18th December
Sans Day Carol
This carol with its traditional words and music comes from the village of St Day, part of Gwennap in Cornwall. Like many folksongs, it was taken down from the singing of a villager there called Thomas Beard although it was actually written during the nineteenth century.
Percy Dearmer, in the Oxford Book of Carols where it is no 35, said that the fourth verse was a translation of some Cornish words: “Ma gron war’n gelln”. You may not recognise the title, but I think that you might recognise the carol from its words! In this carol holly is used to represent the Virgin Mary; usually this is the role of ivy…and no, it isn’t ‘the Holly and the Ivy’!
1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk:
Chorus:
And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly!
2. Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died on the cross:
Chorus
3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died for us all:
Chorus
4. Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead:
Chorus
Recorded on Erat Grecian Harp (1830s)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans_Day_Carol
Dearmer, Percy (ed.) (1928) The Oxford Book of Carols. Oxford U. P.; pp. 74-75