School: Ferbane (Convent)
- Location:
- Ferbane, Co. Offaly
- Teacher: Sr. Patrick
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0813, Page 387
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- XML “Festival Customs”
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- On Christmas Eve we put Christmas candles in the windows, to show light to travellers, because on the first Christmas night the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph were journeying through Bethlehem looking for a resting place for that night.
On Christmas Day no one leaves his or her own house to go visiting neighbours and friends.
On Saint Stephen's Day five or six boys dress themselves up in torn clothes, and colour their faces so that nobody will know them. Then they kill a wren and tie it on top of a branch of holly. Each one has a musical instrument of his own. They go from house to house singing the wren's song which is as follows.:-
"The Wren, The Wren, the king of all birds,
Saint Stephen's Day she was caught in the furze,
From bush, to bush, from tree, to tree,
Up with the kettle, down with the pan,
A penny or twopence to bury the wren,
So ladies and gentlemen open your purse,
And this time twelve-months you will be(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Madeline Robinson
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Ballyclare, Co. Offaly
