Wren Day is celebrated on 26 December, St. Stephen’s Day in a number of countries across Europe. The tradition consists of “hunting” a fake wren and putting it on top of a decorated pole. Then the crowds of mummers, or strawboys, celebrate the wren (also pronounced wran) by dressing up in masks, straw suits, and colourful motley clothing. They form music bands and parade through towns and villages. These crowds are sometimes called the wrenboys.
A mother who was advised to have an abortion more than ten times is set to celebrate her first at home Christmas with her daughter. Chloe Conlin, a mother from Norwich, refused to have an abortion despite pressure from doctors. Her daughter, Miyah, now 14 months old, has a serious heart defect called atrial isomerism. She underwent open-heart surgery last Christmas Eve shortly after she was born.
Is history repeating itself and will we, for once, learn from history? In 1792, flames of the revolution lit in Paris had engulfed France. Revolutionary fervour and the fury of the people against the ruling caste reached a crescendo. Foreign forces (gimmigrants) were looming over the borders, threatening to quash those defiant voices. It was at such a time, on a night of gathering storm, that an ordinary soldier penned a song that became the greatest inspiring force of the people’s revolt against a tyrannical government. This is the story of that stirring song, La Marseillaise.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over the weekend uploaded a video to social media where he announced the latest government measures which have been enacted to help Hungarian families and businesses cope with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
Birdwatcher stumbles upon £800,000 hoard of 2,000-year-old Celtic gold coins dating from time Boudicca was at war with the Romans.
Experts say each coin is worth up to £650 and could have belonged to Boudicca.
The lucky finder said ‘a cascade of coins fell out,’ of an urn he had unearthed.
Despite Shia Islam’s status as the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Middle Eastern nation’s Christian community is thought to number as many as one million people, including some of its oldest denominations, among them the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Catholic Church.
Children raised in a nuclear family are safer, healthier, happier, and more successful. So, of course, the radicals want to abolish it and raise kids in communes, because ‘parents are tyrants.’
THE RIVER, BAR AND BIGHT
Nostalgia for the life ashore,
But as a magnet drawn,
The gentle movement of the deck,
Tells me again I’m borne;
For distant shores I’ve never seen,
What better than to sleep and dream,
To lullaby of engine room,
Its song of fate, adventure, doom?
The nativity scene (creche) created by Tomáš Krýza (in Czech Krýzovy jesličky) is a large mechanical construction, since 1998 mentioned in Guinness Book of World Records as the largest one in the world.
Without inspiration, there can be no communication. Every line we read be it a news report, biography or poem, is inspired by someone or something. Such was my inspiration when from my rooftop garden situated on the highest home in Mijas Pueblo I watched a sunset to die for. Yes, it was indeed Christmas Eve 2011. Inspired, I then scrawled my thoughts down. ~ Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh Stories and Books 
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