By Ignacio Agüero and Alvaro Henriquez
According to the Oxford dictionary, “Culture is the customs, beliefs, arts, traditions, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group”. This is the sustenance of any group of people organized in a specific place which gives life, feelings and identity to the daily living of a civilization. Along of the blog pages and the different essays, diverse aspects of the Irish culture were showed in various ways of expressions which showed the richness of this country culturally, gaining a space like one of the most marvelous places to visit and enjoy. Now, it is time to leave for a moment things Irish people do to express their cosmovision and folklore to give space to the innermost and implied of Irish people and their culture: themselves. Why are Irish people so particular? And what do they have that make them unique to the rest of the world? We will find a lot of particularities, some unknown for us, some of these a bit curious and others similar to other cultures which will be useful too to avoid being surprised if you are a visitor who do not understand how is the true Irish nature, but at the same time, you would like to be in this special country. Let’s take a look first in customs and later about Irish traditions.
Enjoying a party!!!
In general, Irish people are very friendly, honest and easily treated which you will not have problem with them in terms of being friends. They are party lovers too and enjoy a lot to be with their families and friends. Foreigners are treated well in pubs and restaurants and you will surprise of the good mood which they present in the daily life making jokes every moment. They are good speakers doing the conversations longer than normal. Spite of these good characteristic, we do not have to forget that they have traditional customs, a classical thinking and they are people with great principles. These principles and classical thinking reflect how they are in social and business situations which we must to maintain a good composture and customs in front of them.
Greetings are warm like their personalities. For some people is a bit shocked that Irish people greet them with expressions like “How are you?” without to know the other. They have their traditional greeting “Céad míle fáilte” which means “a hundred thousand welcomes”. However, they use English expressions like “Hello” and “How are you?” The Irish greeting more common is “Dia dhuit” (God be with you) and to say good bye they use “Slán” (Go safe). Together with all these different types of greeting, Irish people handshakes strongly and kiss in the cheek to the women showing confidence each other.
In terms of relationship, they care a lot their families, especially brother-to-brother relationship. In Ireland is common to see all the family living near of the other family members. This is because of this way is easier to be united in celebrations like Christmas or other family meetings. To visit other people is common during weekends or festive days, and they have the custom of calling by phone of the other people if they do not know a lot before to go to visit them.
As we could see in few lines, Irish people are not cold like the rest of European countries; even they receive appropriately and friendly foreign people who visit that country. But, we must have considerations about certain topics if we want to have a comfortable welcome and stay in Ireland. Topics like politics and religion are very sensible there because there were important conflicts against Catholics and Protestants which divided the country in two parts: Northern Ireland (which is part of UK) and Southern Ireland (which is independent after this conflict). This topic is as difficult to treat as to talk about dictatorship in countries like Chile (1973), Argentina and other countries of Latin America during the Cold War period. Irish people suffered for a long time with this conflict and the pressure of UK did very difficult the things during that time until Southern Ireland gained its independence in 1949. For that reason is better not talk about the control of UK in Ireland, more specific in Northern Ireland. Also, like this is a country where Catholic Church is very important, there are other topics that is better not mention: abortion, divorce and the use of contraceptive pills. This church has always been against these topics and it triggers moral debates which do not occur in other countries where Catholic church is not important. It is important to have in mind it to not commit mistakes nor offend accidentaly Irish people with these topics.
This pamphlet, printed in July 1993, provides a snapshot of the Socialist Workers Movement attitude during a pivotal time in the North, a point where the Peace Process had started.
Other topic about customs not very complicated like the topic mentioned before but not less important is the direction of the traffic. In Ireland is a curiosity that people drive to the left side which is a different position we drive in America. At the beginning it is a bit complicated to get use to this direction if you come of a country where drive at right side, but like most of things, practice makes perfect.
Other important custom that they have is the prohibition to smoke in closed public places from 2004. This prohibition includes universities, offices, schools, pubs, restaurants and transports. However, various hotels, pubs and restaurants have allowed covered outdoor spaces where clients can smoke.
About schedules, they begin their days at 7 o’ clock approximately. Next, they have lunch at 12 p. m., have dinner at 6 p. m. and go to bed at 9 p. m. approximately. Also, they work from Monday to Saturday until 4 or 5 p. m. except Thursday that they work until 8 or 9 p. m. This is a daily rutine and allows to have free time for fun and to share with their families.
This free time allow Irish people enjoy different traditions they have from generations like Irish Christmas, Saint Patrick day and others. Now, let’s see a bit about the different traditions there are in this awesome country.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, “Tradition is a belief, custom or a way of doing something that has existed for a long time among a particular group of people; a set of these beliefs or customs are still passed from generation to generation”. Ireland is one of the countries with a lot of beautiful and specific traditions related to the seeking of self identity related to the eons of wars that suffered this country by many other cultures and this is one of the reasons of why Ireland is so unique with exotic people who have their particular way of living throughout every day of the year, all related to days or events that marked them as a culture.
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of the most beautiful traditional days celebrated in Ireland, is celebrated in March 17th in commemoration of Saint Patrick death (March 386-17th of 493 or c.460) and the arrival of Christianity to Ireland. It is a national celebration of the Republic of Ireland and a non-official fest in Northern Ireland. Today, Saint Patrick’s Day is probably the most celebrated sanctorum around the world. The Saint Patrick’s day is worldwide celebrated by all Irish, even people that doesn’t have Irish ancestry, it’s topic is related to all green and Irish things, either Christians or not Christian people celebrate this day dressing green, enjoying the Irish gastronomy which includes cabbage and Irish drinks and attending parades, in some places green dyed beer is sold for celebrating this day. The clover is the typical symbol in this country because it is related to the Saint Trinity teachings brought by Saint Patrick, many people use small clover shape brooches. the celebrations are continued all day long, also festivities and shows can be found in the pubs at the night in whole Ireland.
Another tradition that complements Ireland in a big way is their Christmas because most of the Irish are Catholics, that is the reason of why Christmas traditions so influenced in this country. One of the most highlighted traditions in Irish traditions are the candles, a big candle is putted in the house entry or in a window which should be lighted by the youngest of the home in the Christmas Eve, this is a symbol to welcome the Holy Family and only could be blew out by a girl of woman called Maria.
The Irish Christmas lasts for five weeks in celebrations commemorating the birth of Jesus. The wood, the snow, the smell of punch and the waltz morph into a tale the Alpine country during these winter days. In Christmas Eve one of the most embedded Ireland festivities is the related to the Wren Boys, in which the young outlandishly dressed, go out on feast of Saint Stephen and noisily march in procession, they go usually dressed in masks and sticks and anyone who gives them money they gift back a feather that according to them is charged with good luck. In New Years Eve, on the night of December 31th in Dublin there is an appointment at 12pm with the bells of the Cathedral Church of Christ. Tradition dictates a meet around this Romanesque building to listen to the bells that announce that another years is beginning.
The Irish traditions and customs are an example to all societies because they keep celebrating vigorously every year the celebrations before named and more, even if they are in another part of the world, the celebrations, customs and traditions are so amazing that many people become charmed with Ireland and wanted the Irish nationality because they feel identified with this awesome Christianity linked culture as no other in the world.
Sources
– Chandler, N. How Irish Traditions Work?. HowStuffWorks Inc. Retrieved on November 16th, 2012 from http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/irish-tradition.htm
– Tradiciones de Irlanda. NuestroRumbo.com. (2011) Retrieved on November 16th, 2012 from http://www.nuestrorumbo.com/2011/10/07/tradiciones-de-irlanda
– Traditions and customs in Ireland. YourIrish. Retrieved on November 16th, 2012 from http://www.yourirish.com/traditions/
– Hardy, F.G.M.P. (2006). A Check of Britain and Ireland (revised ed.). London: British Society, available in Koeltz Books
– Real Academia Española. (2001) Costumbre. In Diccionario de la Lengua Española (22nd ed.) [Dictionary of the Spanish Language]. Retrieve on November 16th, 2012 from http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=costumbres
– Real Academia Española (2001) Tradición. In Diccionario de la Lengua Española (22nd ed.) [Dictionary of the Spanish Language]. Retrieve on November 16th, 2012 from http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=costumbres
Irish Culture 