Also called Cros Bríde, St Brigid's cross, rush cross
A cross woven from fresh rushes on St Brigid's Eve and hung in the house and byre to guard against fire, hunger and harm for the year ahead.
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Take care: If you burn last year's cross, do it outdoors or in a proper fireplace; dry rushes flare up quickly. Pull rushes only where you have permission.
Besides the familiar four-armed diamond, some districts wove a three-armed cross, usually for the cattle byre. Brigid was a patron of dairy and cattle, and the barn cross was meant to keep the animals well through the hard end of winter.
On St Brigid's Eve a ribbon or strip of cloth was left outside on a windowsill or bush so the saint could bless it as she passed. Kept through the year, it was used to soothe headaches, help at births and protect livestock.
Collectors gathered crosses from across Ireland and found diamond, wheel, interlaced and three-armed types in regional styles. The collection is displayed at the museum's Country Life branch in County Mayo, which also teaches the weave each year.
St Brigid's feast falls on 1 February, the same date as Imbolc, the old Irish festival marking the start of spring and the lambing season. Brigid of Kildare, who died around 525, shares her name with a goddess of the earlier Irish tradition, and many customs of her day sit between the two. A popular legend tells of the saint weaving a cross from rushes at the bedside of a dying pagan chieftain to explain her faith.
Weaving the cross is first attested in the seventeenth century. Rushes were pulled on the eve, the cross made and blessed, and old crosses kept in the thatch where they were thought to guard against fire. The folklorist Kevin Danaher recorded the customs in detail in 1972. The practice faded as thatched houses disappeared, but it revived strongly, and since 2023 Ireland has marked a public holiday for St Brigid's Day.
Two rowan twigs bound into an equal-armed cross with red thread and placed over doors, byres and cradles to keep witches and fairies out.
A loaf and a little salt carried into a new home or offered at its door, so the household will never go hungry and life there will keep its savour.
The first visitor to cross the threshold after midnight on New Year sets the household's luck for the year, so they arrive with gifts of coal, bread, salt and drink.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
