The Irish standard., 1914-12-26
CHRISTMAS IN ireland
Mrs Mary f. McWhorter National Chairman Irish History
Committee of Ladies Auxiliary AO.H Writes of Beauti
full Traditions of Irish Christmas Festival.

kitchens and kitchens, some attractive
and some otherwise, but nowhere will
you find kitchen as attractive as In
an old-fashioned country house in Ire
land, with its large fireplace the entire
width Of the room. and the great yawn-
ing chimney. Such a kitchen is at
tractive at all times, but a million
times more so when it is prepared for
the celebration of the Feast of Christ
mas. 1t had a great, large dresser on
one side, in which reposed the china
ware, rows upon rows of plates stand
ing on the shelves tilted forward
against a bar, one row of platters, the
duplicates of which have seen for
sale in antique shops in America
and sold for 5000. The top shelf con-
tanned a row of pewter platters. Some
how the possession of these pewter
dishes settled you for all time in the
social scale. You could never be class
ed as an outsider if you had the pewter
dishes. How many remember the
lines of the old jingle, some of which
ran:
"Heigh! for knives and forks; Heigh!
for pewter dishes;
"Heigh! for that young man that has
my heart in wishes"
On the other side of the kitchen was
the hanging dresser, or, as it was call
ed sometimes, the "clevy." This con-
tanned the tinware that was always
kept shining by the aid of "brickbat."
How often have we watched the dear
mother cleaning this tinware, and
when she got 1t shining so that you
could see yourself in it, she would
draw such elegant pictures on it with
her thumb. To our childish minds
there were never such grand pictures
made. and we endowed the dear moth
er with wonderful gifts. Two great
big tables. one set against the wall and
the other placed on top of 1t, SO that
the legs turned toward the wall and
the broad leaf turned outward, were
other Irish kitchen characteristics. In
our young days we liked nothing bet
ter at times than to get up behind that
table and play we were Mariana
In the moated grange" or some other
mysterious character, such as the
"damsel both fair and handsome"
whose cruel father shut her up in q
dungeon with nothing to eat but
bread and water" and, Of course,
three times day he did cruelty beat
her." etc. The leaves of those tables
were secured to a snowy whiteness
with sand procured from the nearby
river, and never did finest damask look
whittier. 1t may have been matter Of
six months previous that likely look
ing tree was marked, the lower part
of the trunk of which would make a
fine christmas block" or 'Yule log"
In the afternoon of Christmas eve this
Christmas block was rolled into the
kitchen, placed back of the fireplace,
up against the hob" then the big
Christmas fire of turf was built around
it and by the time nightfall came that
fire was blazing. No need for electric
lights where that fire was,
Early that morning we youngsters
were sent off to the glen to procure the
holly and ivy necessary to decorate the
dresser, hanging dresser, and even fes-
toons were hung from the rafters and
the crossbeams. How we did love 60
ing after the holly and ivy and what
happy little children we were coming
home laden with the spoils of the glen,
singing, Holly and Ivy went to the
wood, Holly brought Ivy as far as he
could" We may have received a few
ugly scratches from the briers in our
search, but the dear mother made all
that right by kissing the wounds and
saying, "Wisha, ashore, and did you
hurt yourself?" Wouldn't those words,
spoken in the tone that only Irish
mothers knew how to use, cure any
Ill, no matter how great?
Early that morning we had the ex-
treme satisfaction of watching the
dear mother concoct that toothsome
article known as the christmas cake"
Tin Knockisha it was called something
that spells like "baureen'). Our re-
ward for being good would be that we
got our little hands, held together in
the shape of cup, filled with rafsins,
and would you believe it, that fistful
of raisins was perhaps the only thing
we got in the shape of Christmas
box" or gift, as it is called here.
Now the kitchen, shining like new
pin." is ready for the last great act
of preparation, the lighting Of the
christmas CANDLE" which was trim.
med and ready and placed on the leaf
OF the dresser. We all gathered round
the dear mother, holding our breaths
in awe and reverently making the
Sign Of the Cross. while she lighted