The Wheel of the Year: A Folklore Calendar (September 2026 CHS Meeting)

Comber Historical Society welcomed members and visitors back for the beginning of its new programme on Monday 14 September, when Lolly Spence delivered a fascinating talk on The Celtic Wheel of the Year.

The evening began with the Society’s Annual General Meeting, during which the current officers were returned for another year. Full details of the committee and Society officers can be found on the Comber Historical Society website. Membership has also now opened for the year ahead, and the Society is grateful for the continued support of its members and visitors. The evening was attended by 45 members, three life members, and 12 visitors.

Following the AGM, Lolly took the audience on a wide-ranging journey through Ireland’s ancient past, folklore, and seasonal traditions. She began by exploring the Celts, Ireland’s High Kings, and the importance of places such as Tara and Navan, explaining how the changing seasons shaped both practical life and belief.

At the centre of the Celtic year were the great seasonal festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa. These marked important transitions in the agricultural year but were also surrounded by beliefs about protection, good fortune, and the supernatural.

Samhain, in particular, formed a major part of the talk. Marking the beginning of winter, it became associated with the belief that the boundary between the living and supernatural worlds was especially thin. Lolly explored the origins of familiar Halloween traditions, including apple bobbing, as well as the longstanding place of fairies in Irish folklore.

Fear of fairies was once taken seriously and could shape everyday behaviour. Particular care was taken around children, who were thought to be especially vulnerable to supernatural interference. Customs intended to protect them included placing salt and oatmeal on their heads. Such practices demonstrated how folklore was woven into domestic and family life rather than existing only in stories.

Lolly also discussed the tradition of mummers, whose seasonal performances combined disguise, drama, music, and community celebration. These traditions, like so many associated with the Celtic year, changed over time while continuing to leave traces in later customs.

The talk ranged beyond folklore to consider how people have observed and understood the natural world. Lolly referred to Galileo and his early observations of the Moon, including six watercolour studies which recorded its changing surface and appearance. This provided an interesting contrast between older traditions shaped by observation, belief, and storytelling and the developing scientific study of the heavens.

Throughout the evening, Lolly demonstrated how customs could survive long after their original meanings had been forgotten. Halloween celebrations, seasonal rituals, stories of fairies, and other familiar traditions all contain echoes of much older ways of understanding the year and the world around us.

Comber Historical Society extends sincere thanks to Lolly Spence for an entertaining and thought-provoking start to the new season.

The Society’s next meeting will take place on Monday 12 October 2026, when Ross McDonald will present The Enterprise: North Down’s Links to the Slave Trade.

As usual, meetings begin at 8 p.m., and the entry fee includes tea and coffee. Annual membership is £10, with members’ monthly entry at £2. Visitors are warmly welcomed at £4.