By Dan Sullivan
Catholic Herald
The Irish celebrate the 12 days of Christmas
SUPERIOR -- Most foreign lands have some form of Christmas tradition and Ireland is no exception. Although Deacon Michael Cullen and Julianne (Donlon) Schwarm now live in northern Wisconsin, both are originally from Ireland.
Cullen serves the Chelsea, Rib Lake and Westboro cluster and Schwarm assists with youth ministry and Christian formation at the Rhinelander and Pelican Lake parish cluster.
"There is a lot of tradition in Ireland," Cullen said.
Cullen was raised south of Dublin, in County Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. Schwarm lived in Hacketstown, a village in southeast Ireland.
"There was a lot of English influence in County Wicklow," Cullen said.
"Plum pudding was made into a long ritual and the preparation took six weeks," he said.
Both Cullen and Schwarm, remember a Christmas cake that is boiled. Schwarm explained that this cake is also prepared weeks before the Christmas holiday.
"The Christmas cake is a boiled fruit cake with whiskey," she said. "It's iced with royal icing that is really, really hard and stiff. My granny made our plum pudding and it's really an acquired taste."
Growing up, Cullen said, his father operated a butcher shop and his mother often raised turkeys as a side business.
"Dad had a good business and with Christmas, people would come to him for turkeys," he said. "I grew up plucking turkeys. Turkey was big and geese were good sellers too."
Cullen remembers that during his a youth Christmas began on Christmas Eve, with the lighting of a candle.
"Once the candle was lit, Mom would say some prayers. We would put the candle in the window as a symbol of offering hospitality," he said. "Mom would also set a place at our table for strangers. She always had room for strangers. The symbol of the candle was to remind us of that."
Unlike America, Christmas in Ireland doesn't end until the feast of the Epiphany, also known as Little Christmas.
"That's where the 12 days of Christmas comes from," Cullen said. "Christmas wasn't just about one day."
Holly bushes and ivy are decorations most often found in Ireland during the Christmas season.
"It looked good and they would make wreaths out of it," Cullen said. "Often it would be hung on the front door and again it was seen as a symbol of hospitality"
Recalling her homeland, Schwarm remembers the holly found in Ireland.
"The young boys earn money by collecting holly bushes," she said.
"Some families have a tradition of taking a log and covering it with red berry holly and ivy and placing a candle in it."
Cullen and Schwarm are a generation apart. Cullen said he never knew of a Christmas tree as a youngster in Ireland.
"But I remember Christmas trees in our home," Schwarm said.
Other than for the Christmas season, Cullen recalls his childhood home was usually void of alcohol. In a celebratory spirit, sherry and whiskey were often bought during this holiday time.
"When people would come, the first thing you were given was a drink," he said.
"But that was the only time it was really in our house. Christmas was a festive, feasting time. There were also lots of food and storytelling. We did a lot of visiting with family and I have great memories of that."
Reflecting on her Christmas celebrations, Schwarm said it centers on family.
"We would go to my grandmother's house for Christmas tea and (we) sang traditional Irish songs," she said. "All my cousins were there, there would be about 50 of us in the house."
Telling of her childhood at Christmas, Schwarm fondly recalled opening a noise making devise, decorated with colored paper, called a Christmas cracker.
"The package is barrel shaped and two people pull it on each end," she said. "It makes a popping noise, like a firecracker, and the package includes a silly prize."
Schwarm happily told of the English dessert, sherry trifle. This sponge cake dessert, laced with sherry, spread with jam, and covered with custard and whipped cream, was often enjoyed by her family during this season.
Of his youth, Cullen shared the story of the Wren Boy procession, found in southern Ireland's County Kerry.
"It was celebrated on the day after Christmas, often called St. Stephen's Day or Boxing Day," he said. "That was the beginning of visiting time for families."
According to the legend, during penal times there was a plot in a village against local soldiers. Surrounded and about to be ambushed, a group of wrens peck on the solders' drums and wake them. The plot fails and the wren became known as the devil's bird.
On St. Stephen's Day a procession would take place where a pole, decorated with a holly bush, is carried from house to house. Young people dress in old clothes and blacken their faces. In times past, a wren would be killed and placed on top of the pole. This custom has mostly disappeared in Ireland, but the tradition of visiting from house to house on St. Stephen's Day has survived and is very much part of Christmas.
"It's actually a pre-Christian tradition and it was a way of entertaining," Cullen said.
During his youth in Ireland, Christmas Day began by going to church. "We had early dawn Mass on Christmas morning," Cullen said.
"The rosary was a steady ritual of our family. Even with our busy household it remained a part of our home during Christmas," he said.
The family creche wouldn't be set out in the Cullen home until Christmas Eve.
"We said prayers and lit a candle," Cullen said.
"That was one time I remember Mom praying in a spontaneous way," he said.
Telling of a recent Christmas she celebrated in her homeland of Ireland, Schwarm said, her family attended Mass on Christmas Eve.
"We usually would go on Christmas Eve at about 8 p.m.," she said.
"After Mass, Dad would take us to the pub to meet up with friends who emigrated out of the country. Mammy returned home with the younger children and began preparing for the next day," she said.
At the pub, the center of activity in Irish villages, Schwarm said, her father took part in dart and snooker tournaments.
"He would often win turkeys as prizes," she said.
Recently married, Schwarm said she cannot leave the country because of immigration laws and the fact that she is in the process of becoming an American citizen.
"This will be my first Christmas away from Ireland and with my husband, Matthew," she said.
"We will have our own dinner. This will be my first time cooking a turkey."
Schwarm began making her Christmas cake shortly after Thanksgiving.
"I will also make my own Irish cream (liqueur),"she said. "We usually add Irish cream to hot chocolate over the Christmas holiday."
The greeting for Merry Christmas echoed throughout Ireland is "Nollaig Shona Duit," pronounced null-ig hun-a dit.
"That's the dominant greeting during Christmas," Cullen said.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004