Analysis: While Bealtaine may have had fewer foods associated with it than other festivals, milk, butter and eggs did feature highly
By Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Caitríona Nic Philibín, TU Dublin
On November 30th 1937, a fifth-class student in Co Mayo collected folklore from her 80-year-old relative about "Lá Bealtaine", or May Day. This included customs such as decorating doorways with flowers for good luck; adults washing their faces with the May morning dew; the belief that fire, salt, milk or eggs should not be let out of the house; and that the good people – "na sídheógha" – are stealing young babies from their cradles and leaving changelings in their place.
Folklore is one way that communities transmit important memories, sharing inherited wisdom and beliefs intergenerationally as food permeates every level of society and every aspect of our lives from birth to death. Folklorists who have written about Irish food include Kevin Danaher, Bríd Mahon, Patricia Lysaght, Shane Lehane and Marion McGarry.
Recently published articles on the food traditions associated with the 12 days of Christmas and St. Brigid's Day highlight the rich resource that the Schools’ Collection provides. The most comprehensive overview of food within the various collections of the Irish Folklore Commission is a chapter in Irish Food History: A Companion (Royal Irish Academy; EUt+ Academic Press, 2024) by Jonny Dillon and Ailbe van de Heide.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Countrywide in 2021, folklorist Shane Lenihan on some of folklore behind May Day - and why we should look out for hares on May 1st
So what are some of the food traditions associated with Bealtaine or May Day? Rooted in the agricultural year, Bealtaine is the second of four quarter days of the Irish calendar year, along with Imbolg (St. Brigid's Day), Lughnasa, and Oíche Shamhna (Halloween). These quarter days divide the seasons, guiding the production, storage and consumption of food.
This research reveals the intricate cosmology of our recent ancestors. Folk belief in witches stealing the milk profit illustrates the precariousness of a farming lifestyle, and the fear of a bad harvest. Important since the Iron Age, and featuring in our mythology (Cattle Raid of Cooley) and place names (Drumbo, Clontarf, etc.), cows and dairy still predominate Irish agriculture. So much so that sociologist Corey Lee Wrenn argued that "vegans are the butter witches of the modern day, an untrusted feminine force interfering with the livelihood of 'farmers’".
Fears of crop failure or loss of fortune appear to be prevalent, including the theft of milk profit or butter, principally by women or witches, which could sometimes take the form of a hare; by the various actions of incantations; use of a buarach or spancel; dragging a cloth over the May dew; or taking the first water from wells. Traditions used to avert dangers to cattle and dairy included the use of holy water, tying rowan branches to cows' tails, placing coloured eggshells on May bushes or under the doormat, and other prophylactics such as salt, iron and fire. Cattle, for example, were moved between two bonfires for protection at this time of year.
A transcript from Cloonaghboy, Co. Mayo in the Schools Collection discusses themes such as bad luck, taking neighbours butter luck, May morning dew, fairies, protecting cattle, and superstitions associated with giving fire or salt on May Day. Many transcripts come under the theme of dairy thievery and loss, describing the process of taking away the neighbours’ butter by magical means, or hares taking away the "luck from the butter", and women and fairies stealing milk.
Similar to what was found in relation to St. Brigid’s Day, references to wells are evident in the transcripts. For example, a transcript from Co. Mayo, states that "if a stranger brings water out of a well he will bring the butter out of that village".
Other May Day food beliefs and piseogs included burying eggs in neighbours' crops to treble their own harvest, skimming the water from the neighbours’ spring well, borrowing churns, pulling grass from their neighbours’ field and placing it in their own field, or placing straw ropes in boundary rivers to steal the butter. However, there is also advice about how to protect yourself from piseogs by putting flowers around the byre, or by using a May bush. This leads to the theme of dairy protection, which often meant the use of holy water or Easter water, salt, fire, and iron, juxtaposing pagan and Christian beliefs.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, the lost art of 'booleying' in Ireland
Bealtaine has fewer specific foods associated with it than other quarter days – Imbolg (boxty, poundies, champ, rice pudding, sowans), Lughnasa (fraughans or bilberries, new potatoes, cally or colcannon, geese and fowl), or Samhain (colcannon, barmbrack, apples, nuts). Nevertheless, the milk, butter and eggs traditions form a strong element of Ireland's intangible cultural heritage . Cattle were traditionally moved up the mountains in the tradition known as "booleying" or transhumance at this time of year, which has its own folklore and songs.
Food and Memory (Traces, Trauma, and Tradition) is the theme of the 2024 Dublin Gastronomy Symposium on May 28th and 29th, where food and folklore will be discussed. It will feature the launch of the online EUt+ Academic Press version of Irish Food History: A Companion, edited by Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Dorothy Cashman.
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Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is a senior lecturer in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. He is the co-founder and chair of the biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium. Caitríona Nic Philibín is a PhD student at the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. She is an Irish Research Council awardee.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
