From Waverly Fitzgerald's
schooloftheseasons.com
November 30 Dead Dance
In Ireland, the whole month of November was dedicated to the dead and they held their final dances before returning to their dwelling on the last day. A legend tells of the young woman who was foolish enough to go out walking on that night and sat down to rest on the side of a hill. A pale young man approached and invited her to a dance on the hillside. She realized after a while that he was a young fisherman who had drowned during the summer and all the other dancers were people who had died. She tried to leave but was surrounded by the dancers who whirled her around until she fell to the ground in exhaustion. Although she made it home to her own bed, she was suffering from "the fairy stroke" and despite the ministrations of the herb-doctor, she passed away the next night while the moon was rising and a faint music was hear from outside.
O'Farrell, Padraic, Superstitions of the Irish Country People, Cork & Dublin: Mercier Press 1982
schooloftheseasons.com
November 30 Dead Dance
In Ireland, the whole month of November was dedicated to the dead and they held their final dances before returning to their dwelling on the last day. A legend tells of the young woman who was foolish enough to go out walking on that night and sat down to rest on the side of a hill. A pale young man approached and invited her to a dance on the hillside. She realized after a while that he was a young fisherman who had drowned during the summer and all the other dancers were people who had died. She tried to leave but was surrounded by the dancers who whirled her around until she fell to the ground in exhaustion. Although she made it home to her own bed, she was suffering from "the fairy stroke" and despite the ministrations of the herb-doctor, she passed away the next night while the moon was rising and a faint music was hear from outside.
O'Farrell, Padraic, Superstitions of the Irish Country People, Cork & Dublin: Mercier Press 1982
