The Wren Boys The following is about the “Wren Boys” and the celebrations that will be happening today in Ireland.

The Wren Boys

On St. Stephen's Day, December 26th, crowds of people take to the roads in various parts of Ireland, dressed in motley clothing, wearing masks or straw suits and accompanied by musicians – remembering a festival with antecedents that long predate Christmas.

Irish tradition holds that the wren symbolizes the old year, while the robin symbolizes the year to come. To ensure that the passage from old year to new could take place, it was once common practice on St. Stephen's Day (Decemeber 26) for a group of local boys to hunt and kill a wren.

The Wren – sometimes pronounced and written, wran – was once common all over Ireland. Birds have great prominence in Irish mythology. They were seen as intermediaries, in pre-Christian times, between this world and the next. The flight patterns of birds, like the wren, were used as auguries by the Druids. Indeed, some believe, the Gaelic word for wren – dreoilín – derives from two words, draoi ean, or Druid bird.

When, according to legend, the birds held a parliament, it was decided that whichever of them flew the highest would rule over all the others. The eagle soared higher than any, until it tired and the tiny wren emerged from its tail feathers and climbed far above it. Mysteriously, the wren has a reputation for treachery. A wren is said to have betrayed Irish soldiers fighting the Norsemen by beating its wings on their shields. The wren, too, is blamed for betraying St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. This is the usual explanation why the wren is the hunted bird on St. Stephen's day. It has also been argued that the antipathy shown towards the bird dates from early Christian opposition to the Druidic rites that surrounded it. Today, the wren – as a feature of the event – survives only in the rhyme and in the name of the day, although, in former times, it was hunted and nailed to a pole at the head of the procession.

In West Kerry, the focal point of the Wrenboys parade is a hobby horse. A pantomime-type horse with a wooden head, snapping jaws and a body made from cloth stretched across a timber frame, it is worn on the shoulders of one of the members of the Wren – who whirls and capers at the head of the parade. The horse, for social and military reasons, was of great importance in ancient Ireland. Horses could be both lucky and unlucky, and they had strong associations with the rights to kingship and with fertility. The horse was so important that its introduction to Ireland was credited to the god Lugh. The greatest of the Celtic gods, his name occurs across the continent in placenames like Lyon and Leiden. The cult of the horse was also opposed by the early Christians.


The wren song

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's day was caught inthe furze;
Although he was little, his honor was great.
Jump up, me lads and give him a treat.
[chorus]

Up with the kettle and down with the pan
And give us a penny to bury the wren.
As i was gone to killenaule
I met a wren upon the wall;
Up with me wattle and knocked him down.
And brought him into carrick town.

[chorus]

Droolin, droolin, where's your nest?
"`tis in the bush that i love best;
In the tree, the holly tree,
Where all the boys do follow me.

[chorus]

We followed the wren three miles or more,
Three miles or more, three miles or more,
We followed the wren three miles or more,
At six o'clock in the morning.

[chorus]

We have a little box under me arm,
Under me arm, under me arm,
We have a little box under me arm;
A penny a tuppence will do it no harm.

[chorus]

Missus clancy's a very good woman,
A very good woman, a very good woman,
Missus clancy's a very good woman:
She gave us a penny to bury the wren.


Sources:
http://ww.dingle-peninsula.ie/wren.html
http://www.superiorconcept.org/Firstnight/ireland.htm


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