Monthly Archives: December 2020

Giving Christmas 3TC #Poem

Posted on by

A white fluffy blanket will cover us soon.
We’ll cringe at the cold as our chapped dry lips move.

We’ll run for the festive, no reason or rhyme,
‘Cause didn’t you know? It’s the hair-raising time!

We’ll step into debt and think inside each box,
Darting into an app for just one pair of socks!

There’s a pump in the basement in need of repair.
It’s been flagging and dragging since Christmas last year!

I would chortle if things weren’t so dyer and sad,
But this holiday season, for many, is bad.

Can’t we look out for others and not just our own?
We know someone or something in need of a home!

We can mine our resources to offer some help,
For the little we have is another’s great wealth!

There is no “Automatic” or button to press,
But for somebody, somewhere, it’s we who can bless!

When the pretty snowflakes fall upon you this year,
Ask yourself what you’ve done for another’s good cheer!

For no matter the gift and no matter how small,
It’s the giving that’s truly the best gift of all!

—
My response to this week’s
Take 7 at Pensitivity101.

Also part of my Holiday Blogging Party.
You’re invited! Please come along!

“Huron Carol” #Advent #Music

Posted on by

Download Mp3

This haunting carol is said to be Canada’s oldest Christmas song. Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, wrote “Huron Carol” around 1642. It is also called “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.”

The lyrics are an aboriginal Canadian retelling of the Nativity story, using imagery familiar to native people. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the Huron/Wendat people’s native language, in which the original title is “Jesous Ahatonhia” (“Jesus, he is born”). The song has been translated into both French and English.

The melody is based on a French folk tune called “Une Jeune Pucelle” (A Young Maid). The carol is still found in Canadian hymnals today.

I hope you enjoy listening to “Huron Carol” on ukulele, viola, and alto recorder!

This post is part of my Holiday Blogging Party.
You’re invited!
Please click the link and participate as much as you wish!

Beam #SixSentenceStories

Posted on by

A beam of light shot across the sky on that long-ago night. Was it a UFO? A meteor? A shooting star? Or a sign that the world was ending–or just beginning? Ask your heart, and you’ll receive your answer!

—
Written for
#SixSentenceStories: Beam

This is also part of my Holiday Blogging Party. You’re invited, too!
Click here to participate!

“Patapan” #Advent #Music

Posted on by

Download Mp3

French poet Bernard de La Monnoye wrote “Patapan” (or “Pat-a-pan”), a Burgundian carol first published in 1720. Its original title was “Guillô, Pran Ton Tamborin” (“Willie, Bring Your Little Drum” or, as some English translations say, “Willie, Take Your Little Drum”). “Patapan” is a lesser known, but beautiful traditional Christmas carol that revolves around shepherds playing simple instruments at the birth of Christ. The title itself, “Patapan,” mimics the sound of the drum, and the sound “tu-re-lu-re-lu” in the refrain mimics the flute or fife. You can find one anonymous English translation
here.

I hope you enjoy hearing this carol on zither, which is a plucked instrument, and Oriole recorder, a vertical flute!

This post is part of my Holiday Blogging Party. You’re welcome to join in!
Click here to learn how.