Here were my three carol singers back in 2015. It was a warm, wet Christmas, but it was also a happy one.
Dances! Oh, I was just reminiscing with Kim yesterday about the contra dances I went to before Willow was born. I would love to see the children enjoy something like that in the next couple years. Let it be said, Christmas dances in the mountains were great social occasions. Everyone came, no invitation needed, and the furniture was moved to make way. It makes me think of this song, which I always love to sing this time of year. I think this video sums up what the Christmas in the Mountains describes so clearly. It brings a smile to my face every time I see it. This kind of dancing is still alive, of course, and we need to keep it going!
People were so good at being social without all that "help" from social media. They loved to puzzle each other with riddles and impress with their memory and wit. There's a story the author collected of a young woman who was set to meet her sweetheart in the forest and found a freshly dug grave (meant for her!) She hid in a tree and heard the whole plan, happy to escape with her life. She served him justice using a riddle!
Here are a few fun rhymes from the book, which are familiar to me from even older songs:
The roads are very muddy,
And my shoes are very thin.
Please, kind lady, on Christmas
Won't you take me in?
~
A pocket full of money,
A cellar full of beer.
A fat pig in your pigsty,
To last you all year.
These, of course, come from a time when beer was an everyday beverage, and a safer alternative to water. The riddles in The Hobbit fit well with this fireside pastime. More rhymes can be The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. See you tomorrow!
Ah, dances! We so enjoyed all of the social dances learned in our historic dance group - no clogging ;) but there was the Virginia Reel, the Gay Gordons, the Jefferson Water Wheel, the Irish Circle, Duck Soup, and many more that I'm sure the children know the names of better than I do. There's something so exhilarating about coming together with a big group of people and dancing the evening away.
ReplyDeleteThat story about the freshly dug grave is one worthy of our old Ballads instructor, who was also a master storyteller. Ah, I miss his Jack Tales.
Happy New Year!
That sounds so nice! I've told the children they are taking dance lessons of some kind. :-) We watched Brigadoon yesterday, so we got lots of inspiration. That story is chilling, for sure, and the right storyteller would really make it.
DeleteThat sounds like such fun. I used to do country dancing at junior school, which was basically all the traditional dances from times gone by and I am always keen to join in a Ceilidh dance if the opportunity presents itself :-) There is nothing more fun than group dancing! And riddles - love them! Not very good at guessing though! :-) Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYour dances sound like fun, too! I'm not sure I'd be good at guessing riddles, either. It's nice to have them in front of me in print. ;-)
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