THE WREN

[athgarvan]

One of Ireland’s unique and darker traditions, celebrated on December 26th, relates to killing a small bird in revenge for betraying St Stephen the first Christian martyr.
The wren is considered the ‘King of the Birds’ and is also associated with the old year. It was said that capturing the bird alive would herald in a new and prosperous year. As

Comments

[engarian]

Oh my, so many of the traditions from olden days we look upon these days with serious questions. Death was so much more a presence then, but still, a poor little bird as victim. Yeah, I do have problems with that. I'm glad they use a replacement these days.

- Erulsse (one L)

[seaivy]

ah the poor little innocent wren

but the modern adaptation sounds like fun
we don't have much frolicking in our culture
commercially, it's take it all down and start the sales
much of the home attention is on football
which can be its own kind of frolic i suppose