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Irish America

Christmas

Sláinte! Christmas – Winter Solstice

By Edythe Preet

November December 1993

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Christmas season is the time to eat, drink and be merry! Wherever one goes it seems, someone is slicing up a fruitcake or pouring a glass of holiday cheer. Surrounded as we are by Madison Avenue merchandising it's easy to forget that at this time of year we are participating in one of the oldest rituals known to humankind. Eons before the birth of the Child whom angels praised … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Christmas – Winter Solstice

Nollaig na mBan Celebrations

By Emily Moriarty, Editorial Assistant

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One of the most unique of the many events the Irish American Partnership puts on each year to raise money and awareness of its goals is its celebration of Nollaig na mBan, or “Women’s Christmas,” an old Irish tradition honoring women’s leadership within the family and community, celebrated each year in January by giving women a day of rest and merriment after the Christmas … [Read more...] about Nollaig na mBan Celebrations

Winterval in Waterford: European City of Christmas

By Irish America Staff

Winter 2024

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Waterford, once called the hidden gem of Ireland, is now a tourist destination known for its extravagant festivities. Its annual harvest festival in September attracted upwards of 40,000 visitors. The Samhain festival in October saw the City’s streets awash with a fusion of spooky, spectral, and fascinating events under the watchful eye of An Dearg Dua, a 2,000-year-old … [Read more...] about Winterval in Waterford: European City of Christmas

Slàinte! A Universal Christmas

By Edythe Preet

November/December 1998, republished in Winter 2024

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All around the world, the holiday season is a time to gather with family and friends, to share abundance, to feast, to reflect on the memories of joyful times past, and to make every effort to ensure that the future will be peaceful and prosperous for all. Here in the United States, the holiday season is celebrated in a myriad of ways bequeathed us by the thousands of … [Read more...] about Slàinte! A Universal Christmas

Christmas Then and Now

By Colum McCann
IA Newsletter, December 21, 2024

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Every Christmas Morning Now, Every Christmas Morning Then Every Christmas morning now is full of every Christmas morning then, and in the old unaccountable unfolding of memory I can’t rest on a single time when it all took shape, but this is the story of a suburban Christmas, an Irish Christmas, a Dublin Christmas, a Christmas in the four-bedroom house where I spent my first … [Read more...] about Christmas Then and Now