Angelas Ashes here you go pauline this is what i could find out for you. x Readers expressed interest in a custom seen in the film Angelas Ashes. As a horse-drawn hearse carried the body of one of Angelas babies to a Limerick graveyard, women lined the road and sloshed buckets of water in the horses pathway just before it passed. Its meaning was elusive. No reference appeared in the book or the screenplay or library resources that I checked. One member of the Irish American community said, I saw the movie and was wondering the same thing myself. Father Patrick OBrien of the Mission San Buenaventura had no familiarity with the practice but observed that the Irish have a great reverence for funeral processions. Businesses stop when a cortege passes; shopkeepers shut their doors and pull the blinds. An Irish neighbor recalled a belief that if you encounter a funeral procession coming toward you and dont change direction to walk with it, misfortune might befall you. Finally, an answer came from the pictures co-producer, David Wimbury of Dirty Hands Productions. Their London-based Irish prop man had suggested the scene based on a practice of the past. The water used to wash the corpse before placement in the coffin was traditionally kept to be thrown in front of the hooves of the horse drawing the funeral carriage. Later, this developed into the symbolic act of neighbors and family throwing buckets of water as a mark of respect for the dead.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 14:18:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015