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500 HOLY INNOCENTS' DAY. [DEC 28
decimae, the same. Timbs thinks it referable to the old north-country word disen, i.e., to dress out in holiday finery, especially at this festive season. — Something for Everybody, fl861, p. 154).
Somersetshire.
From time immemorial a muffled peal has been rung on this festival at Leigh-upon-Mendip. At Wells, also, on this day, the bells of the cathedral ring out a muffled peal in commemoration of the martyrdom of the Innocents.—Kalendar of the Church of England, 1866, p. 194.
Worcestershire.
At Norton, near Evesham, it is customary, says a correspondent of N. & Q. (1st S. vol. viii. p. 617), to ring first a muffled peal for the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and then an unmuffled peal of joy for the deliverance of the Infant Christ.
IRELAND.
Holy Innocents' Day is with the Irish " the cross day of the year," which they call in their own tongue " La crosta na bliana," or sometimes " Diar daoin darg," the latter phrase signifying " blood Thursday,'' On this day the Irish housewife will not warp thread, or permit it to be warped; and the Irish say that anything begun on this day must have an unlucky ending. The following legend regarding the day is current in the county of Clare :—
Between the parishes of Quin and Tulla in this county is a lake called Turlough. In the lake is a little island, and among a heap of loose stones in the middle of the island rises a white thorn-bush, which is called " Scagh an Earla " (the earl's bush). A suit of clothes made for a child on the " Cross day," or " Diar daoin darg," was put on the child— the child died. The clothes were put on a second and on a third child—they also died. The parent of the children at length put out the clothes on the " Scagh an Earla," and when the waters fell which for a time covered the bush, the clothes were found to be full of dead eels. Such is the story; find other stories like it are freely told of the consequences |
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