Wren Boys
On St. Stephen's Day every year boys and young men have great fun. They go about as Wren Boys. they dress themselves up in old cloths and put masks on their faces so that no one would know them. They spend the day going about from house to house. They have musical instruments of different kinds and at each house they play music and sing and dance. One of the boys carries a holly bush dressed with coloured ribbons and with a dead wren hanging on it. The boy who carries the bush is called the king of the Wren Boys. When the music and dancing is over the king of the Wren Boys steps forward with the bush and recites some verses such as the following.
I
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds