... or otherwise known as St. Stephen's feast day. England and Canada is where it is referred to as Boxing Day.
After several years of disasterous Christmas dinners on the 25th (things such as the septic tank backing up into the ktichen sink...) we finally decided we would no long have Christmas dinner on Christmas day but rather on Boxing Day.
So today we are being tantalized by delicious smells issuing from the kitchen and friends are slowly starting to gather in the house. We are hoping our parish priest will stop by. He is hoping that he can.
I hope one and all had a very peaceful and joyful celebration yesterday. I hope you all continue to enjoy the Christmas Octave!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!!!
3 comments:
In Ireland we used to celebrate St. Stephen's with a throw back to the old mid-winter human sacrifice. By the 1970s, we had a wee stuffed wren, but not long before that, young men would go up into the hills to kill a wren with a cudgel. The Wren procession ( in most towns, Wren processions ) would then bring the bird, in a small basket, accompanied by ancient fifes and drums... the procession would include straw boys, big woven oat costumes, dresses capes and a conical hat of woven oat straw, a king and queen of the Wren, an oncha ( crabby woman ) and an amadan ( eejit boy ), and best of all, a hobby horse. The hobby horse is a fellow who can disguise his voice, and is covered all over by a horse costume, with movable jaws, the horse insults everyone in town, pointing up their most annoying aspects, so they will behave better in the future... We carried on the tradition in New York, years ago, with Drooleen Tarra Nua, ( I might be off with the second word ) the Wren of the New Land...
One St. Stephen's night, we rounded a corner in Inwood ( far uptown New York ) fifes and drums blaring out Kerry Wren tunes... when we ran into an old woman, oh must have been in her eighties... she looked started for an instant, then began haltingly to do a jig step... clapping her hands. She had not seen a Wren for decades... she was from Kerry. What a night... magic.
(Fill in the blank... ) is a very nice woman very nice woman very nice woman
____ is a very nice woman,
She's given us tuppence to burry the Wren...
Happiest New Year to all...
lor
Christi, thank you for joining others in praying for our family this weekend. This experience and the support we received touched us deeply. Thank you so much. God bless you!
Boxing day is big in Africa too!
I believe it comes from the British.
Merry Christmas to you all too!!
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