It. Stephen was the first Christian martyr (protomartyr)
to be murdered for his faith, Stephen was stoned by the Jewish council
who accused the young deacon of blasphemy. More likely the council
members "'were
offended when Stephen accused them of being "stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in hearts and ears", although the opposite would have
made medical history.
One of the more bizarre commemorations of
St. Stephen's death is still practiced in remote areas of the British
Isles by village boys called Wren Boys. On St. Stephen's Day, the Wren
Boys catch a wren, stone it
to death, decorate it with scarlet ribbons to symbolize
the flowing
blood, and tie the blood-drenched
murdered wren to a stick. The Wren Boys then visit all of the houses in
the village, tap the front doors with the stick to which the wren is
attached, and sing weird songs. The villagers give the boys either a gift or
money, probably to stop them from singing. This custom is
a Christianized Druidic ritual which required the sacrifice of
wrens at the winter solstice.
St.
Stephen has been adopted as the patron saint of potheads because
he was the first Christian martyr to be stoned to death. Jerry Garcia of
The Grateful Dead even wrote a song titled
Saint Stephen. Stephen is also
the patron saint of horses. It was a common European custom in
past centuries that horses should be bled on St. Stephen's Day to be
copiously let blood, to insure them against disease during the
following year. In Central Europe, it
is still traditional for farmers to decorate their horses with garlands
of flowers and take than to the local church to be
-blessed
along with a supply of oats and hay. In Poland and other Slavic
countries., St. Stephen's Day was also
celebrated by having children throw walnuts at each other, symbolizing
St. Stephen's stoning.
The Poles also bake podkovy (St. Stephen's Horns), a sweet bread baked in
the shape of a horseshoe to commemorate the saint's patronage over
horses |
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