Entries

The ways in which guisers and mummers ask for and gain entry to the home may seem at first to be a rather slight and esoteric topic. This paper seeks to demonstrate that seasonal rites involving ritual entry in fact form part of a range of complex threshold and boundary customs linked with life cycle traditions, the bardic orders and early law. Examples for analysis are taken mainly from Celtic language cultures and include the Mari Lywd and the rèiteach, a betrothal ritual from Gaelic Scotland. A structural model is offered which it is hoped will aid in the interpretation of these often highly complex threshold and boundary rituals.