Irish New Year Traditions

In old Ireland, the turn of the year was a quieter feast than Christmas, but it had customs all its own: bread knocked against the door to drive out hunger, the back door opened to let the old year go, a careful eye on who came in first. Most of them were about one thing, making sure the house would not go short in the year ahead. Here is what families did on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, what we know of where it comes from, and how Irish families abroad can keep a little of it.

A small feast with big hopes

The folklorist Kevin Danaher, in The Year in Ireland, observed that New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day never seem to have been major festivals in Ireland, as the writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne recalled in The Irish Times. Yet the night between the years carried a weight of its own. In Irish it is Oíche Chinn Bhliana, New Year’s Eve, and the next day is Lá Caille, New Year’s Day.

There is even a name that moves around the map. The Royal Irish Academy notes that Nollaig Bheag, “Little Christmas”, now means New Year in the north and west of Ireland, while in the south it still means 6 January.

Bread against the door: keeping hunger out

When: At midnight on New Year’s Eve, or on the evening itself.

What people did: The woman or man of the house took a loaf or a cake of bread and struck it hard against the door, often three times, while saying a short prayer or rhyme to keep hunger out of the house for the coming year. In Cork, Shane Lehane writes, a cake baked in the bastible pot was banged against the back of the door; in parts of Cork and Kerry, a cake was thrown to the east and another to the west. Some families rubbed the bread on the door along with a piece of coal and a coin, to keep cold, want and hunger away. In Cork city, children threw slices of bread at the neighbours’ doors, mostly for the fun of it.

A reader of The Echo remembered his mother striking the front door with a loaf and asking God to keep hunger from the house until the same night a year later. The paper’s columnist Jo Kerrigan adds that some version of the custom was kept all over Cork, at a time when memories of hunger were still fresh.

Where it comes from: Nobody can date it exactly. The meaning families gave it is plain enough: bread stands for plenty, and the door is the way into the house. Lehane sets it beside related bread customs, such as the first loaf made from the new season’s meal being struck against the door in County Wexford. Some people connect it with the Famine, and, as Kerrigan suggests, the memory of hunger gave the words their force; but the custom may be older, and we haven’t found a record that settles it.

The Night of the Big Portions

New Year’s Eve was also a night to eat well. Lehane records its Irish name, Oíche na Coda Móire, “the Night of the Big Portions”: a full table that night was meant to promise a full table all year. In Kilkenny, he notes, it was known as “the Night of the Big Enough”.

Opening the doors at midnight

When: As the clock strikes twelve.

What people did: In many houses the back door was opened first, to let the old year out, then the front door, to let the new year in. Holy water was shaken over the house and the family, and many households said the rosary on New Year’s Eve, according to Lehane.

Where it comes from: We haven’t found an account of how it began. It sits naturally beside the bread on the door, since both treat the threshold as the place where the year comes in.

The first visitor of the year

What people did: As in Scotland, the first person over the threshold after midnight was thought to bring the luck of the year. In Cork, Lehane writes, it had to be a man, and the darker his hair the better; red-haired daughters were told to stay in bed. Young boys were sent round to neighbours’ houses to be the first in, and were rewarded with a slice of fruit cake. A man who came in first might be given a glass of whiskey.

Where it comes from: The belief is shared with Scotland and the north of England, where the visitor is called the first-foot. Our guide to the Hogmanay first-foot explains the Scottish side of the story, and why its origins are less ancient than they look.

Giving nothing away on New Year’s Day

What people did: New Year’s Day was a day for keeping, not giving. Éilís Ní Dhuibhne recalls that some people would give nothing away on that day for fear of giving their luck away with it, and she quotes a Cavan man, recorded in 1941, who said nothing could be carried out of the house on New Year’s Eve and no money spent. Lehane records the same fear in Cork: whatever you gave away on New Year’s Day, you would go short of all year.

Reading the signs: The first day was also watched for omens. In one account Ní Dhuibhne cites, a high river on New Year’s Day meant that things would be dear in the coming year, and a low one meant they would be cheap.

The bells of Christ Church

When: Midnight on New Year’s Eve, in Dublin.

What people do: Crowds gather outside Christ Church Cathedral to hear its bells ring in the New Year. The Irish Times reported that the cathedral has long been a focal point for Dubliners at midnight, and that its dean did not know how far back the tradition goes.

Keeping the tradition far from home

Most of these customs need nothing more than a loaf and a door, so they travel easily.

• Knock the bread on the door. At midnight, let the children take a loaf (a proper one, not sliced pan, as one Cork mother insisted) and give the door three good knocks for a year without hunger.
• Open the back door, then the front. Let the old year out and the new one in, even if it means a blast of cold air in Boston or Toronto.
• Pick your first visitor. A dark-haired friend with a slice of cake in hand makes a cheerful start, wherever you live.
• Keep the season going to 6 January. Little Christmas and Women’s Christmas close the holidays in Ireland. Our page on Women’s Christmas tells that story, and our guide to Irish Christmas customs covers the days before.

Happy New Year in Irish

The New Year greeting in Irish is Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit to one person, or Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh to more than one. Our guide to the Irish New Year greeting, word by word explains the words, the second form you’ll see, and how to combine it with the Christmas greeting in a card. We don’t write out pronunciations: someone who speaks Irish will say it better than any spelling.

Cards for the turn of the year

Our New Year cards open on a snowy village at midnight: the clock tower lit, a fox in the snow, and fireworks climbing far off over the hills. You can pick the day the card arrives, so it reaches home on New Year’s Eve or on Lá Caille itself, with your own words underneath. For a scene of Ireland, the cards from Ireland include a little harbour at night, with painted houses along the quay.