Latha Fhèill Brìghde – St Bride’s Day

As muime Dhè or the fostermother of Christ, St Bride or Bridget was and is a firm favourite saint of Gaels in both Ireland and Scotland. Her feast, 1 February, one of the quarter-days in the Gaelic calendar, is a celebration of the first day of spring. In CW7 there is a note concerning a custom on St Bride’s day, Latha Fhèill Brìghde:

On La-Fheil-Bride a person is sent

was sent [sic] to the strand to bring home a partan [crab].

The partan was placed on the middle of the

house. If the partan went towards the

upper end of the house, it indicated the family

remained on the laraich [site], but if the partan

went toward the door it indicated that they were

to leave!

Those under St Bride’s protection included midwives, newborn babies, cattle, poultry and infants, and she was regularly called upon when women were in labour:

          Bhride! Bhride! Thig a steach,

                Tha do bheatha deanta,

Thabhair cabhair dha na bhean,

’S tabh an fein dh’an Triana.

The dandelion or beàrnan-Brìde was used as a cure for a wide range of ailments, in particular for stomach problems. The root was traditionally boiled but occasionally the leaves could be eaten. A cure for blood-flux is noted in CW87:

The Bearnan-Brìde = [later: Dandelion] in a lump

of butter is given to cattle and sheep ill with blood-flux.

In Carmina Gadelica i Alexander Carmichael offers further notes on Bride:

The dandelion is called ‘bearnan Bride,’ the little notched of Bride, in allusion to the serrated edge of the petal. The linnet is called ‘bigein Bride,’ little bird of Bride. In Lismore the oyster-catcher is called ‘gille Bride,’ page of Bride:-

‘Gille Bride bochd,                                              

Gu de bhigil a th’ort?’                        

In Uist the oyster-catcher is called ‘Bridein,’ bird of Bride.

 

The best-known custom in Ireland associated with St Bride, or St Brigid as she is known, is the making of the cros Bríde or Brigid’s cross to protect the house from evil. This tradition, however, does not seem to have been known in Scotland.

 

References:
CW7/29 (fos.31^v–32^r).

CW87/60 (fo.35)
Carmina Gadelica, i, 167, 171.

Beith, Mary, Healing Threads: Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1995), 213–14.

Image:

John Duncan, Saint Bride (1913): Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Latha Fhèill Brìghde – St Bride’s Day

One of the four great quarter-days in the Gaelic calendar is Latha Fhèill Brìghde, or St Bride’s/Brigid’s Day, celebrated on the very first day of February. Alexander Carmichael recorded in a transcription notebook the following anecdote concerning Mrs Major MacLeod, Anne MacLeod (1754–1834), wife of Major MacLeod of Stein, and a daughter of the Highland heroine, Flora MacDonald:

Mrs Major MacLeod a daughter of the celebrated
Flora MacDonald was on a visit to Mr Tolmie
Uiginnish Skye. One day while at breakfast
some person remarked that the day
was La[tha]-fheil[l]-Bri[gh]de St Brigit’s day. On hear-
ing which Mrs Major MacLeod started up
got a stocking put some thing in it pro-
bably a piece of peat and proceeded
to pound it down with a mallet saying as
she did so – La-[tha]-fheil[l]-Bri[gh]de thig ni[gh]ean I[o]mh[a]ir as an toll
Cha bhoin mise do ni[gh]ean I[o]mh[a]ir
’S cha bhoin ni[gh]ean I[o]mh[a]ir rium.”
There is a belief among the old Highlanders that
if the serpent under the name of nighean I[o]mh[a]ir
is pounded in effigy on La[tha] fheil[l] Bri[gh]de the day
on which it is believed it emerges from
its winter retreat it cannot sting that person
during the whole year again.

Elsewhere in Carmina Gadelica, Carmichael has a long entry headed ‘Sloinntearachd Bhride’ (Genealogy of Bride) where he expands upon the subject matter in some detail, an extract from which throws some light upon the above anecdote:

The serpent is supposed to emerge from its hollow among the hills on St Bride’s Day, and a propitiatory hymn was sung to it. Only one verse of this hymn has been obtained, apparently the first. It differs in different localities:–

‘Moch maduinn Bhride,

Thig an nimhir as an toll,

Cha bhoin mise ris an nimhir,

Cha bhoin an nimbhir rium’


Early on Bride’s morn
The serpent shall come from the hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
Nor will the serpent molest me.

Carmichael then offers three different versions of the hymn before explaining that the “‘daughter of Ivor’ is the serpent; and it is said that the serpent will not sting a descendant of Ivor, he having made ‘tabhar agus tuis,’ offering and incense, to it, thereby securing immunity from its sting for himself and his seed for ever.”

References:
CW112/48, fos. 119v–120r.
Carmina Gadelica, i, pp. 164–75; iii, pp. 154–63.
Image: Adder or Rìghinn (one of the its many names in Gaelic).