Happy New Year 2012

May you all have a Blessed New Year!

Silly Saturday -- Jingle-O the Brownie

Jingle-O the Brownie

performed by Tennessee Ernie Ford

	Tennessee Ernie Ford - Jingle-o The Brownie (1960) .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

To find more Saturdays laughs

Fun Feature Friday -- Donald Duck in Toy Tinkers

It is finally time for Fun Feature Friday!

Today's Fun Feature stars

Donald Duck and Chip & Dale in

Toy Tinkers

Theatrical Thursday -- Silver Bells from The Lemon Drop Kid

Here is a clip from The Lemon Drop Kid
Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell singing
"Silver Bells"

"Silver Bells" is a classic Christmas song, composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.
"Silver Bells" was first performed by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the motion picture The Lemon Drop Kid, filmed in July-August 1950 and released in March 1951. The first recorded version was by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards, released by Decca Records in October 1950. After the Crosby and Richards recording became popular, Hope and Maxwell were called back in late 1950 to refilm a more elaborate production of the song. --From Wikipedia

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Wordless Wednesday -- The First Noel With Linky

The First Noel
Performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass

	Pittsburgh Symphony Brass - The First Noel .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Tumbleweed Tuesday -- The Friendly Beasts

Merry Christmas!

The Friendly Beasts

sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford

"The Friendly Beasts" is a traditional Christmas song about the gifts that a donkey, a cow, a sheep, a camel, and a dove gave to Jesus at the Nativity. The song seems to have originated in 12th-century France, set to the melody of the Latin song Orientis Partibus. The current English words were written by Robert Davis (1881-1950) in the 1920s.--From Wikipedia

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Marvelous Music Monday Plus a Blog Hop

Today is the Second Day of Christmas

Christmas is not over until Epiphany
I am posting more traditional Christmas carols now since this is the real season of Christmas according to church calenders.

Good King Wenceslas

Sung by the Robert Shaw Chorus

The tune is originally that of an old spring carol, "Tempus adest floridium." In 1853 Neale substituted for the words of the carol his legend of Good Kin Wenzel, King of Bohemia from A.D. 928 to 935, who was celebrated for his many kind acts to the poor. -Fireside Book of Folk Songs

Angels We Have Heard on High

Sung by the Robert Shaw Chorus

Telesphorus, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 129, ordained that "In the Holy Night of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour, all shall solemnly sing the "Angel's Hymn," which today exists in many versions, became the first Christmas hymn of the church.--Fireside Book of Folk Songs

The Twelve Days of Christmas
Sung by Ray Conniff and the Ray Conniff Singers (1962)





  The Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas

from Catholic Online

"You're all familiar with the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" I think. To most it's a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written.

It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in *writing* indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment I'm not aware was ever practiced anywhere else. Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso.

The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."

The other symbols mean the following:

1 Partridge in a Pear Tree = Jesus Christ, Son of God

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments

3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues

4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists

5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation

7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments

8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes

9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments

11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles

12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed"

Serene Sunday -- Christmas Day Music

Nat King Cole singing Joy to the World

Enrico Caruso Singing Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night)

Bing Crosby singing Silent Night

In our family, Christmas is just beginning.  We celebrate Christmas for the full twelve days, from Christmas Day to Epiphany.