LANGUAGE WIZARD

It’s Christmas time! For some it is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ and honour the centuries-old religious traditions. For others it signifies a time of stress, marked by endless shopping, overeating and overeating. In the words of a popular traditional carol, we invite you to deck the halls with boughs of holly, with pine trees and ivy, with tinsel, baubles, and lights. This is the season to be jolly, to get together with family and friends, to celebrate, to give and receive presents, to dress up (don we now our gay apparel), to eat and drink… and to sing Christmas carols and songs.

Instead of the ubiquitous Jingle Bells with their irritating tune attacking us from all corners of crowded shopping malls, we would like to remind you of a more traditional way to celebrate Christmas. Instead of the glitter of gaudy ornaments there is the simplicity of holly branches (or boughs), a type of evergreen shrub with bright red berries and shiny green leaves. Unlike popular Christmas songs such as White Christmas, Last Christmas or All I Want for Christmas, there is an entirely different world of traditional Christmas carols: Joy to the World, Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in a Manger, to name just a few. According to some, the difference between a Christmas carol and song is that a carol always tells the story of the Nativity (the birth of Jesus of Nazareth), while a Christmas song can sing about anything in any way related to Christmas, such as dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh, Santa Claus coming down the chimney, or Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

The Christmas carol we chose to present to you here will demonstrate how the celebration of the birth of Christ became linked to some ancient pagan beliefs. The old Celtic festival of Yule celebrated the idea of rebirth and it was therefore easy to merge with the birth of baby Jesus. They both symbolise the celebration of life, light and hope amidst the darkness of the winter season. So heedless (or regardless) of the harsh weather, we have the reason to be merry, joyous, jolly and gay. Yes, you heard it right! The English language has changed a lot since this particular Welsh carol was first sung in 18th century or earlier. Therefore, until the 1960-s, if you were gay, you were simply merry or cheerful. Similarly, the word hail is still around in its original meaning of greeting or welcoming something, so we can hail our Prime Minister’s decision to give us Christmas bonuses after all.

The song invites us to gather, perhaps not around a blazing (burning) Yule log, but around our decorated Christmas tree and follow someone in merry measure (or dance), because carols were originally circular dances often accompanied by harp music. What a pleasant alternative to the nerve-racking chore of shopping!