Early Christmas Tunes

Let’s say you’re planning an Early American holiday gathering. A period-appropriate menu and decorations may figure in first on your list, but right behind those mood setters, you’d consider music. Prepare for disappointment. Yes, Colonial American holiday gatherings featured music. Instruments may have included fiddles or violins, harpsicords, flutes, or even Benjamin Franklin’s new invention, the glass harmonica. However, most of the Christmas carols we now recognize had not even been written in the late 1700s, and if they had, they were originally scored to different music.

Let’s take a look at the history of some of the earliest holiday songs. I’m including a link for several of them to my favorite Christmas albums by Mannheim Steamroller. Have a listen. You’ll be transported to a Renaissance banqueting hall with a roaring fire and a cup of wassail.

• Joy to the World – Isaac Watts, 1719; sung to different music until introduction to America in the 1830s
• Hark the Herald Angels Sing – Charles Wesley, 1739; revised to its current title in 1753; sung to different music until mid-1800s
• Greensleeves – 1580; applied to a Christmas hymn around 1686; became “What Child Is This?” in 1865
• Deck the Halls – old Welsh carol about New Year’s called “Nos Galan” with different words; not translated to English until 1862
• Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella – not originally considered a Christmas song but most likely a 1500s tune of Provence that became a lively dance for French nobility called a ritournelle; translated to English in the 18^th Century by a wealthy nobleman Steamroller Bring A Torch
• Good King Wenceslas – a spring hymn that originates from 1582 to accompany energetic dancing, probably Scandinavian; published in English in 1853
• Wassail, Wassail – 1600s wassailers went house to house offering warm drink and originated many different songs about their activities, but these were not common in English until the mid-1800s Steamroller Wassail
• O Come, O Come Emmanuel – 8^th or 9^th Century Latin song translated by John Mason Neale in the mid-1800s
• Pat A Pan – French Christmas carol by the poet laureate of Burgundy, Bernard de La Monnoye, published in 1720; translated into English in the 1907 Book of Old Carols Steamroller Pat A Pan
• Gagliarda – OK, I’m cheating here. This was an Italian dance from the 16^th and 17^th Centuries, but doesn’t it sound so Christmas-y coming from MS? Maybe you can sneak it in on your faux Colonial play list. Steamroller Gagliarda

This list is far from exhaustive. What's your favorite early Christmas tune? Do you know of any that were played and sung in 1700s America?

Article by Denise Weimer: http://deniseweimerbooks.webs.com

Christmas Decorating, Colonial Style

by Denise Weimer 

 

Even if your home is not Early American in architecture, Colonial-style Christmas decorations revive holiday cheer, especially if you term your design style traditional, shabby chic, rustic, primitive or cabin. Natural decorations can provide a much-needed break from glitter and store-bought extravaganza. And expense! A quick trip to your yard or local nursery, a few basic supplies, and you’re ready to trim your home in a manner sure to set you apart from the neighbors.

On the outside of the house:

Stick to evergreen swags and wreaths with simple red bows. Non-purists may add fresh fruit arrangements, although these were not used on the outside of houses until Colonial Revival times. Hospitality candles in the windows can’t be beat for creating a mood of welcome.

In lieu of a Christmas tree:

Trees weren’t introduced to America until the 1800s, and simple gifts during Colonial times were only given to servants the day after Christmas – and perhaps to children on New Year’s. A precursor to the evergreen tree, with a slightly more Early American feel, was a tree made of goose and turkey feathers. If you do opt for a tree, consider wrapping gifts in plain brown paper and trimming with natural fabric bows and greenery sprigs.

On the dining room table or sideboard:

• A punch bowl ringed by apples, evergreen or holly
• A wooden bowl or platter filled with red apples and ivy tendrils
• An apple cone tree topped with a pineapple, filled in with small greenery and placed on a base of magnolia leaves, flanked by pineapples secured on fruit or candle holders
• An arrangement in a china bowl of white pine, magnolia, holly and cedar – with cotton bolls as “snow”
  

At the fireplace:

• Try a swag of dried apple slices and cinnamon sticks on twine
• Pewter plates, cups and tankards interspersed with holly and evergreen on the mantel
• A holly-topped yule log on the grate. For a party, you might include a nearby bowl of holly sprigs. Colonial English guests tossed a sprig onto the fire to burn up their troubles from the past year.

Extra touches:

• Wrap balustrades with evergreen swags and bows.
• Accent a key wall by covering a plaque or serving tray with magnolia leaves centered on a cluster of fruit. Pomegranates look especially festive.
• Early Americans loved mistletoe. A Norse legend credited a cluster with not only commanding a kiss, but guaranteeing luck and fertility as well.
• Tuck holly sprigs behind Old English prints and mirror, and mass it around pewter plates.

Research from Internet and “Christmas in Williamsburg,” The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1970, photos by Taylor Biggs Lewis, Jr.

Moravian Christmas by Denise Weimer

Perhaps you’re unaware that many of your church Christmas traditions can be traced to the Moravians, Czech Protestants who split from the Roman Catholic Church 60 years before Martin Luther posted his thesis in 1517. These traditions came to the Colonies in the 1700s, spreading along the Eastern Seaboard. Moravian churches still exist today and practice these beautiful traditions, and if you’re near North Carolina, you might enjoy a visit to the historic Moravian village of Old Salem during the holiday season.

Putz – The Gospel demonstrated in miniature from Isaiah’s prophecy of Jesus’ birth

through the flight of Jesus’ parents to Egypt and the visit of the wise men, using figurines, moss, pine cones, drift wood stones, houses and animals. In this traditional home or church display used to teach children, the manger scene becomes the focal point.

Moravian Star – First believed to have been created as a geometry project for boys in an 1850 German boarding school, the 26-point, illuminated paper stars were soon sold and shipped to the U.S. Paper stars became plastic and tiny whale oil lamps or candles became small bulbs. Today, Moravians display this star on their porches or in their windows from the first Sunday of Advent through Epiphany (January 6).

Candle Tea – Arts and crafts fair started by early Moravians. Today, hostesses at these early December events often dress in the costume of mid-1700s women, with the ribbons on their caps denoting their marital status. Guests enjoy sugar cake and Moravian coffee while watching the making of beeswax candles, tinware and stars.

Lovefeast/Vigil – Styled after the common meal Christians partook as described in the book of Acts. The vigil began in Germany when Bishop John de Watterville provided children candles wrapped with bands to

remind them of Christ’s birth, passion and wounds, using beeswax candles to illustrate the purity of Christ. The band became a red paper frill to catch the drippings. At modern lovefeasts, participants enjoy Moravian coffee and buns, sing carols and end with what has become the traditional candlelight service, taking the light of Christ out into the dark world.

Merry Christmas from Colonial Quills bloggers!!!

Post by Denise Weimer

Christmas at Schoenbrunn in 1773

Christmas at Schoenbrunn in 1773
by Tamera Lynn Kraft

Schoenbrunn Village

In the wilderness of Ohio in 1773, a small band of missionaries and Lenape Indians celebrated Christmas at Schoenbrunn Village, the first settlement in Ohio. They’d come to this wilderness and started the village a year earlier to preach the Gospel to the Lenape, also known as the Deleware. 

The missionaries, both white and native families moved from a town in Pennsylvania called Bethlehem. Moravians had come to Bethlehem years earlier when a preacher named John Wesley had donated the land to them. But the Lenape had been forced west as more white men had moved into the area, so the Moravians decided to move west with them.

Life was hard in Schoenbrunn. Cabins were quickly made and community gardens were planted that included beans, corn, and squash. Most villages also planted potatoes and turnips next to their cabins. The rest of their food came from hunting. But the real danger came from the many Indian tribes surrounding the village, some of them hostile.

Schoenbrunn School

They didn’t have time to build a fence to keep out varments and the first Ohio church until Spring, 1773, but they did manage to build a school, the first built in Ohio. The school taught both boys and girls, a first for the colonies, how to read the Scripture in their native language and in English. The Moravians printed a Bible in the Lenape language.

The village council was led by David Zeisberger and including white Moravians and Lenape converts. The rules for the village were established by the Lenape Christians. These missionaries did not consider the native converts to be beneath them but instead brothers in Christ.

Fireplace in Schoenbrunn Church

After a year and a half in Schoenbrunn, the villagers were excited to celebrate their first Christmas. They had many traditions that we still use today. They would have a candlelight Christmas Eve service called a Lovefeast. During this service, they sang Christmas hymns, shared sweet rolls and coffee together, and prayed for each other. The service concluded when they gave each child a bleached beeswax candle and a scripture to hang on their trees at home. The white candle symbolized the purity of Christ and the flame showed that Jesus is the light of the world. A red ribbon would be wrapped around the candle to symbolize how Jesus shed His blood for a lost world. 

In every home in Schoenbrunn, families decorated artificial Christmas trees with candles and papers with scriptures written on them. The trees were made by putting together a wood frame and decorating it with real pine branches. The family would also make a putz, a nativity village that included the nativity scene, the wise men, and other Biblical scenes and place it under the tree. Most Moravians gave small gifts at Christmas, but resources were so limited that the children in Schoenbrunn were happy with their candles they received at the church. After a Christmas feast, the family would read the verses hung on the tree and talk about God’s blessings at Christmas.
Schoenbrunn Village has been restored and is open to tourists.

Find out more at this link (http://www.ohiosfirstvillage.com) .

A Christmas Promise

By Tamera Lynn Kraft

A Moravian Holiday Story, Circa 1773

During colonial times, John and Anna settle in an Ohio village to become Moravian missionaries to the Lenape. When John is called away to help at another settlement two days before Christmas, he promises he’ll be back by Christmas Day.

When he doesn’t show up, Anna works hard to not fear the worst while she provides her children with a traditional Moravian Christmas. 

Through it all, she discovers a Christmas promise that will give her the peace she craves.

“Revel in the spirit of a Colonial Christmas with this achingly tender love story that will warm both your heart and your faith. With rich historical detail and characters who live and breathe on the page, Tamera Lynn Kraft has penned a haunting tale of Moravian missionaries who selflessly bring the promise of Christ to the Lenape Indians. A beautiful way to set your season aglow, A Christmas Promise is truly a promise kept for a heartwarming holiday tale.” – Julie Lessman