Posted 6 years ago
LaurenRedm…
(118 items)
Call me strange but I really like all images to do with death, particularly graveyards, I'm the sort of person who spends a lot of their spare time in graveyards...so, imagine my surprise when we were cleaning out the shed last week and came upon this- a Celtic cross holy water font! We seem to have received it as a Christmas present some time ago and for some reason it was forgotten about and boxed up in the shed.
The little font is made out of bog oak, which is a piece of an oak tree having fallen into a bog thousands of years ago leaving the wood fossilised making it remarkably black, dense and heavy so much so as to be like a piece of stone.
The font itself is carved to be like a Celtic high cross which is the traditional type of cross used in Irish graveyards from as far back as the 8th century and some are still used and seen in many graveyards today.
The font is generally used in many old traditional Irish homes, and kept topped up with holy water, though not greatly in use today (I've only seen one actually used in a house) upon leaving or entering the house visitors will casually dip their fingers in and bless themselves.
What I love about this gift is it isn't an overly religious one- lacking images of the Virgin Mary and the like which I'm not generally keen on, but instead it's styled like a high cross, which happens to be my favourite type of gravestone and has a little hook making it easily hangable by the door.
Gosh Lauren, this is wonderful!!
Gorgeous black cross font, very intricate as is the headstone - in the US many Catholics have these religious fonts as well, I used to have one made of alabaster with statue of St Michael the archangel
Thanks TassieDevil!
That sounds lovely Newfld, just on a side note the parish in which I'm from is called St Michael's! Love the imagery associated with that particular saint.