Ebook wait

Stephen's Day go about with it from house to house, singing:

"The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze;
Although he is little, his family's great,
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat."

Money or food (bread, butter, eggs, etc.) were given them, upon
which they feasted in the evening.
In the first half of the nineteenth century similar customs were
still observed in various parts of the south of France. Thus at
Carcassone, every year on the first Sunday of December the young
people of the street Saint Jean used to go out of the town armed
with sticks, with which they beat the bushes, looking for wrens. The
first to strike down one of these birds was proclaimed King. Then
they returned to the town in procession, headed by the King, who
carried the wren on a pole. On the evening of the last day of the
year the King and all who had hunted the wren marched through the
streets of the town to the light of torches, with drums beating and
fifes playing in front of them.


Pages:
1481 1482 1483 1484 1485 1486 1487 1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505