Little Christmas in Ireland

Christmas in Ireland lasts from Christmas Eve to the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, which is referred to Little Christmas. Ireland's Christmas is more a time for religious celebration rather than revelry. A manger scene, or nativity, is displayed in most homes and there are few Christmas trees.
Lighted candles are placed in windows on Christmas Eve, in order to guide Mary and Joseph to safe shelter. The candles are usually red in color and decorated with sprigs of holly. During the British occupation of all of Ireland during World War II, three candles were placed in the window at Christmas for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Fellow Catholics passing by would know that the house was a Catholic home, and that all friends were welcome there to celebrate Christmas. The candles were also an invitation to priests to enter the home, say the Christmas Mass, eat dinner, and spend the night with the family.
Irish women bake a seed cake for each person in the house. They also make three puddings, one for each day of the Epiphany such as Christmas, New Year's Day and the Twelfth Night. After the Christmas evening meal, bread and milk are left out and the door unlatched as a symbol of hospitality.
Children often put out Christmas sacks instead of stockings. It is tradition to leave mince pies and a bottle of Guinness out as a snack for Santa.
After the evening meal, the table is set with bread and milk and the door left unlatched as a symbol of the hospitality that the family is offering to Mary and Joseph and the little one to come.
St Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, is almost as important, with football matches and meetings going on. Young men in extravagant dress, sometimes wearing masks, parade noisily through the streets in the Wren Boys' Procession. They carry long poles with a holly bush atop it. The bush supposedly contains a captured wren, and for whose sake the young men beg for money.

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