I am not a hunter and a pretty novice fisherman at best. Yet there’s something about the traditions and customs of both sports that I love.
If you’re a regular reader of my columns, you know of my admiration for conservationists such as Aldo Leopold, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Muir, who embraced the spirituality of the outdoors in their efforts to preserve it.
So, this month, as we gather to celebrate all sorts of holiday traditions, I thought I’d write about a custom that only a few sportsmen might be familiar with: St. Hubert’s Day.
Legend says that Hubert was a French nobleman born in 638 A.D. Hunting was his obsession. After his wife died, he retreated to the woods as a form of solace.
On one Good Friday hunt, Hubert reportedly encountered a stag with a glowing crucifix hovering in between his antlers during a hunt in the Ardennes Forest, in modern Belgium.
