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Barmbrack is a sweet bread served on Hallow Eve in Ireland. According to Irish holiday tradition, each bread should contain an object that represents the future of the person who finds it. One of these objects is a ring, which symbolizes upcoming marriage. When Maria serves tea on Hallow Eve, one of the women jokes that Maria might find a ring in her slice of barmbrack. The joke makes Maria uncomfortable, but she laughs it off.
Barmbrack Quotes in Clay
The Clay quotes below are all either spoken by Barmbrack or refer to Barmbrack. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Clay
Quotes
There was a great deal of laughing and joking during the meal. Lizzie Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring and, though Fleming had said that for so many Hallow Eves, Maria had to laugh and say she didn’t want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin. Then Ginger Mooney lifted up her mug of tea and proposed Maria’s health while all the other women clattered with their mugs on the table, and she said she was sorry she hadn’t a sup of porter to drink it in. And Maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder because she knew that Mooney meant well though, of course, she had the notions of a common woman.
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Barmbrack Term Timeline in Clay
The timeline below shows where the term Barmbrack appears in Clay. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Clay
...laundry where she works. She has scrubbed the kitchen, stoked the fire, and sliced the barmbrack cakes; everything looks wonderful now. A small and calming presence, Maria is known as a...
(full context)
...file in, all of them sweaty from work. Over mugs of tea and slices of barmbrack, the women joke and laugh together. One of them suggests that Maria will find a...
(full context)
