Tonight is St Brigid's eve so don't forget to leave a cloth or scarf outside to be blessed by the saint as she passes. Known as a 'Bratog Bride' in Irish folklore, this special garment can then be used as a cure for headaches or sore throats.
I was planning to start this series with a different superstition, but a post popped up on my FB feed...
So I need to go and find a scarf to put out on my balcony...
A few years ago, I was weaving my small flwered shawl in Judit's workshop, and in the third day, after I finished the shawl, i wanted to weave a piece of linen fabric. I had linen and silk yarn,, and I wove a simple 1/1 material, with an intention that I will cut it up and sew something out of it. I even wove a 10 cm or so wide narrpw striped piece (with blue) so I will have something for a collar and / or pockets. Right.
Fast forward a couple of month, the big fair of folk arts and crafts, which is usually around the day of out national holiday, the birtday of St Stephan's and the clebration of teh new bread.
I've been out at the fair with my handdyed wooé and yarn, and I had several of my handwoven shawls for decoration... Including the 3.5 meters of linen/silk. The celebrations included blessing of the new bread, and each group had to send a couple representing the group and a big round bread to be blessed. You cannot just have a naked bread, they are usually covered with some cloth... but my group had no clean cloth, but the piece of fabric I had woven. So they covered the bread in it, had it blessed, and now I have a piece of fabric blessed. Wich I cannot cut... How could I? A blessed piece of textile?
I don't know, what made me think of this story, except both the supetstition and the story had a piece of blessed fabric in it. There you go. Put out something.
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