fire would be well ablaze. It was customary for the young people to compete with each other in leaping over the bonfires to see who could jump the highest over the flames.
The winner, it was believed, would be the first of those present to be married, and moreover, anyone who jumped clear over the bonfire three times was assured of a happy marriage and a lucky life. Often, this was nothing more than a mere flirtation, but onlookers took it for granted that there was some intention of marriage between the pair. Some observers would even go as far as to predicting the outcome of such a union by the way the flames flickered as the couple jumped!
People leapt through the flames for luck in a new venture, or marriage, when trying for a baby, for good health and for self-purification. Farmers leapt high so their crops would grow tall. For those less ambitious or athletic, merely to walk three times around the bonfire was sufficient to keep disease at bay for a full year.
Food including a special dish called “goody” made of white shop bread soaked in milk and flavoured with sugar and spice was made in Iron pots by the side of the fire. Children collected money in advance of the fire which they spent on sweets.
Some people used to take the ashes from the fire then extinct on St. John’s morning to scatter them on their fields. At the close of the festival too about after midnight any man who had built a new house or had nearly completed it took from the bonfire a shovel of red hot sods to his new home so that the very first fire there would be started by the ceremonial bonfire. And it was deemed lucky to bring the ashes home to light the kitchen hearth and to keep the fairies away.
Although we didn’t pray for blessings of harvest, marriage and fertility when we lit our bonfires over the years; we still did the same things. We danced, ate sweets and told stories. We had our family around us, there was no sickness, the husbands and wives came and so did more children. And that was what the people before us always wanted, to prosper.
It is important that we keep these traditions. This is our history and our culture and with all the folklore in it. Although when we light our fire tonight on the mountain, we may see fewer billows of smoke around Dromore West, we will be there together, looking at 3 little ones making the same memories we did when we were children.
And it is for that reason that we need to keep the Bonfire burning!
