WINTER TRADITIONS IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD
pansyface
PEAK DISTRICT DerbyshirePosts: 17,756
Does your town, village, region have any tradition that is special to it alone?
Where I grew up, in a village outside Sheffield, carol singing began in mid November and lasted until New Year’s Day.
These carols weren’t sung in churches or chapels. They had been officially banned by the Church of England, often because they used dialect words or had been written by simple people rather than university educated ones.
Although they were not included in official hymn books, they were much loved by the local people because they had been written by local people. They could not be sung in church so they were taken over the road to the pub and sung there instead.
The tradition of singing in pubs or in private continues to the present day in the Sheffield and North Derbyshire area. Some villages in Cornwall and Kent
have also managed to maintain their local carol singing traditions.
Here is one from a part of the south west of Sheffield, now a suburb but when it was written in the 1830s it was a village, called Dore.
Written by a man called Richard Furness who was the village schoolteacher, registrar, surgeon and poet. A busy man.
https://soundcloud.com/user-807146348/on-the-dew-besprinkled-lawn-dore
On the dew besprinkled lawn
Watchful till the rosy dawn
Watchful till the rosy dawn
Shepherds favoured from above
Shepherds favoured from above
Trembling, heard these words of love
Shepherds favoured from above
Trembling, heard these words of love
Go to Bethlem, you will find
There the saviour of mankind
There the saviour of mankind
In a manger with the kine
In a manger with the kine
Lowly lies the babe divine
In a manger with the kine
Lowly lies the babe divine
Glory be to god whose grace
Favoured thus our guilty race
Favoured thus our guilty race
Men and angels shout for joy
Men and angels shout for joy
Whilst the morning stars reply
Men and angels shout for joy
Whilst the morning stars reply.
Let us know if you have something special to share.
Where I grew up, in a village outside Sheffield, carol singing began in mid November and lasted until New Year’s Day.
These carols weren’t sung in churches or chapels. They had been officially banned by the Church of England, often because they used dialect words or had been written by simple people rather than university educated ones.
Although they were not included in official hymn books, they were much loved by the local people because they had been written by local people. They could not be sung in church so they were taken over the road to the pub and sung there instead.
The tradition of singing in pubs or in private continues to the present day in the Sheffield and North Derbyshire area. Some villages in Cornwall and Kent
have also managed to maintain their local carol singing traditions.
Here is one from a part of the south west of Sheffield, now a suburb but when it was written in the 1830s it was a village, called Dore.
Written by a man called Richard Furness who was the village schoolteacher, registrar, surgeon and poet. A busy man.
https://soundcloud.com/user-807146348/on-the-dew-besprinkled-lawn-dore
On the dew besprinkled lawn
Watchful till the rosy dawn
Watchful till the rosy dawn
Shepherds favoured from above
Shepherds favoured from above
Trembling, heard these words of love
Shepherds favoured from above
Trembling, heard these words of love
Go to Bethlem, you will find
There the saviour of mankind
There the saviour of mankind
In a manger with the kine
In a manger with the kine
Lowly lies the babe divine
In a manger with the kine
Lowly lies the babe divine
Glory be to god whose grace
Favoured thus our guilty race
Favoured thus our guilty race
Men and angels shout for joy
Men and angels shout for joy
Whilst the morning stars reply
Men and angels shout for joy
Whilst the morning stars reply.
Let us know if you have something special to share.
Apophthegm - a big word for a small thought.
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This is an ancient agrarian tradition and it’s very much related to the cycle of the seasons, death and rebirth and fertility. The “carollers” perform round dances to cast away any evil and the plough is used to make a symbolic cut in the soil.
Here is a clip to watch if you’re interested. The dances start at about 7:00 into the film. I haven’t watched it all as it made me cry... I can only see it with the eyes of the child that used to be a part of all this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tWpOY7m57Bc
Warning: Extremely loud trousers! 🙂
The noisy trousers remind me of Morris dancers in this country.
And the Christmas trees/deer/dragons remind me of a Sheffield dance that is also linked to rebirth in the new year where St George fights the dragon, is mortally wounded and brought back to life by an old doctor with a bottle of magic liquid.
Can you explain the different characters? The tree/deer? The soldiers with feather dusters? The noisy trouser men? The old men?
Thank you so much for putting that on here. A real eye opener.
You’ll probably like our version of Morris dancing called “Călușarii”.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bUvCtXJxHCs
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Călușari
When the village pub closed, inherited incidentally by Harry Styles’s dad who decided to sell it as a private house, we chose to have a regular social gathering in the church on the last Friday of the month. You take your own drinks and snacks and there is a rota for putting out the tables and chairs and tidying up afterwards. Typically about 40 people gather and there is an understanding that newcomers to the village will be brought into conversations. A charge of £1 is made to cover heating costs
During lockdowns Final Friday is one of the things I have missed most.
It can be very difficult getting to know people when you move into a village, especially if you don’t play golf or bridge or have some shareable interest.
Eyam’s carol singing tradition consists of one village traipse in December, visiting notable houses or those with links to earlier carol singers, finishing off in the Miner’s Arms for a sit down sing and a warm up. A collection is made at each house for the Children's Hospital in Sheffield.
Along the way, some houses offer us glasses of whisky (not for me thanks) or hot homemade mince pies (ditto) and one of the carol singers always has a big vat of mulled wine in his camper van, which he doles out at half time.
The date of the traipse is always known weeks in advance. We were much amused one year to find that the vicar’s house was in total darkness. We sang anyway, imagining the family hiding until we had moved on. 😁
As this is the time of year when many of you will be busy twining your festive garlands, here is the carol.
https://soundcloud.com/user-807146348/we-twine-our-festive-garlands-eyam?in=user-807146348/sets/the-derbyshire-carol-workshop