Christmas in Ireland – the Twelve Days

St Stephen's Day. Christmas Day in Ireland. Little Christmas.

The modern Christmas in Ireland seems to get underway some time in October when decorations, cards, food fancies and festive gifts begin to appear in shops and on TV. While many complain about this long build-up and the over-commercialisation of what used to be purely a religious festival, the holiday season doesn't really begin in earnest until Christmas Eve: 24th December. Christmas in Ireland means trees hunge with red and gold baubles.

Christmas in Ireland : markets

In the 18th and 19th centuries, The Margadh Mor – the Big Market – kickstarted the countdown to Christmas in Ireland.

Its alternative name – the Live market – was perhaps a better description because this is where the fowl (turkeys, goose, hens) were sold alive.

In the third week, the Dead Market took place. You can work out why. At this market, too, were bought new clothes, whiskey, sweets for the children, tobacco for the adults, and all the ingredients for a Christmas pudding.

The latter, which bears little resemblence to the modern pudding, was boiled on Christmas Eve after the home had been decorated with laurel, holly and ivy. With these final touches the festivities – the Twelve Days of Christmas – commenced.

Of course, there will have been plenty of preparation in terms of buying and cooking and present-buying before then.

It was always so. Even our ancestors had special markets in the lead up to the holiday. See box to the right.

Now, I'm no mathematician but I count 14 days from 24th December to 6th January inclusive. Even if you subtract Christmas Eve which, as its name suggests, is officially before the event so shouldn't count, you still end up with 13 days.

Apparently there are reasons for this. They are to do with Eastern and Western Christian religious observances, and a habit of counting nights as days. All very complicated, and not of any importance in terms of celebrating Christmas in Ireland!

Just accept that whenever the Christmas partying starts, the season ends on the 6th!

Below are some of the traditions, both old and of more recent heritage, of certain days of the festivities.

Christmas Eve

This is the day for final household preparations and decorating the house. For our rural ancestors, the decorations were gathered by the children of the house from lanes and woods nearby. Dressing the fir tree on Christmas Eve is a mid-20th century development of this tradition. In practice, many if not most modern homes have had their tree in full celebration gear for a week or three and it is already the main focus of the family's living room. Wrapped presents collect beneath it.

If it hasn't already been done, lit candles are placed in windows as dark falls. Again, this is an old tradition, symbolic of lighting the way for Mary and Joseph. A small seed cake and drink is also left out for them. Many Irish families still go through this little ritual but many more leave out a mince pie, glass of whiskey and a carrot, intended for Father Christmas and his reindeer who bring gifts for children (good ones only) during the dead of night.

One of the most prevailing traditions of Christmas in Ireland is attendance at Midnight Mass on this night.

Christmas Day

Children discover their gifts from Santy (not Father Christmas, not Santa Claus) at the foot of their beds or beneath the Christmas Tree (depending on family tradition) on this morning.

The day is spent exchanging gifts, eating an extravagant feast of traditional Irish Christmas recipes and generally indulging the palate. Making merry usually involves drinking seasonal concoctions such as mulled wine, Irish cream, whiskey, sherry and champagne.

Christmas Day in Ireland remains very much a family occasion.

The feast of St Stephen

The 26th December is known as the feast of St Stephen or St Stephen's Day in Ireland. In Northern Ireland it is also known as Boxing Day. In most homes it is a sociable day, when visitors may call in to share some seasonal foods or liquid (usually alcoholic) refreshments.

It is also the day when a purely Irish phenomenon can be witnessed: the tradition of Hunting the Wren. This is when the Wren Boys take to the streets in colourful costumes and masks, and noisily parade a dead wren on a decorated pole. It's a strange tradition and its origins are often debated. Some say it originated in Pagan times. Others from the Viking invasion. Most opt for a simplified religious reference: the betrayal by a wren of St Stephen who was hiding from the Romans who subsequently killed him for his Christian beliefs.

This, then, gave the reason for hunting down the wren, and in olden days a bird was, indeed, captured and killed. The Wren Boys would then carry the dead bird on a pole from house to house and beg for money to bury the 'evil bird'.

At each house they would sing their song:

The Wran. The Wran. The king of birds
on St Stephen's Day it was caught in the furze.
Although he is tiny, his family is great.
Put your hand in your pocket and give us a treat.

On Christmas Day I turned the spit.
I burned my finger, I feel it yet,
so up with the kettle and down with the pan;
oh, give me a penny to bury the Wran.

Over time, and probably in only a few isolated instances, the mischievous antics of some Wren Boys grew increasingly boistrous and disorderly. My mother remembers being terrified of the Wren Boys when she was a little girl growing up in co. Carlow, and convinced they would take her away if they found her (she always had an active imagination!). She admits being rather glad when the tradition started to wane.

It used to be celebrated in towns and villages everywhere, but is now observed in only a few locations (mostly in the southwest and Dublin), and is a much more organised affair than it used to be. Instead of running amok, the Wren Boys parade through the streets with music and collect money for charity from spectators and from the many pubs and bars they visit on their way.

Epiphany or 'Little Christmas'

The 6th January,or the feast of the Epiphany, commemorates the arrival of the three Kings or Wise Men at crib. It is the final day of Christmas in Ireland and is the time when all seasonal decorations have to be taken down. Failure to do so results in bad luck, so the superstition goes, unless you leave them up for a full twelve months!

This day is also known as Little Christmas in Ireland. In Irish, Nollaig na mBan, means Women's Christmas. Traditionally, the woman of the house was given a day off after the twelve days of cooking and acting the hostess. Instead, the men would take over family responsibilities while the women went out with their friends. It was probably the only day of the year when the local bar would be full of women rather than men.

Sadly, this is another tradition of Christmas in Ireland that is dying out. There have been attempts to revive it, and some restaurants, bars and hotels still try to entice groups of female friends with special deals. However, in a society where so many women now work outside the home and are economically independent, it seems destined to quietly fade away.