Wren Party 2012

In the Irish community, St. Stephen's Day is celebrated the day after Christmas with a Wren Party. Traditionally, a group of young lads would kill a wren, put it on a stick, then go around the neighborhood wearing fancy made up hats, singing for their neighbors and threatening to leave the poor dead wren (hence, bad luck) if not given a coin or treat.

Our modern wren party does not involve the killing of any small birds but we do get together, wear funny hats (usually having some pretend bird on them somewhere), and sing, dance, tell stories, have a puppet show for the children, etc... The party is  a lot of fun for all.

Each year, Haley looks forward to making her wren hat and joining in the parade of hats and participating in the hat competition. She has taken 1st for her hats each year but I think that has more to do with the many fans of her fiddle playing than any actual hat making gift though she does a good job on her hats. She also dances those ceili dances she knows and joins the band when not dancing.

Wren hats on parade