Smooring the Fire

Traditions

“A woman bends over the hearth in her home. It is late evening and she is about to retire for the night. But first she must accomplish an important task, the smooring of the fire. She carefully banks the red-hot coals of the fire, arranging them in a circle and then dividing them into three parts. As she does this she gives thanks for the presence of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”

Deborah K. Cronin (Holy Ground)

In her book about Celtic Christian Spirituality, Deborah Cronin tells this story of a Celtic tradition, the smooring of the fire—banking it so that the coals stay hot all night, and will be ready to stoke in the morning. Like our stacked chocolate, graham cracker and melted marshmallow treats called smores, smooring a fire meant piling the hot coals on top of each other to preserve their heat. In my childhood, our home was heated by a coal furnace. At bedtime, my father did just what the woman in Cronin's story did; he tromped down to the basement and stacked coal into a behemoth of a furnace so that it would burn through the night. Fire places have always been a priority for me in choosing a home—I can't imagine winter without a fire. My dad taught me how to build a fire that would light, catch up quickly and keep burning long. As a young child, it had been his task to rise early, before daylight, and stoke the fire in his family home.

The Celtic tradition also involves sharing the fire. From mother to child on their wedding day, the hot coals from one home are carried to the hearth of the new home, and sometimes pass down through families for hundreds of years. I remember an Irish friend telling me that her family had dwelt in the same house in Dublin for four hundred years. It's hard for Americans, because our nation is so young, to imagine that. So much easier to maintain traditions when people stay put.

The traditions of fire are etched deeply into Celtic roots, back into Druidic times when the Beltane bonfires were built on the first day of May. No one could light their bonfire until the High King had lit his. St. Patrick is said to have lit his bonfire on Easter ahead of the King in open defiance, and to make the point that the fire of Christ's resurrection supplants all others. If you have a modicum of Celtic blood coursing through your body, you probably have a relationship to fire that is unusually deep. I notice every time I light a candle, that it brings a sense of the sacred into a room. We have an inner fire that must be preserved as well. Today, smoor your inner fire and keep it glowing within. It will light your day and keep you warm and tethered to your deep traditions.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                       Jane