By Michael Fortune
Here in Wexford there is a tradition of dressing up and going ‘Gugging for Eggs’ at Easter. My own grandmother in Ballygarrett remembered doing it as a child as do many people from pockets within the county such as Castlebridge, Screen, Ballymurn and also around Kilmuckridge.
In the days leading up to Easter Sunday, children would dress up, some with masks and some without, and go ‘Guggin’ for Eggs’. Armed with a stick, a basket, an apron and old clothes, children would walk out from the villages and towns and call to farms in the countryside. My grandmother recalled to me that they’d call to neighbours and say theses words ‘Me Aester (Easter) Egg on You?’ to which they’d hopefully get eggs and be sent on their way. In other parts of Wexford I have recorded people recall how with a stick they knock on the door and say “Eggs or money, mam?”
Gugging was mostly done on Holy Saturday, while some also went out on Easter Monday. Most children went out during daylight hours; however, the bigger ones around mid-Wexford went out in disguise at night like at Hallowe’en. In many cases the children would boil the eggs when they were out rambling while more would be kept until Easter Sunday. Hard to imagine theses days that children would allowed light little fires and boil eggs in fields, but it was done and it wasn’t that long ago. [ . . . ]
Source: YouTube
