It’s the eve of St. Brigid’s Day and the day for making crosses. Traditionally the crosses were woven every year and a new one was placed over the door of the house or the barn for good luck and protection. In some areas the old ones were not taken down and you could find several stuffed in the rafters, thus determining the age of the house.
When we took a tour group to Ireland in April 2023, I had hoped to make authentic St. Brigid crosses with the group. We tried to get someone to help us but we discovered that no reeds were available that time of year. So I brought some materials with me and some of us did weave crosses in Ireland!
I’ll be making another so stay tuned to our Facebook group if you’d like to see it. I’ll do a giveaway with my newsletter subscribers.
On our trip to Inis Cealtra we took the group in two trips on the boat to the island. I went in the first one (I was too excited to wait, sorry) and my husband Tom was in the second. While they waited for the boat to return, Tom asked the guide if what he saw was rushes. She said yes, there were some growing here and there. She said he could pick them. This is what he did.
Now it lives here:
You can see that my mounting let loose a bit but the cross is staying put. Before anyone asks, the little thing in the upper left has an Irish shamrock in it. Even in person you can’t tell what it is, but I try. 😉
Here are a few pictures from our St. Brigid’s Tour featuring the cross.
Tomorrow I’ll share more about St. Brigid and our tour. In the meantime, if you’d like to weave your own cross there are lots of tutorials online. Here’s a good one:
