St. Stephen's Day

St. Stephen's Day is a traditional national holiday in Ireland. This day is also s national holiday in England and Canada where it is known as Boxing Day, a reference to "boxing up" all the Christmas stuff...a quintessentially protestant thing to do. The good ol' Catholics in Ireland, however, keep the traditional meaning of this day intact, honoring the feast of the first martyr for Christ...as well as being a handy day to get over that hang-over from the night before!

The killing of the wren is the big tradition on this day. It is a traditional legend that as St. Stephen was being pursued by his would be killers, he found sought refuge in a holly bush as a hiding place. His attakers discovered him, however, when a wren betrayed his hiding place by singing loudly in the bush. In punishment for this crime, all Irish boys would go wren hunting on St. Stephen's Day morning and would then hang the dead bird from a holly bush.

This is also another day of celebrating...since one day is never enough for the Irish. My family will be celebrating this tradition in a similar way as we are going to have Christmas dinner with the extended family (on my Irish-father's side) today. So Happy Feast Day to all my fellow Irish friends...and those who are not Irish as well.