There grew up a rich tradition of waulking songs, some serious and slow for singing at the beginning and end, some quick and jolly, most of unspecified length so that they might continue until the cloth was ready for the next process. As the material softened it also shrank and the leader would measure it in finger-lengths to determine whether another song was needed. “How many songs will it take?” they asked of a piece of cloth.
No song was ever repeated, for this would bring bad luck to the workers, and offerings of milk were sometimes made to a fairy-woman. the “Ioireag”, who was believed to be present at a waulking. The process had sometimes seven stages, sometimes nine or twelve: all magic numbers for the Gael,” (Scotland Info Guide, History of cloth making and waulking).
People have always found ways to make doing hard work less miserable. For Scottish Gaelic women, waulking was both a social and work event. Traditional waulking songs wove together multiple aspects of life: the social, economic, and historical. Rhythms and song order guided women through the phases of waulking while the lyrics told stories of the past and present.
Of course this method of staring information is not unique to the Gaels. Music has been a longstanding way to share information. For example, “The Wheels on the Bus”, “This is Thumbkin”, or “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” teach young kids about the world and business jingles tell you what number to call (1-800-267-2001, Alarm Force!). Sometimes it feels like these songs are engrained into our brains and stuck there forever.
Maybe this is one way ODNR could spark changes in visitor behavior. What if visitors knew the songs by heart and every time they threw dumped trash on the ground they could hear lyrics in their head telling them to do otherwise?
References:
Auchindrain. (2023, July 27). Waulking explaination [Video]. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8uZOESLi6M
Scotland Info. (n.d.). History of cloth making and waulking. Scotland Info
Guide. Retrieved September 9, 2024, from https://www.scotlandinfo.eu/
history-of-cloth-making-and-waulking/
[Women waulking]. (2017, February 14). Shepherd’s Dream. https://shepherdsdream.com/blog/wonders-of-wool/waulking-songs/