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YOU MAY NOTICE plumes of smoke across the horizon tonight, but don’t panic.
It’s more than likely people celebrating bonfire night, also known as St John’s Eve.
St John’s Day is celebrated annually on 24 June – marking the birth of John the Baptist.
The night before is linked to the summer solstice and sometimes referred to as midsummer’s eve, but is known as ‘bonfire night’ in many parts of Ireland.
Fires were originally lit as part of a Celtic celebration to honour the goddess Áine, who was associated with the sun, fertility, and protecting crops and animals.
However, as with many pagan festivals, the Catholic Church took over the event and linked it to the birth of St John.
It’s completely separate to Guy Fawkes Nights in the UK, which takes place on 5 November.
Fires became symbolic with commemorating St John as he had baptised Jesus and in doing so, according to the church, brought the world out of darkness.
Rural areas
Bonfire night is much more commonly celebrated outside the capital, where its symbolic element has been somewhat reduced and it’s now seen as a celebration of summer, or a way to get rid of excess rubbish.
A spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade said there’s no increase in fires in the Dublin area at this time of year.
“I’m 27 years in the fire brigade and I’ve never heard of it … Halloween is our bonfire night,” he told TheJournal.ie.
It’s a different story in Cork, however, with the city’s fire brigade taking to social media to warn people about the dangers of illegal fires.
They also reminded householders and businesses to not leave material lying around that could be used for bonfires.
Are you planning on celebrating bonfire night, or have you never even heard of it? Let us know in the comments.
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Its still around up here in Donegal. A wee tradition is to wrap spuds in tinfoil, put them in a biscuit tin, and put them straight in the fire. When they come out later the skin is black but once you peel that off to inside the spud…jaypurs get the butter out!
I never heard of John’s Day until I met up with some folks from Latvia, another excuse to party or bbq if the weather is good.
A great tradition. Some of my fondest memories from growing up in Mayo are of bonfire’s night. I remember the whole community used to come together. It seemed to be lead by the kids – though in hindsight I can see it was the adults who put it all together.
Come tomorrow there will be nothing but scorched grass, burnt wood and the springs of all those old mattresses
never heard of it until this article!!! my Tallaght brethren don’t stoop to such bizarre bumpkin bafoonery
I grew up in Co Clare and we always had bonfire night on May eve, April 30th.
your brethren are too junked out of their heads to strike a match!!!
oh contraire @John. Zippos all round out here… often ‘borrowed’ from our other southside brethren down at D2 and D4!
mange tous!tallaght two,mange tous!!
Bloody boggers!
boullabaise Mon ami
Bloody towny out of touch with his roots :p
I have been in Spain, for St Johns eve, and it’s a real festival.Everyone celabrates with barbaques on the beach, then holds hands with whoever is near then, and stand on the shoreline,that happens around midnight, Wish I was there, tonight.
It’s celebrated in parts of Portugal as well, Porto being the biggest festival, where people jump the fire. I’d never heard of it here – is it more of a Munster event?
I’m in Riga at the moment and there’s a great party going in with folk singing ,dancing ,bonfires and everyone wearing wreaths on their heads.
crafty Christians building their churches on pagan sites and having their holidays on pagan ones…wonder why that was?
It is called colonisation and complete erasure of local culture, to be replaced with the new imposed culture.
What do u think St Patrick did when he got rid of all the snakes …he was like a modern day Henry Kissinger
Known as “Bonna night” in Cork.. But it is slowly dying out..
Good
Dingle that’s because of the muppets in City Council insisting that they are a health and safety concern…don’t how we ever made it through the 70′s and 80′s without all being burnt to a crisp.
Never heard it being referred to as ‘Bonna’ night until a few days ago and I’m from Cork :D Gas.
It is also celebrated in parts of Spain and Scandinavia.
That must be some bonfire if you can see it from Spain and Sweden
In Denmark it’s celebrated as Sankt Hans evening and is traced back to the good old days (Viking times) – nowadays an effigy is put on top of the bonfires symbolising a witch sending her on the way to Bloksbjerg. Drink, food and songs all night long…
Oh ye they go mad with all the fireworks and bonfires here in Catalonia and tomorrow is a day off
It’s still big in Co. Mayo and is used by many to burn rubbish.
May as well as per usual, there won’t be any call to ‘keep her lit’ come late September!!!
Had some great bonna nights when I was growing up and used to be a great gathering of communities. We had a supplier of telegraph poles and tyres so the bonna’s were epic. Sad to see it dying out over the years.
There was me thinking it was people burning water bills
Not fond nor never have been fond of Catholicism.. Ahh love our celtic pagan roots tho and will be raising a glass to Our celtic goddess Aine and celebrating summer time..
We have moved on to the post Christian Era and into the age of Aquarius. Out of the dark ages and into the Age of Enlightenment. Hopefully.
You’re correct, Mr. Haire, there’s even a song about it, Age of Aquarius, from a well known play, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Do you know the name of the play?
“Hair”
It seems as though neither of us have gotten his attention, Mr. Kavanagh.
Never heard of it until I moved to Galway for a while in early nineties. Standing on a hill outside Athenry, was impressed to see loads of bonfires flickering away in the distance. A relative would always insist on bringing out a small bucket of turf and set fire to it outside his house to mark the night.
so legal bonfires are not dangerous??
Yes, the same way legal drugs are not dangerous for you.
No but the Catholic Church is completely original.
it’s a big festival in Spain where they have bonfires and entertainment on the beeches
The poor trees
Bunch of idiots. Why do we hate our planet so much?
Because it’s so full of aging hippy eco-nazis with BO and bikes!!
Bonfire BBQ and the midges what more could a gal ask for on a sunny Tuesday evening.
We have always celebrated it in Galway and plan on having a bonfire tonight :)
Midsummer was on Sunday though. So it’s a bit late and wrong and pointless.
no it wasn’t. tomorrow is the longest day of the year and today is it’s eve.
No, midsummer was on Sunday at 16:38. Look it up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer take a gander at this.
Maguire and Patterson
Brace yourselves cork city Fire Brigade for a busy night !!
It was widely celebrated in Kerry in years past. St. John’s Eve was the night for rejoicing in mid Summer. Not as common here in Waterford but some people have heard of it. However in Kerry it was bonfire night while in Waterford that title is reserved for Hallowe’en. We will have a small bonfire tonight to mark the passing of the longest day and hopefully 2 months of fine weather for the Summer Holidays from school. Saint John has little or nothing to do with it but the older celebrations have a way of outliving the temporary fashions and religions of the day. This year the longest day and solstice was on the 21st. But it can fall anywhere from the 20th to sometime on the 22nd on different years. People did not always have exact measurements like we have now but the bonfire was to celebrate the passing of the solstice and the period of ripening into the Autumn Harvest. Calling for a blessing from the weather Gods if you like. Let us hope they favour us with lots of sun this year.
And when they’ve run out of stuff for the bonfire they start burning cars, derelict houses and anything else that’s nearby. This is an awful night for fire crews and people living in certain areas in Cork city. The 999 lines are clogged from early evening until the small hours of the morning. Don’t give me that tripe about tradition its an excuse for people to burn the rubbish from their houses and sheds that they were too lazy to dispose of correctly.
In the countryside it’s a tradition… and we full well knew the background to it growing up :)
We do it on the 21st where I live.
Thank god we never bother with any of that silly carry on up here
If it’s a Celtic festival the church stoke why do non Celtic countries celebrate it. I’m calling BS there
Well there will be plenty of Celtic top wearing, white socks our over ankle wearing yops in estates burning something anyway.
Because there are no Celtic countries David. The Celtic myth was made up in the late eighteen hundreds by Hyde White and others to create an identity separate from Britishness for us to identify with. Similar to the Old Testament for the Hebrews for example. The Gaels however are originally from an Atlantic seafaring number of tribes who traded down the west coast of Europe and into the Mediterranean. But the history books have been written and the myth endures. But there never was a Celtic race that got pushed to the margins of Europe by the Saxons. It’s all just another fairy tale, like the Bible.
Well done on answering the question I didn’t ask. The whole church stole the idea is the real myth. When the ancients celebrated major occasions they often did so with fire ceremonies so it was natural they continued to do so when they chose Christianity. After all in the era all churches were run locally as Rome was some distance away.
Cén cineál seafóid é sin? Ar chum tú é i do chloigeann féin? Tá teangacha ceiliteacha ann a bhfuil a gnéithe suntasacha féin acu atá difriúl ó aon ghrúpa eile.
We are not allowed to burn stuff 364 days a year, so we save it all up and burn it all the night it is legal to do so.
They are stacking and stoking the fires in west Denmark as we speak – preparing to burn ‘witches’ and engage in a a little mild Scandinavian jingoism. In my youth in Munster we drove the cattle through the embers of the fires for good luck .. . for the cattle. We now jab them with syringes as they pass through the cattle crush . .. same thing, different technology. .
Fires are being stacked and stoked in west Denmark as I write and the locals prepare to burn witches and engage in a little mild Scandinavian jingoism tonight. In my youth in Munster we drove cattle through the embers of the fires for good luck – for the cattle. Today we just jab them with a syringe as they pass through the cattle crush – same thing, different technology . ..
Fires are being stacked and stoked in west Denmark as I write and the locals prepare to burn witches and engage in a little mild Scandinavian jingoism tonight.
In my youth in Munster we drove cattle through the embers of the fires for good luck – for the cattle. Today we just jab them with a syringe as they pass through the cattle crush – same thing, different technology . ..
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