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Category: marysmass

Category: marysmass

A skull and a milk offering Caileachs herbarium

Category: marysmass

Kilmoire chapel The historical burial place of the chiefs of the Clan Lachlan not the one on Barra
Folk Festivals
Scott Richardson-Read

Marysmass – Féill-Moire -Assumption day – Festival

Marysmass, Mary’s mass, Féil-Moire (Mary’s day) the Big St Marys Feast or the Assumption day happens on the 15th of August. Personally, I think it’s a great example of the syncretic nature of Scottish Folk practices and pre reformation kirk activities. The festival itself dates to the medieval period and apparently even back to the 7th century.  In the publication Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland, James Mackinaly, 1910, mentions “certain festivals instituted from time-to-time formed landmarks in the growth of the Virgin’s cultus. Among these maybe mentioned the Feast of the Purification or Candlemas (2nd February also related to Brid and Imbolc),

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