| "A Bush Christening" | |
| Author: | Banjo Paterson |
| Original Title: | "The Christening of Maginnis Magee" |
| First: | The Bulletin |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Preceded By: | "Behind the Scenes" |
| Followed By: | "The Geebung Polo Club" |
| Wikisource: | A Bush Christening |
A Bush Christening is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 16 December 1893 (under its original title of "The Christening of Maginnis Magee"),[1] the Christmas issue of that publication.[2] It has been called "a rollicking account of how the traditional pre-occupations, whisky and religion, come together".[3]
‘Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad’ (stanza 2, line 5) who has never been christened. Magee lives "On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,"(stanza 1, line 1) and rarely sees a priest. By chance a priest passes by one day and his parents decide to christen the boy as soon as possible. The Magee (son) overhears the conversation, and, thinking that a "christening" is like branding of animals, decides to make a run for it. The priest and parents chase after him. They see that they have no chance of catching the runaway boy, ‘so the priest, flung a flask at his head that was labelled ‘Maginnis Whisky’ (stanza 11, line 43, 44). Thereafter the boy is known and christened as "Maginnis Magee". He grows up to be a justice of the peace who hates to be asked how he came to be christened "Maginnis".
The poem has been linked by Australian literary researcher Lucy Sussex to an anonymous story, "Peggy's Christening", in the Colonial Monthly, April 1868.