Getting into the Christmas Spirit...
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but in between studying, I've been working at Fort Edmonton in the evenings, mostly on the weekends, for their Christmas Reflections programming. I do things like light the bonfires, answer people's questions, make sure everyone knows about the free hot chocolate and cider (and the sugar cookies, fresh-baked in the old wood stove at Henderson house!), sometimes helping out with children's crafts, etc. There are also sleigh rides with a Christmas-centered history tour throughout the park, and carolers wandering about singing historical versions of popular Christmas carols. :) It's lovely, and has a beautiful atmosphere. The older buildings are lit up with lights, and Mother Nature has obligingly given us several good sprinklings of snow to decorate everything.
I wanted to also state first off that I'm not all about putting the "Christ back in Christmas" or whatever. I think that it's a lovely winter holiday (especially needed to break up the dreary long winters with a bit of joy and cheer), and a good chance to eat good food and spend time with your families. Also, while I'm not big on Christianity, I do absolutely ADORE Christmas carols. Say anything else of them, but the churches knew how to write good songs. ;) I will sing all about the glory of Christ if it's done beautifully. Maybe I'm hypocritical and shallow in this respect, but I equally love songs like "The Holly and the Ivy", "Good King Wenceslas", "I Saw Three Ships", "O Come All Ye Faithful", and "We Three Kings of Orient Are." I don't distinguish between the Christian, pagan, or commercial songs very much. I'm not as fussed about some more modern songs: whether or not I like "Jingle Bell Rock" depends on the version, and I absolutely hate with an unabiding passion the song "Santa Baby". Maybe it's because it played on the radio every fifteen minutes back when I worked at Superstore, from November 1st until December 31st, but it grates in my ears. Also, I don't see Santa as sexy, but maybe that's just me. Huggable, yes, sexy, no. Seducing Santa Claus sounds far too much like prostitution for me to actually like that song, even if it weren't sung in the most annoying voice possible. :P
I also really enjoy learning the less well-known verses to songs. For instance, while everyone should know "Jingle Bells", and it's first verse (you know, "Dashing through the snow/ On a one-horse open sleigh..."), fewer people know the epic continuing verses, where the singer tries to impress a girl with his driving skills. He also has a rival who laughs at him:
"A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot
[Chorus]
A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away.
[Chorus]
Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you'll take the lead."
It has the sound effect of a whip in it! Also, laughing rivals and horse lore. Awesome.
I also just thought that I'd share my favourite Christmas carol with you guys. I don't think that it's well-known outside of Canada, and its one of the oldest Canadian songs ever. According to the summary of the song on youtube:
"The "Huron Carol" (or "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime") is a Christmas hymn, written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Christian missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The well known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton."
Brébeuf is known for something else: for being captured by the Huron's traditional enemies, the Iroquois, and being tortured to death, thus being martyred (I think he was canonized in the 1940s). Strangely, his gruesome death made being a missionary in New France an even more popular profession, but whatever. Early missionaries provide us with some of the earliest records of East Coast native culture (although, of course, they're written through the lens of an outsider), and they're almost our only sources for what native culture was like before Europeans (like themselves) ruined things, so don't always be hatin' on them. ;) Brébeuf, and many other early Jesuits, were all about integrating with the natives and adapting the Christian message to native cultural realities. They did things like request icons of Christ without a beard, because bears were associated with animalistic qualities (Huron men did not grow beards) and so they couldn't respect a god who looked like an animal. ;) Anyway, the song has some verses like this:
"The earliest moon of wintertime
Is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on
The helpless Infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt
With gifts of fox and beaver pelt
[Refrain]
O children of the forest free
O Sons of Manitou
The Holy Child of earth and heaven
Is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant Boy
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.
[Refrain]"
And yeah, there are a lot of nasty things that happened later, with disease and residential schools and broken promises and so on, and there are some colonialist overtones in this song, but Brébeuf made an effort to use things like the Wendat name for the great spirit (Manitou) and seemed to truly respect and love the Huron people (as much as we can tell these things from his writing). And this song is, quite frankly, beautiful in any of the three languages.
Anyway, I found this lovely version sung in Wendat, French, and an older English translation.
If you want an idea of what the popular English lyrics sound like, see here. This English translation follows more closely the idea of Brébeuf's lyrics as opposed to the direct translation of the Huron.
I wanted to also state first off that I'm not all about putting the "Christ back in Christmas" or whatever. I think that it's a lovely winter holiday (especially needed to break up the dreary long winters with a bit of joy and cheer), and a good chance to eat good food and spend time with your families. Also, while I'm not big on Christianity, I do absolutely ADORE Christmas carols. Say anything else of them, but the churches knew how to write good songs. ;) I will sing all about the glory of Christ if it's done beautifully. Maybe I'm hypocritical and shallow in this respect, but I equally love songs like "The Holly and the Ivy", "Good King Wenceslas", "I Saw Three Ships", "O Come All Ye Faithful", and "We Three Kings of Orient Are." I don't distinguish between the Christian, pagan, or commercial songs very much. I'm not as fussed about some more modern songs: whether or not I like "Jingle Bell Rock" depends on the version, and I absolutely hate with an unabiding passion the song "Santa Baby". Maybe it's because it played on the radio every fifteen minutes back when I worked at Superstore, from November 1st until December 31st, but it grates in my ears. Also, I don't see Santa as sexy, but maybe that's just me. Huggable, yes, sexy, no. Seducing Santa Claus sounds far too much like prostitution for me to actually like that song, even if it weren't sung in the most annoying voice possible. :P
I also really enjoy learning the less well-known verses to songs. For instance, while everyone should know "Jingle Bells", and it's first verse (you know, "Dashing through the snow/ On a one-horse open sleigh..."), fewer people know the epic continuing verses, where the singer tries to impress a girl with his driving skills. He also has a rival who laughs at him:
"A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot
[Chorus]
A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away.
[Chorus]
Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you'll take the lead."
It has the sound effect of a whip in it! Also, laughing rivals and horse lore. Awesome.
I also just thought that I'd share my favourite Christmas carol with you guys. I don't think that it's well-known outside of Canada, and its one of the oldest Canadian songs ever. According to the summary of the song on youtube:
"The "Huron Carol" (or "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime") is a Christmas hymn, written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Christian missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The well known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton."
Brébeuf is known for something else: for being captured by the Huron's traditional enemies, the Iroquois, and being tortured to death, thus being martyred (I think he was canonized in the 1940s). Strangely, his gruesome death made being a missionary in New France an even more popular profession, but whatever. Early missionaries provide us with some of the earliest records of East Coast native culture (although, of course, they're written through the lens of an outsider), and they're almost our only sources for what native culture was like before Europeans (like themselves) ruined things, so don't always be hatin' on them. ;) Brébeuf, and many other early Jesuits, were all about integrating with the natives and adapting the Christian message to native cultural realities. They did things like request icons of Christ without a beard, because bears were associated with animalistic qualities (Huron men did not grow beards) and so they couldn't respect a god who looked like an animal. ;) Anyway, the song has some verses like this:
"The earliest moon of wintertime
Is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on
The helpless Infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt
With gifts of fox and beaver pelt
[Refrain]
O children of the forest free
O Sons of Manitou
The Holy Child of earth and heaven
Is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant Boy
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.
[Refrain]"
And yeah, there are a lot of nasty things that happened later, with disease and residential schools and broken promises and so on, and there are some colonialist overtones in this song, but Brébeuf made an effort to use things like the Wendat name for the great spirit (Manitou) and seemed to truly respect and love the Huron people (as much as we can tell these things from his writing). And this song is, quite frankly, beautiful in any of the three languages.
Anyway, I found this lovely version sung in Wendat, French, and an older English translation.
Click to viewIf you want an idea of what the popular English lyrics sound like, see here. This English translation follows more closely the idea of Brébeuf's lyrics as opposed to the direct translation of the Huron.