WHILE many of us are aware of the true reason for celebrating Christmas, the origins of the name of Boxing Day remain something of a puzzle.

Perhaps the most likely explanation is that it was upon that day the churches opened their collection boxes, hoping to discover that the Christmas congregations had been especially generous, although another story is that apprentices would visit their boss's customers to collect money which was due, and such funds were placed in custom-made earthernware boxes. It was also the day for giving presents to tradesmen in gratitude for their past year's work; we still do that around Christmas.

In the religious calendar, it is known as St Stephen's Day, whilst within the sporting world there are traditional football and rugger matches, along with hunting and other sports which range from tug o' war contests to swimming, with even a bizarre cricket match at Thornton Watlass, near Bedale.

From a rural point of view, this was also the day when horses and cattle were bled, hopefully to benefit their health, but perhaps the most peculiar event was the Boxing Day Wren Hunt.

It might seem strange that gangs would wish to hunt down and kill such a small, charming and harmless little bird, but that is exactly what happened; indeed the bird's body was hung on a pole and carried ceremoniously through the streets.

This odd ritual was not restricted to England. It was prevalent in some continental countries on Boxing Day as well as the Isle of Man, Wales and Ireland. I believe wren processions can still be seen in some parts of Ireland, although the wren is no longer a carcase - it is a potato with feathers stuck into it to resemble the real creature, or even a plastic replica, for the wren is no longer hunted.

But why was the wren hunted so cruelly? One clue lies in the fact that Boxing Day is the feast day of St Stephen, the day King Wenceslas looked out and saw the snow lying deep and crisp and even while a poor man gathered winter fuel.

Stephen was the first of seven deacons chosen by the apostles, but was caught by the Jews and then stoned to death. This made him the first Christian martyr, but the story is that Stephen was on the point of escaping from his captors when a wren sang and roused the sleeping warders. Had it not been for the loud singing of that little bird, Stephen would have survived, and so the wren became an object of hatred.

There are other stories of a similar nature. One says that when Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, suffering mental agonies because he knew he was soon to be executed on the Cross, a wren kept him company, but sang so loudly that the authorities were able to locate Christ in that vast parkland.

Another version of the tale is that the armies of the Catholic James II were about to surprise the soldiers of the Protestant King William of Orange at dawn when a wren awoke them, not by its loud singing but by beating on a drum. It seems the soldiers had used a drum as a table for one of their meals and the wren was attracted by the scraps, its pecking on the drum producing a noise loud enough to rouse the slumbering men.

As with most legends, there is no firm basis for any of these curious beliefs, but the tales did result in youths hunting wrens and killing them, even though several nations such as France, Sweden and Germany regard the wren as the king of birds.

Such activities are illegal in this country, but now the wren has another enemy - the chill of winter.

A severe winter will quickly kill thousands of these tiny birds, their small size offering no protection against the worse weather. If conditions are extremely severe, dozens of wrens will find a dry and sheltered place in which they can huddle together for warmth but even so, thousands will perish. There were huge losses in the bad winter of 1963, for example, but a few milder winters soon enabled the species to re-establish itself.

For a bird which so readily succumbs to cold weather, the wren does not migrate from our shores during the winter as do many other species, and quite surprisingly, it is widespread throughout these islands, from the tip of Cornwall to John o'Groats and beyond into the Shetlands.

It does, however, migrate within these islands, the chief reason being the need to find food and so while one might have wrens in the garden during the spring and summer, they may disappear, perhaps temporarily, during the chill days of winter.

Recently, we had a wren sleeping in one of our hanging baskets; he had burrowed into the moss to create a warm and dry hollow, but during the past week or so, with winter growing colder, he seems to have moved to pastures new. Perhaps he will return in the spring to build his eight or nine beautifully-constructed nests, only one of which will be selected by his very choosy mate.

Updated: 11:03 Thursday, December 27, 2001