Why was the Partridge in the Pear Tree? Read online

  Contents

   Title Page

   Foreword

   Introduction

   1 Wassailing, Mari Lwyd and Singing in the Pub

   2 The Puritans Tried to Kill Christmas

   3 The Golden Age of Carols

   4 The Coventry Carol

   5 The Twelve Days of Christmas

   6 The Holly and the Ivy

   7 Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

   8 O Come All Ye Faithful

   9 Angels from the Realms of Glory

  10 Silent Night, Holy Night

  11 Once in Royal David’s City

  12 Good King Wenceslas

  13 In the Bleak Midwinter

   Copyright

  Foreword

  As winter approaches and the days get shorter and darker, the shops and streets begin to fill with Christmas decorations and lights, and before we have managed to think of cards and presents, we start hearing Christmas carols all around us – on the radio, in TV commercials and as we shop in the supermarket. Christmas carols have become part of our culture and carol services are still popular in our churches and cathedrals as we hear of the message of the birth of Jesus and how God chose to visit his people. Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, although they were pagan songs and people danced as they sang and celebrated the Winter Solstice feast, the shortest day of the year.

  The early Christians took over the pagan feast as the feast of the birth of Jesus Christ and they began to sing Christian songs, most of which were written in Latin. In the thirteenth century, St Francis of Assisi changed all that when he introduced the Christmas crib as a focus of devotion and also the Nativity Plays to communicate the message of Christmas. The people in the plays sang songs in their own languages and the audiences joined in the choruses and so the tradition of Christmas carols was established and they were sung by families in homes and churches and passed down from generation to generation. When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans ‘banned’ the celebration of Christmas, people sang carols in secret and then in Victorian times they were collected from the villages and sung more widely. New carols were written and people enjoyed singing carols in schools and churches and in the streets. They even went from door to door and often collected money for charity at the same time.

  In 1918, Eric Milner-White, the Dean of Kings College Cambridge introduced the now famous service of Nine Lessons and Carols to celebrate the ending of the First World War. It is still broadcast today and is a feature of many cathedrals, colleges and parish churches. More recently, churches have introduced the Moravian Christingle service, which along with Crib Services are very popular with children and adults alike.

  Carols relate the wonder of the Christmas story told by St Luke about the birth of Jesus, who millions of Christians all around the world today acknowledge as their Lord and God. The story of the king of kings being born in a lowly stable to a young mother far from home often contrasts with our own homes and the Christmas lights and trees and the over-indulgence of food and drink. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercialism and celebrations that we forget the central message of Christmas, that God loved us so much that he gave us his Son to live among us.

  Christmas carols contain the central message of that wondrous event when angels sang and shepherds and Wise Men came to worship – and we are also invited to worship the Christ-child. We may sing the carols without reflecting a great deal on the words we are hearing, so I hope this book will provide fresh insights into what we sing and make us think more deeply of what God has done for us. Mark Lawson-Jones has done a remarkable job in researching some of best loved carols and illuminating them with stories of how they were written and what they mean. I hope this beautiful book will bring pleasure to many and also provide an answer to that seasonal question of what to give friends and relatives for Christmas.

  Dominic Walker OGS, Bishop of Monmouth

  Introduction

  Christmas carols always seem to bring out the be.st in people. It’s as if we can travel back in time to a place where life was less complicated and Christmas was full of joy and magic. The churches fill with people and in our villages, towns and cities people meet to stand together in the cold to sing songs. ‘The Holly and the Ivy’, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ or ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ can fill us with hope for the future and renew our belief in humanity once again, even if it is a short-lived feeling.

  Christmas has been a time of rest, celebration and sharing for many hundreds of years. However, as I wrote the chapters of this book I couldn’t help thinking that we seem to accept so much about Christmas carols and songs without questioning. Intermingled with the Christian imagery there are frequent mentions of evergreen plants, historic dances and practices and even ritual dating back to times long before the first Christmas. Much of this seems to go unquestioned and uninvestigated. Why was the partridge in the pear tree? Who was Good King Wenceslas? And what are the pagan origins behind ‘The Holly and the Ivy’?

  I had always thought that many Christmas carols had their roots in the Middle Ages, but this turned out to be far from true. Whist researching this book I discovered how Christmas was nearly killed off in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, I discovered that the ‘Golden Age of Carols’ was the nineteenth century and I discovered carols that united soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War.

  Last Christmas I officiated at the marriage of Jim and Alison Dennehy, in the historic setting of St Mary’s Church, in the village of Magor, South Wales. The service took place one week before Christmas and snow was on the ground. As the celebration of Christmas mingled with the celebration of the promises they made to one another I wondered why more couples didn’t opt for a marriage ceremony at this time of year. All the elements for a successful day were present; family, friends, food and drink. The Christmas carols really set the scene and made the day even more special as the couple started their married life together.

  St Mary’s Church, Magor, in the snow.

  What, then, is the history of this excellent tradition of singing carols and songs around Christmas that can add so much to special occasions? When did it all start?

  When did we start singing?

  Some suggest that the word carol derives from the Old French, or Middle English carole, meaning ‘to dance’. Alternatively, it could be related to the late Latin choraula, meaning ‘a choral song’. Whichever root the word originates from, we can be fairly certain that the ‘dancing’ element of caroling was relatively short lived, and the term has come to be associated with singing in a loud and joyous manner, in the pub, at home, in church or door to door. However they appeared first, Christmas carols are a firm tradition still celebrated today. What is intriguing is that although many carols describe religious events relating to the birth of Jesus Christ, evergreen plants such as the holly (ilex aquifolium) are frequently mentioned too. These facts are investigated in more depth later in this book and will point towards the rich history of carols and Christmas songs that have only really found a home in the church since the early nineteenth century. Before this, carols were more likely to be sung by wassailers and carolers in the squares, streets, pubs and homes of Britain.

  It’s wholly possible that the earliest carols date back to the thirteenth century. There has been some speculation that the words of ‘Adeste Fideles’ (O Come all ye Faithful) date back to that century, if the lyrics can be attributed to St Bonaventure, the Italian scholar. This is still quite a mystery however, and there is no firm evidence either way.

  ‘The Coventry Carol’ refers to the Massacre of the Inn
ocents when Herod ordered all infant boys to be killed. It is a haunting lament of a mother for her child, and was written for a Mystery Play in the sixteenth century that told the story of the nativity. All the earliest manuscripts have been lost, leaving some question over the original words. There were also two other carols written for the play that would have been sung by the shepherds in the nativity story. All three would have been performed in an unaccompanied three-part harmony.

  ‘I Saw Three Ships’ was thought to have first been sung in the fifteenth century, mainly because the original tune was a variant of Greensleeves, which people believed was written by King Henry VIII. This is wholly incorrect. Henry didn’t write Greensleeves; it is Elizabethan in origin and based on an Italian style of composition that didn’t arrive in England until long after his death. The carol first appeared in print in Derbyshire in the seventeenth century and was reintroduced by the prolific carol collectors and editors William B. Sandys and Davies Gilbert in 1833, at what was the start of the golden age of Christmas carols. This demonstrates the mystery that surrounds almost every Christmas carol and song.

  Just as a popular musician can secure his or her place in musical history with one good Christmas Hit, it appears that hymn-writers have secured their place in the Christmas hall of fame with their writing or rewriting of classic Christmas carols. From the early eighteenth century and Charles Wesley, to John Mason Neale, Christina Rossetti and Cecil Frances Alexander in the nineteenth century, their best remembered and most loved compositions have been the ones they wrote for Christmas.

  As a parish priest, working as a team rector in a large semi-rural parish, I can see how, as Christmas approaches, the Church has the opportunity to serve the community by leading the celebrations in many ways. We arrange advent services in the run up to the Christmas season, as one might expect. But also, in an old Moravian service, oranges are decorated to tell the Christmas story and message, commonly known as Christingle.

  Midnight Mass, as Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day, fills the church with revellers, anxious to sing the classic carols and get a good start to their Christmas celebrations. In addition to these events we mustn’t forget the many carol services in the churches, pubs and streets. By the time the turkey is on the table, dozens of extra events have taken place, with the usual mountain of mince pies, washed down with a considerable amount of sherry and mulled wine. The celebrations and festivities all take place to the soundtrack of Christmas, the traditional carols and songs that are loved by so many. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

  In this book we are going to look at some of the best loved carols and the age-old traditions that gave rise to them. We are going to look at how Christmas was nearly stopped forever, and how today in the strangest of places, carols and songs are kept alive by groups of people who protect histories and traditions that would otherwise disappear.

  Reverend Mark Lawson-Jones, 2011

  1

  Wassailing, Mari Lwyd and Singing in the Pub

  Here we come a-wassailing

  Among the leaves so green,

  Here we come a-wand’ring

  So fair to be seen.

  Refrain

  Love and joy come to you,

  And to you your wassail, too,

  And God bless you, and send you

  A Happy New Year,

  And God send you a Happy New Year.

  We are not daily beggars

  That beg from door to door,

  But we are neighbours’ children

  Whom you have seen before.

  Good master and good mistress,

  As you sit beside the fire,

  Pray think of us poor children

  Who wander in the mire.

  We have a little purse

  Made of ratching leather skin;

  We want some of your small change

  To line it well within.

  Bring us out a table

  And spread it with a cloth;

  Bring us out a cheese,

  And of your Christmas loaf.

  God bless the master of this house,

  Likewise the mistress too;

  And all the little children

  That round the table go.

  The history of Christmas songs, carols and traditions takes us on a journey of over a thousand years to the present day; almost everything we sing, say or do needs closer investigation to understand the rich tapestry of convention and practice. People of every generation have adopted, changed and made traditions to celebrate together in mid-winter. One of the most persistent and curious is the one we consider in this chapter. No book on Christmas would be complete without looking closely at the wassail and wassailing. It’s so curious that it has its own song!

  The word ‘wassail’ derives from an Anglo-Saxon phrase, Waes Hael, which means to ‘to be healthy’. When Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote The History of Kings (1135), he told the famous story of wassail, dating back to the fifth century where Vortigern, King of the Britons, meets Rowena, daughter of Hengist, a Germanic mercenary who served him:

  Rowena and King Vortigern.

  While King Vortigern was being entertained by Hengist at a royal banquet, the girl Rowena, Hengist’s daughter, came out of an inner room carrying a golden goblet full of wine. She walked up to the King, curtsied low, and said ‘Lavert King, was hail!’ When he saw the girl’s face, Vortigern was greatly struck by her beauty and was filled with desire for her. He asked his interpreter what it was that the girl had said and what he ought to reply to her. ‘She called you Lord King,’ answered the interpreter, and did you honour by drinking your health. What you should reply is ‘drinc hail’.’ Vortigern immediately said the words ‘drinc hail’ and ordered Rowena to drink. Then he took the goblet from her hand, kissed her and drank in his turn. From that day to this the tradition has endured in Britain that the one who drinks first at a banquet says ‘was hail’ to his partner, and he who drinks next says ‘drinc hail’.

  Unfortunately, history takes a cruel turn and eventually Rowena seduces King Vortigern, this results in the Night of the Long Knives when Hengist’s men massacre the Britons at a peace accord, bringing about the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain.

  A woodcut of a man preparing for wassailing.

  The term ‘wassail’ at this stage is no more than a declaration, a blessing or a wish that your host might enjoy good health. Its association with treachery and murder seems to slip away, and the term wassail remains in popular usage. It is mentioned once again in the eighth-century epic poem Beowulf as a toast, it’s translated there as ‘be of good health’.

  Since the twelfth century, the meaning of the word seems to have changed from a simple greeting and was instead used to describe an important event in the life of any community or village.

  Usually held around Christmas and the New Year, the wassail was a party where people would meet and drink considerable amounts of beer or cider, pledging each others’ health. To be a wassailer was to be a merry maker, reveller and carouser.

  Soon after this, it became traditional to have a Wassail Bowl with beer or cider, into which fine white bread and cakes were communally dipped. In the 1320s Peter de Lantoft repeated this story, portraying people drinking from the same cup with the words ‘drinkhaille’ and ‘wassaille’. Although this cannot be proven, it is believed that this practice continued and became widespread.

  Around Christmas and Twelfth Night people would travel door-to-door giving away cider, beer or other alcoholic drinks, sometimes requesting payment. It has been suggested that this might have been a way to share the alcohol whilst avoiding taxation. A song from 1550 records this:

  Wassail, wassail, out of the milk pail,

  Wassail, wassail as white as my nail,

  Wassail, wassail, in snow, frost and hail,

  Wassail, wassail, that much doth avail,

  Wassail, wassail, that never will fail.

  This song was used to accompany the Wassail Bowl as it travelled
around the village on the cold winter’s nights to encourage the participants as they shared good health with their friends and neighbours. The bowl, which was by now traditionally decorated with ribbons and evergreens and sprigs of rosemary, was carried by young girls singing songs.

  It appears to have been around this time that the tradition took another route. In South-West England (Devon, Somerset, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire) and South-East England (Essex, Sussex and Kent) wassailing became associated with singing and drinking the health of trees in orchards, in the hope that they might thrive and produce a bumper crop at harvest.

  Wassailing apple trees with hot cider on Twelfth Night.

  In the orchards, villagers would gather, usually on Twelfth Night, and select a King and Queen in elaborate ceremonies. The pair would then be led to the trees where bread soaked in cider from the bowl, would be placed by the royalty on the branches. Whilst this was being done, the other villagers banged pots and pans and sang, beating the tree with sticks also to wake it up from its winter sleep.

  Apparently, the tradition was first recorded at Fordwich, Kent in 1585 and it appears in Devon in the 1630s according to a poem by Robert Herrick:

  Wassail the Trees, that they may bear

  You many a plum, and many a pear.

  Later it features quite frequently in the diary of a vicar who ministered to congregations in Sussex in late seventeenth century. The tradition was both regular and widespread, taking place each year around Christmas time in the fruit growing areas of Britain.

  Another rhyme begins, ‘Here’s to thee, old apple tree, That blooms well, bears well. Hats full, caps full, Three bushel bags full, An’ all under one tree. Hurrah! Hurrah!’ There is some disagreement amongst some historians as to whether this wassail derives from pre-Christian ritual or whether it is an extension of the village wassail, from the Middle Ages. The eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica states that: