Saint Stephen’s Day and the Wren
Saint Stephen’s Day, the 26th of December, was once commonly known in Ireland as Lá an Dreoilín which means ‘Day of the Wren’ or ‘Wren’s Day’. On this day, all over Ireland, men, usually local bachelors, called ‘Wren Boys,’ paraded through the towns and villages carrying a dead wren on top of a wooden pole and singing the song that is most commonly associated with them, ‘The Wren Song’.
It was a tradition carried on all over Ireland until at least the mid 20th century and is still celebrated in a number of places today, albeit without a wren being hunted.
Why Wrens?
Wrens are one Ireland’s and Europe’s smallest species of bird. The Irish word for Wren is Dreolin, which is believed to be derived from the Irish words ‘draoi éan’, which ‘translates as ‘Druid Bird’. The Druids, the priests of pagan Ireland, used the song and flight patterns of some birds, including wrens, for divination and predicting the future and druids placed curses against people who plundered their nests and stole their eggs.
Wrens were also considered to be clever, ‘trickster-type’ birds. There is the tale, which was being told at least as far back as Aesop in the 6th century BC, of how the wren, despite being one of the smallest birds in Europe, became King of The Birds through its cleverness and trickery. At a meeting of all the various birds, it was decided that the bird that could fly the highest would become king. The eagle soared above them all but the wren was hiding in its feathers and when the eagle grew tired, the wren flew out of the eagle’s feathers and soared higher still. Thus, the wren was proclaimed ‘the King of the Birds’.
However, with the coming of Christianity into Ireland from the 5th century onwards, the local pagan religions and their traditions were suppressed. This meant that the wren lost its sacred role and became solely associated with treachery and wrens were considered ill omens by the Irish in Christian times.
Various tales were told illustrating the treachery of wrens. In Ireland stories were told of how a wren had betrayed the presence of approaching Irish soldiers to Cromwellian troops by beating its wings on the drums of the Irishmen, who were subsequently massacred. A similar tale was told of a wren betraying Irish warriors to Viking forces.
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen, who was the first martyr of Christianity, was also commonly believed to have been betrayed by a wren. Stephen had fallen foul of the religious authorities of Jerusalem and whilst in hiding, his location was betrayed to pursuing Roman soldiers by a wren beating its wings and singing loudly above his hiding place. He was found guilty of blasphemy by the religious authorities of Jerusalem and was stoned to death in about 36 AD.
Punishment for the betrayals carried out by wrens was the common reasons given for hunting the wren on Saint Stephen’s Day.
Wren Boys
Wren’s Day may have its origins in pre-Christian times when although being considered a sacred bird, wrens may have been killed as sacrificial offerings by the druids on particular sacred days, possibly Samhain (Halloween) or winter solstice on the 21st of December. This practice was then integrated with Christian beliefs and became Lá an Dreoilín or Wren’s Day. Stories connected with Oliver Cromwells conquest of Ireland in the mid-17th century would suggest that it may have been celebrated in Ireland at that time at the very latest.
Throughout Ireland on Saint Stephen’s Day, groups of Wren Boys (also known as Straw Boys), wearing straw costumes and masks, called to homes carrying a wooden pole (known as a wren bush or wren pole), decorated with evergreen plants such as holly, ivy or gorse, (also known as furze) and with a dead wren fixed on top of it. This wren had been hunted by beating hedgerows and bushes with sticks, causing the wren to fly away. Sticks and stones were thrown at the escaping wren in order to bring it down. This would not have been an easy task due to the bird’s small size and speed.
The Wren Boys sang laments for the wren and collected money for its funeral. They were also given food and drink and people normally contributed without fuss as the Wren Boys were said to bury the body of the dead wren in front of homes which refused to contribute to the ‘wren’s funeral’, bringing bad luck on the household for the coming year.
The song most associated with the Wren Boys and traditionally sung by them as they called at homes is ‘The Wren Song’, which begins:
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little, his honour 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.
Wren Day in Sandymount, Dublin
This tradition is still carried on in towns such as Dingle in County Kerry and Sandymount in Dublin, but a wren is neither hunted nor killed today. Instead a stuffed or artificial wren is used and money collected is contributed to charity.
The centuries old tradition was restarted in Sandymount in 1984.This year on Saint Stephen’s Day, the costumed Wren Boys will perform at Sandymount Green, Dublin 4 from 12 noon until 2pm. Collections will be made there for designated charities such as the Sandymount Community Centre and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
