Nollaig mhór agus Nollaig bheag

[muckefuck]

I was relieved to see that the carry-on guidelines on the Southwest Airlines site are generous enough that I needn't give a second thought about taking my clunky hardbound Irish-English dictionary along to St. Louis. Good thing, too, since I don't have anywhere near the vocabulary to make do with the glossaries in my grammars and occasional forays online when reading An Nollaig thiar. I'm up to the chapter on Christmas Eve--the halfway point--and I'm looking forward to discovering more about traditional Irish customs of over a half-century ago.

Moreover, as you can tell from the previous post, I'm still having fun browsing the thing. As always, only time will tell how much I'll retain (my Chinese is already so rusty that I have trouble putting a simple sentence together), but I've learned to run with these things while I can. My most recent delightful discovery? One of the names for Epiphany is Lá Nollag Beag "little Christmas Day". (Apparently, this can also refer to Hogmanay.) The literary name is Nollaig Stéill(e), which means "Christmas [of the] Star" (stéill being a literary term for what are now called réaltaí).

So whatever Lá Nollag Beag refers to in your book, I'll be back in Chicago for it--hopefully in no worse shape than I left it (which isn't saying too much at this point, alas).

Comments

[f8n-begorra.livejournal.com]

The Epiphany is also known in Ireland as Nollag na mBan -- Women's Christmas. It was the one day in the year when the men were responsible for the care of their children. Women, exhausted after discharging their Christmas responsibilities, booted the men and kids out of the house, and celebrated for a whole day amongst themselves. I remember being banished to the care of my father on that day.