Women’s Christmas - Nollaig na mBan

Under the Sky by Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi

Today, 6th of January, many women across Ireland will pause to celebrate Women’s Christmas. Known in Gaeilge as Nollaig na mBan (“Null-ig na Mawn”), this holiday honours the hard work of Irish women throughout the Christmas season and year.

Traditionally, it was a time when gender roles were reversed. Men took over the household duties while women met each other for tea, a slice of currant cake, a chat and a well-deserved break!

Merry Aunties by Inge Löök

Rituals of Cleansing and Death

Nollaig na mBan is as much a celebration of women’s hard work as it is a reminder that women sacrifice so much that is taken for granted.

A common phrase associated with the holiday is, “Nollaig na mBan, Nollaig gan mhaith”, which essentially means Women’s Christmas is without the good stuff.

This is in reference to the lack of feasting that takes place at this time. Women’s Christmas did not experience the same excess as Christmas Day.

But women took their own spin on this with magic and ritual.

It was said that all the well water in Ireland would turn into wine at midnight on Women’s Christmas. No one was permitted to go out to observe this phenomenon or sample the well water, or they would be met with terrible luck.

A common cleansing ritual involved mothers rubbing the tails of herrings across the eyes of their children to give them immunity against disease. In the epoch of a global pandemic, this symbolism feels potent as Nollaig na mBan honours the ways that women keep their communities safe during times of pestilence.

In another tradition, women made “cakes” of clay or mud, into which were placed candles named after each member of the family. The order in which these candles went out predicted the order in which the family members would die. In a version of this, family members would light their own candles and place them in the window as a symbol of protection. In this way, Nollaig na mBan not only protects the family from death but acknowledges death’s natural place in the cycle of life.

Art by Jackie Morris

Reclaiming Rest

Of course, Irish women - women everywhere - deserve more than one day of rest. But Nollaig na mBan shouldn’t be seen as a singular day when women are given the day off. Rather, it is a jumping-off point that we can reclaim and reimagine for the times we are in.

Rest looks different to different bodies. For me, rest can mean:

• Acceptance. When I can let go and invite peace into my body - even momentarily.

• Rest is giving myself permission to catch my breath.

• Rest is my presence. When I have not left my body to travel back into the mullings of the past or unknowns of the future.

• Rest is feeling alive to my senses. Sight. Smell. Sound. Taste. Touch.

• Rest is my boundaries. Embodying the structures that allow me to surrender. To trust.

• Rest is when I enter a mythical portal of story or art. When I am lost in absorption.

• Rest is plugging into our Great Mother, this land, Ériu, and feeling her charge.

And so, as we celebrate this tradition, asking your body now:

Body- what does rest look like for me?

Giving yourself permission to follow through on the impulse today and honour your body’s innate wisdom.

Rest love, rest.

Skywatcher by Susan Seddon Boulet

In the Spirit of Women

In the spirit of celebrating women’s contribution, I wish to share the work of a few close friends of mine in Ireland who are working to reclaim and reimagine the mythos of this land through their own unique expression.

• The magical midwife Sarah Richardson who is working to revive our Bean Ghlúine (‘Woman of the Knees’), the Irish midwife, and Bean Chaointe (‘Crying/Keening Woman’) traditions, and has just launched her book WOMAN.

• The enchanting Regina de Búrca who took on the immense feat of translating the Rider Waite Tarot to Gaeilge, our native tongue and has undertaken research into the correlation between the tarot and the Creideamh Sí, the ‘Fairy Faith’.

• The Bean Feasa Aisling Jackson - our holistic menstrual educator in the west of Ireland who has a talent for uncovering womb wisdom in the Irish language.

• The courageous Dee Mulrooney - a phenomenal mythopoetic Irish artist who in her own words has discovered the “joy of playing with taboos and visions of female identity that would until all too recently have seen her locked away.”

• The trailblazing Nadine McCarthy whose fusion of radical leadership with the ancient wisdom of this land is creating a new global vision for Ireland.

Tailtiu by Dee Mulrooney