Cutting the Yarrow

A Halloween game of cutting the "Yarrow" herb, and placing neath a pillow, was a charm to dream of the future spoiuse of the sleeper. They though had to keep silent for the night, not easy for North Longford folk, where the game was from!
A Halloween game of cutting the “Yarrow” herb, and placing neath a pillow, was a charm to dream of the future spoiuse of the sleeper. They though had to keep silent for the night, not easy for North Longford folk, where the game was from!

A Halloween Game – as detailed here on the Irish Folklore Commission – in North Longford was called “Cutting the Yarrow

Eleven pieces cut, a sixpence as forfeit
The ten others under pillow kept
Those who on it to silence sworn
Until the morning after which they had slept

Should they speak before the mornings dawn
And they to the floor their blanket they had tossed
They broke the Yarrow pledge…
Their challenge and their sixpence was lost.

Oh, so many cared for their comfort that night
And other such tricks to get them to speak
So simple pleasures in a time now past
When folk their fun did seek!!!

Sould the sleeper their whisht manage to hold
Who they dreamed of that night would be their spouse it was said
How many men dreamed of a comely cailin on such night
Who dreamed herself of another dashing blade, not them, instead!

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