Ag ullmhaigh don Nollaig: Preparing the house for Christmas
It was important to thoroughly clean the house and farmyard to have everything fresh and new for the birth of Jesus.
Men would clean out outbuilding passage ways and surroundings and white wash all buildings inside and out.
Was it just the men who did this work?
Women did some too.
Whitewash was used inside as well. The kitchen was always whitewashed.
You used to whitewash the buildings every year, inside and out. It was bound to rain at that time of year.
There was a limekiln, and lime was more in use, long ago. There was a limekiln in nearly every townland. Some farms had their own. It was used for whitewash. There wasn’t the paint then. You’d burn the stones into a white powder and that was the lime.
Lime was used for spraying the potatoes in the summer, with the bluestone. It was better than the washing soda. It killed the moss on the path as well. It made the paths quite clean.
You would disinfect the house with lime, what with animals. You would shake it around.
Would you sweep it out?
Leave it there.
Women would sweep, wash and clean the house and launder everything in preparation for Christmas.
It sounds as if it was hard work getting ready for Christmas.
Extra washing wasn’t done. The drying wasn’t good enough at that time of year.
You wouldn’t want to wash blankets in the winter. You’d wait for good weather in the spring.
It was just common sense.
Tables could be washed with sand. It makes it white, clean and brighter. What’s that stone, the red soft stone, sandstone? That would clean the table.
The chimney was cleaned with a prickly bush, a holly branch or a whitethorn. You could push it up or down if you got on the roof.
Return to ‘Candles in the Window’ index
Contnue to page 2: Decorating the house Ag mhaisigh an tí and Christmas food