FLYING AROUND THE FARLEIGHS WITH RAY MORRIS
SOMETHING TO DO ON BOXING DAY?
Once upon a time, before the Boxing Day Sales had been invented and it was still celebrated as St Stephen’s Day, young Farleighs Folk may have practised the yuletide custom of Hunting the Wren. It was celebrated across England, southern Ireland and the Isle of Man, but was associated with Twelfth Night in Wales. A wren was killed and paraded, hanging on a pole, around the village. As with Guy Fawkes and Halloween, it provided an excuse to demand money, cakes or mugs of ale from villagers supposedly lucky enough to be visited. Good luck, of course, being the householders’ reward for sending the young men on their way with the aforesaid goodies.
Despite being known in folklore as The King of the Birds, the wren also became associated with some historical bad luck stories and so became fair game for superstitious minds. According to one, prior to his execution, St Stephen had succeeded in freeing himself from his captors when a wren flew against the face of a guard who duly woke up and secured the escaping saint-to-be.
The customs varied, of course, depending on where the unfortunate wren found itself. Another Biblical excuse was that when Jesus was being hunted in the Garden of Gethsemane, the soldiers were alerted to his whereabouts by the bird’s piercingly loud song. Once again, it became the villain of the piece and fair game for the superstitious.
In Ireland, protestant Orangemen seized upon the account of King William’s army being saved from the approaching Catholic King James’ men when, early in the morning, wrens landed on drums to peck crumbs left after their evening meal by the sleeping soldiers. Once again, the noise from a wren woke the soldiers and saved the day – or not, depending on which side you were on.
In Wales, the unfortunate bird was apparently paraded around the village at night, when young men and boys with blackened faces, visited the homes of couples who had been married in the past year. The husband was expected to invite the revellers in and provide them with generous mugs of Christmas ale. Failure to do so would result in the visitors singing a verse in Welsh meaning: ’May a raging wind come suddenly to turn the house upside down.’ One can only assume that a wise husband would meet their demands as, no doubt inebriated on the ale that other husbands had provided, the wren hunters were likely to return in the early hours and sprinkle cold water on the sleeping couple. The excuse offered by Manxmen for the ritual slaughter was that the bird was known to change itself into a Siren and lead fishermen to their deaths.
Curiously, the wren was venerated in Scotland where it was known as ‘The Lady of Heaven’s Hen’ – so harming the wren north of the border would result in your cows yielding milk stained with blood. It is also known as poulette de Dieu (God’s chicken) in France where it covered the baby Jesus with moss and feathers in his manger.
So, if you are fortunate enough to see or hear this endearing little bird in your garden on Boxing Day, forget superstition and count yourself lucky you can enjoy its perky demeanour and loud song at the darkest time of our year.