Christmas Eve in 1911

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Okay, I'm not in Dublin and have never been to Ireland. But I can tell you that in the US in 1911, Christmas trees were put up on Christmas Eve. So in the afternoon, there wouldn't have been any up...that's assuming that the Irish do Christmas trees.

But to the best of my understanding (I'm not Catholic), a midnight mass on Christmas Eve has always been a big deal in Catholic countries, so you could have your characters talking about it.

Check for mistletoe use. Check for bobbing for apples.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Diomedes said:

Hello guys,

Basically I have a chapter and I want to re-locate it to a more interesting setting. The chapter happens in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve 1911 in Dublin.

What I'd like to know is whether there would be any Christmas events like we have now occurring at that time? For instance a Christmas market, or any other thing of the like.

What would be absolutely fantastic would be if I could have something with fortune telling, but that's probably a bit too much for a Catholic country back then.

D.

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https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/ireland-celebrates-christmas-1913

Try reading this. Has some stuff in it that tells what it was like in 1913. Not far off and probably not much had changed in two years.

Diomedes said:

What would be absolutely fantastic would be if I could have something with fortune telling, but that's probably a bit too much for a Catholic country back then.

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Fortune-telling has always been a part of Irish culture, regardless of religion.

Here's an article about reading tea leaves through Irish history.

And here a 1930s Irish tourism video with a fortune-teller in it.

Here's a letter two Dublin kids wrote on Christmas Eve, 1911

And here are some pictures of Dublin in 1911

Some Irish Christmas folklore/superstitions.

What do you want from the setting, and who are your characters?
It might be a good time of year for a private party, with fortune-telling as an entertainment. Either by a hired fortune-teller, or one of the party.
Then off to dinner, and their respective churchs for Christmas Eve services.

In a Christmas episode of DOWNTON ABBEY the servants use a ouija board on Christmas Eve. That’s set close to your time period.

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

If there were gypsy caravans in Ireland at the time, there might have been palm or card readers.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

What we think of as a traditional Christmas--the tree, carols, Santa Claus--came with Prince Albert from Germany when he married Queen Victoria, and it spread from there. A Visit From St. Nicholas ("'Twas the night before Christmas") was published in the same period. So by 1911, all of that was in place. This is, of course English and Protestant. Your Irish characters might not be particularly keen on either of those things. (An example: in a sequel of Anne of Green Gables I recently read, Gilbert dresses up as Santa Claus for the children.

I'm not sure Christmas markets were necessarily a thing--there were just markets, and at Christmas they would sell Christmas-y things. At least, this would be my assumption; I don't know a heck of a lot about Ireland specifically.

Fascination with the occult was pretty popular. One might even say it was fashionable. Things like you describe were common entertainments when people got together: seances, fortune-telling, etc. They might do these things at Christmas simply because they were gathered; it wouldn't necessarily be connected to Christmas as a holiday. You might get some people objecting, finding it inappropriate to indulge in this occult activity at such a holy time. I'm thinking of the Montenegrin princesses, who were well-know for their interest in the occult and introduced Rasputin to the tsar and tsarina. JM Barrie also may have been connected to a seance or two.