Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1889-12-25

The infant Jesus, carols and sonGs have beer
the fAvoSite music at the teatal oeasOn ot
Christmas, and a~ntiquarians with al their
1 researches hAve not been able to N . date
at which the popular idea Of celebrating the
Nativity .ss not carried out BY singing and
Tho old carols, however. were not the long
religious ballads now popular among the
p~easantry OF ENGLAND, and which wsre sub
stltutsd by those clOee-cropped snemies to
music and mirth, the Puritans, but ditties oI
good eating and drinking and general jolity
poem Of the Fifteenth Century:
The lswid people than algates sgre,
And caroles singer everi' criste mssss " de.
Not with shamfastencs bot jocopdle.
And holsy bowghes aboute; and oil asydde
Ths brenning tyre hem eten, and hem drinke,
And laughen mereli. and maken ronte,
And pype. and dsnsen, and hem rage,
ne,swinke
Ne noe thyngs eis, twalvedays thei woldi not.
This 10 the earliest allusion to the custom
| Of keeping up the Christmas festivities for
twelve days, which accoun for our modern
Tye,lth Night, Z great theatrical and gene
tention 10 paid In this country. The ancient
carol At the bringing in Of the boar's head at
Christmas dinners, still sung at Queens Col
legs, Oxford, Ia a. old a. the Arst Henry, for
at his coronation, In ITO, VI learn that 1t
was used a. follows:
Caput Apri defero, Reddsns laudes Domino,
The bores head in hand bringeI
With %gariandes gay and rosemary
Qui estis in convivio
The bores head l understande
IL the chief service in this lands
Loke wherever 1t BE- fande
Sertite cum cantico.
Almost an the old carols have Latin Lar.
dens or internixtures, showing their monns-
tic origin, and it WIS when hs English Refor-
nation had established the EpiscopaAan IL
turgy that these Latin scraps were baalshed
from the jovial songs Of Merry Christmas.
when the meanest serving man, the lowliest
peasant was welcomed to the most lordly
banqueting hall, placed beneath the salt, and
among the mobiles and fair ladies, sang his
rude carols and played his merry pranks; No
we read in on old author, among the
Christmas husbandlic fare, good drink, o
good FIRE in the hall, brawne, pudding and
souse, and mustard withall. beef, mutton and
pork shred, pies of the best, pig, veal, goose,
cnpon, and turkey, cheese, apples, and nuts,
with q jolly carol to the tune Of King Solo
Many Of the early Christmas carols are
rude in structure, defective in rhyme, and OF
u CultU3ou DluURJIVlVy LII uIh&tST WHICH, uppSur
very comical to our enlightened generation,
while ONE deal with miracles appertaining
to theincarnation. Of which nothing short OF
the most primitive purity could permit the
recitation. OF this latter class is the Carol
of Holy Mary and the Cherry Tres, still, in a
somewhat modernized form, sung by the
p~easantry and lead miners Of the Derbyshire
Peak. 1t commences:
Joseph was an old man
And an old man was he .
And he married Mary,
Queen of Galilee.
Another very curious carol Of Chrfst1nas-
may yet occasionally be found pasted ON a
Derbyshire cottage wall, which is headed
'Christus natus est" and which 10 orna-
mented with o rude wood-cut OF the Nativity,
in which are seen o number of domestic ami
mails with labels issuing from their mouths.
Thus the rooster crows "Christus natus est. !"
The raven asks. "Quando9" The COW ans.
ubi7 Tho sheep beats, Bethlehem" while
o dove coming out Of o cloud bears in it's
beak the legend, "Gloria in Excelsis."
Very many OF the early carols have been
~irrevocably lost, as they were handed down
orally from generation to generation and
never became Imprisoned in type, and these
OF the most singular character, too. Old
cronies crooned them over to the Graded ba-
bies, and young maidens learned them from
their g~randmothers. but cheap literature and
national schools have banished these GUS
toms, and the carols have gradually faded
from memory, q fragment, a stanxa, or q
line here and there being heard from the lips
of a shepherd Lad or a Derbyshire milkmaid.
Thus the glad songs Of C~hristmai-tide which
enliyeued the festivities Of royalty in the days
when
Christmas had its Christmas carols
And ladies' sides were hooped like barrels,
descended to the serving men and humble la.
borer and have eventually been lost.
In spite Of modern change and novel man.
ners, there seems to be . growing f0ndness
for making much ofChristnlas. and long may
it be before its celebration shall become obso.
lete "a it's carols. The merry time 10 at hand
and We are able to sing. in the words of one
of the Oldest Of these English folk sougs:
Good Christians, rise; this 10 the morn
When Christ the Saviour he was born;
All in q stable 40 lowlee,
Al Bethlehem in Galilee,
Rejoicel our Saviour he was born
On Christmas day in the morning.