Day 1 of the 25 Days of Nightlight Readings: The Little Drummer Boy

One of my brother's favorite Christmas carols was "The Little Drummer Boy." I recall as children in our Sunday school Christmas recital, him and his buddy fought over who was going to play the Drummer Boy. Both wanted to "pa, rum, pa-pa-pum" on the little drum and to appease both exuberant drummers, they ended with two Drummer Boys who learned to take turns.

Originally titled "Carol of the Drum," written and composed by Katherine Kennicott Davis, a music teacher at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1941. Davis composed the song based on an old Czech carol; however, the original carol has not been uncovered. The song was first recorded by the Trapp Family Singers (yes, the very family depicted in the Sound of Music) and made popular by Harry Simeone.

Since Simeone the song has graced the talented vocals of such singers as Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey (to name a few). It appears everyone has learned to take turns with this one.

Most recently the Pentatonix released a video of their version of the song.

Day 11 of Nightlight Readings: Jingle Bells

Currier & Ives

One of the best known winter songs, written by James Lord Pierpont in the 1850s, was first titled as "One Horse Open Sleigh." There is some historical debate on where Pierpont actually wrote the carol. Medford, Massachusetts claims the birthplace of the song, while historians have placed Pierpont in Georgia during this time period. People of Medford claim he wrote the song in a local tavern in 1850, but historians have since found that Pierpont was an organ player for his brother's church in Georgia and married the mayor of Savannah during this time period. As far as we have been able to pinpoint, Pierpont stayed on even after the church was closed due to abolitionism. 

Whether Pierpont wrote the song in a tavern in Massachusetts or in a church in Georgia, his sleigh-ride carol has become timeless and worldwide—even universal!

On December 16, 1965, Gemini 6 called Mission Control to say:

We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit... I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit....

The crew then put on a show of "Jingle Bells," featuring a harmonica and sleighbells.

Day 6 of Nightlight Readings: Gloucestershire Wassail

 

Many of us have heard the more popular Wassailing Song, "Here we come a-wassailing, among the leaves so green, here we come a-wassailing...," but there is a little known song that exemplifies that most towns had their own wassailing song, the "Gloucestershire Wassail."

The tradition of wassailing dates back to pre-Christian Briton, but we have a more modern image of folks walking around a village singing carols and drinking. Wassail, (old English Waes Hael, a salute for 'good health'), a drink of hot mulled/spiced ale, cider, or mead, traditionally used to drink to the health of the following year's apple orchard and ensure evil spirits are kept away in a pagan ritual of pouring the wassail on the bare tree branches. The ceremonies are held, depending on the village traditions, but most commonly on Old Twelfth Night (January 17th—part of the Epiphany celebration).

 

Later, during the Middle Ages, wassailing became a tradition between feudal lords and their peasants, where it was acceptable for the peasants to travel the manor to "beg" for food and drink in exchange for goodwill; which begins our modern vision of wassailing.

Our modern vision of wassailing was not fully celebrated until the late 18th century and early 19th century, where groups of carolers carried a decorated wassail bowl, which was either filled with a small pine tree, to take wassail from the visited houses, or collect money.

Day 5 of Nightlight Readings: Silver Bells

Have you heard of the Christmas song, "Tinkle Bells?" Of course not! Because Jay Livingston's wife told him, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle is?" Thus, it became "Silver Bells." Could you imagine singing:

Tinkle bells tinkle bells

It's Christmas time in the city

Doesn't have the right ring to it. The song was written for the Bob Hope movie, "The Lemon Drop Kid," released in the spring of 1951 (most movies back then were released during the spring and summer, as that was the popular time to go to the movies, including Christmas movies). In October of the previous year, Bing Crosby and Carol Richards recorded a version of the song, making it popular by the time the movie was released. Due to the popularity of the song by Bing, Hope and Maxwell were called to the set to rerecord a more elaborate production of the song.

Day 3 of Nightlight Readings: The Holly and the Ivy

 

Holly was seen as sacred to the European druids and the Romans considered it the plant of Saturn. As the Christian faith began to spread throughout Europe, holly quickly became a symbol of Christmas. Henry VIII, a known writer of songs (see Greensleeves), wrote a love song featuring the plant.

The carol "The Holly and the Ivy" may possibly be older than an early 18th century mention of it in a broadside. However, there are manuscripts explaining ancient English villages holding singing contests during the winter solstice, where the men sang about holly (seen as masculine) and the women sang about ivy (seen as feminine). Of course the only resolution to this contest was underneath the mistletoe. These three plants are prominent in England during the winter.

Day 24 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: Coventry Mystery Plays

  

Most of us have heard "Coventry Carol" play on our Christmas Pandora Radio Station this year, but little known of the carol other than its a Christian noel.  The song was written to play in a collection of medieval plays in Coventry, England titled The Coventry Mystery Plays or Coventry Corpus Cristi Pageants (plays as such were performed to the common classes, as many could not read the Bible). Yes, they had Christmas pageants back in the 14th century. To this day, only two of the plays survived (historians predict there were dozens), one of which was called "The Shearmen and the Tailor's Pageant," a nativity play depicting the annunciation of Mary, the birth of Christ, and the massacre of the innocents (King Herod's orders to kill all male children under two years of age). In this very play the actors perform "Coventry Carol."

Day 21 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: Of the Father's Love Begotten

It is hard to say what the oldest Christmas carol is, but this one comes pretty close, as it was first written as a poem by the Roman poet Prudentius during the 4th century. It was then called Corde natus. Early Christmas hymns were written about the virgin birth, often chanted in mass (called plainchants—a melodic chant). Corde natus or "Of the Father's Love Begotten," was sung to the plainchant Divinium mysterium, in the earliest known manuscripts. The plainchant was not replaced by the poem in hymn until 1851.

I leave you tonight with this entertaining little bit from Darby above Notting Hill (say this in a British accent as you read it).

Day 17 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: Silent Night

Silent Night tells the story of the Christmas Truce in 1914 during WWI. There is some variation on the story, but this book tells the true story behind the truce. The spontaneous truce which occurred in the trenches during Christmas, caused a moment of peace between the Germans, Scottish, and French soldiers. That very night they set aside their weapons and instead spent the evening exchanging goods, sharing food and drinks, and even sharing a song or two, one being "Silent Night" (which everyone knew in their own language).

Originally in German, an Austrian priest, wrote the Christmas hymn nearly a hundred years prior to the evening in the trenches. There are several myths surrounding the creation of the carol, but one seems pretty repetitive that Franz Gruber, the composer, wrote the song with a guitar melody because the church organ was broken. Whether this is accurate or not, is debatable.

As I was researching the Christmas Truce this evening I thought, wouldn't it have been cool to have an actual recording of the three opposing sides singing "Silent Night." Of course this is not possible, because (not to my knowledge) film was not being recorded on war front until WWII—and it was limited to even then. Now a-days, we would have seen the video go viral on YouTube and all the media sites. If only...the best I can do is show a clip from a French film (thanks to the suggestion of a teacher friend of mine) "Joyeux Noel."

Day 14 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: Greensleeves

Just as the tune of "O Tannenbaum" has been used in many songs, so has "Greensleeves." Originally believed to have been written by King Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn, as he was trying to woe her and was at first rejected, historians now say that the song is Elizabethan. They say thus, because the song is written in an Italian composition that did not migrate to England until after his death. We further know that the song was well known by Shakespeare's time, for he mentions the song in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

More popularly played during the Christmas season is "What Child is This?" in the "Greensleeves" tune, which was written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix, a surgeon and hymn writer. With the tune sped up is the older and traditional "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" (which is one of my favorites by Nat King Cole), which can be traced back to 17th century Derbyshire.

"I Saw Three Ships," is about three ships sailing into Bethlehem carrying the magi after the birth of Christ on Christmas morning. We all know the song lyrics are not historically accurate as the magi more than likely arrived two years after Jesus' birth and the closest body of water is the Dead Sea, which is at least 20 miles away. It is possible that the song is inspired from an event that took place in the 12th century, when relics of the magi sailed into Cologne, Germany to the site of the Cologne Cathedral (which had been previously housed in Milan, Italy at the basilica—some of the relics have since returned to Milan).

Day 11 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: O Tannenbaum

The tradition of Christmas trees are originally a German one, that can be traced back to the ancient Gauls, who used to surround their homes with evergreen branches during winter. But if you think about, the decorated Christmas trees of our modern tradition are rather new. Most give the introduction of the Christmas tree tradition to Queen Victoria, but already the tradition was spreading from Germany as Germans were immigrating from their country. Queen Victoria herself grew up with two Christmas trees set up in her room every year, but with the printing of the above illustration in Godey's Lady's Book in December of 1850, this new tradition of decorating a family Christmas tree was spreading rapidly through the Western world. This image was continually reprinted in such feminine magazines like Godey's every year and by 1870 setting up a Christmas tree in the family home was a common thing.

Since we can trace the Christmas tree tradition back to Germany, so can we trace one of the oldest Christmas carols, "O Tannenbaum" (translated 'fir tree' but sung "O Christmas Tree" in English). The earliest known written lyrics can be dated back to 1550. The popular tune, which has been used to the lyrics of state anthems, and have been in everything from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to "Glee."

So as we decorate our Christmas tree, I am reminded of the old tradition of evergreens and how commonplace the tradition may now seem for us today were not as familiar to our ancestral counterparts. The tradition of a decorated Christmas tree is a rather new one in America.