Wren Day
Irish and Manx tradition on 26 December
Wren Day, or Hunt the Wren Day, or Hunt the Wren, is an Irish and Manx custom on 26 December, Saint Stephen's Day. Traditionally, men and boys hunted a wren, which was revered as the 'king of the birds'. They displayed it on top of a staff decorated with holly, ivy and ribbons, or in a decorated box on top of a pole. This was paraded around the neighbourhood by a group of 'Wrenboys'—typically dressed in straw masks, greenery and colourful motley clothing—who sang songs and played music in exchange for donations. This was meant to ensure prosperity for the coming year. Afterwards, the wren was buried. On the Isle of Man, they held a funeral for the wren and danced around a 'wren pole'.
“Wren Day” enters the record as irish and Manx tradition on 26 December. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wren, Irish and Manx can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wren Day” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.