Since I am from northern Ireland
it is appropriate today, St Stephen's or Boxing Day,
to mention and celebrate the old tradition of Wren-boys,
also known as Straw-boys, which has survived
in county Armagh and has been revived
in south-west Ireland. The ritual of Hunting the Wren
is related to many European
midwinter festivals and processions.
Traditional English Christmas Mummers,
dressed in ribbons and rags, were active
in London up to the 1960s, as was the Mari Lywd
horse-head tradition in Wales. (Be amazed at the youTube
subtitles from spoken Welsh!) In England also
Jacks-in-the-Green covered themselves with ivy
to parade as spirits of the forest, and hence regeneration.
In Cantabria men disguise themselves as trees.
Irish straw-boy head-dresses retain vestiges of the horns
in some European traditions...which may have morphed
into the reindeer which pull St Nicholas'/Father Frost's sleigh.
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| Irish Straw Boys, 1920s. |
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| A recent photo of a straw-boy bagpiper, Northern Ireland. |
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| Musical straw-boys, 1970s ? See also here on pinterest. |
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| Wrenboy, county Armagh, by Charles Fréger. |
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| Strawboys at Emhain Macha, co. Armagh, by Eamonn Quinn. |
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| Strawboys at Armagh Courthouse, by Eamonn Quinn. |
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| Wrenboy, county Fermanagh, by Charles Fréger. |
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| Mari Lwyd decorated horse-skull, Wales. |
see also:
winter-masquerades-carnival-jason-gardner
PS.
Burning the Devil, Guatemala.
photo by Edwin Bercián
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