New Years’ Day Traditions From 1930s Ireland

[Ladybbird]

New Years’ Day Traditions From 1930s Ireland

Take the advice of these schoolchildren to guarantee yourself some Irish luck in the coming year.

Frances Mulraney @ IrishCentral 1 JAN 2024




The Irish can be a superstitious lot and New Years' Day had many customs that had to be strictly upheld if you were to make it through the year.




My mother always said that the way you spend the New Year is a sign of how your year will pan out and it seems she was passing the baton on for many old Irish customs based on those same beliefs. We know that the Irish can be a superstitious lot, and of course, New Year's Day also had many customs and traditions that had to be strictly upheld if you were to make it through the year.

In the 1930s, the National Folklore Collection asked Irish schoolchildren to assist them in collecting the best of Irish folklore, customs, and traditions and the result was notebooks upon notebooks of incredible insight into life in early 20th-century Ireland and many years earlier.

Included in the collection was information on how 1930s Ireland spent the first of January and we’ve compiled some of the best bits.