Tag Archives: Christmas 2013

A pukeko in a ponga tree

So starts a distinctively New Zealand adaptation of a true love’s Christmas gifts. The link will take you through to the words – the tune will be easy to work out. (This version was first published by Kingi M. Ihaka in a book of the same name in 1981.) (Image thanks to Sid Mosell who… Read More »

Silent Night

By Penny Schenk A silent night is sometimes the exception rather than the rule, and aggreived parties will, on occasion, turn to the law. In a 2012 Jersey case,  Fernando v Minister for Health and Social Services, the owner of a property containing nearly 200 parrots won his appeal against a noise abatement order. The… Read More »

The Coventry Carol

The lilting lament of The Coventry Carol is not especially festive, being as it is a mother’s song to her doomed infant as she waits for Herod’s soldiers to visit and murder him, however it is a haunting, beautiful tune with extraordinary history. If you’d like to know more about that, you can compare audio… Read More »

Little Donkey, Away in a Manger and the Nativity

Little donkey, little donkey                                        Had a heavy day Little donkey Carry Mary safely on her way… By Francesca Marsden Little Donkey was written by English songwriter Eric Boswell, and topped the UK charts for several weeks at the end of 1959. The carol, telling of Mary’s journey to Bethlehem on the donkey, is ever-present in children’s… Read More »

We Three Kings

We three kings of Orient are. Bearing gifts, we traverse afar. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star…‘ By Madeleine Lawson ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are,’ also known as ‘The Quest of the Magi,’ is a nineteenth-century carol by Reverend John Henry Hopkins Junior.  (Click here for a rendition of the song… Read More »

From out of the woods did a cuckoo fly

(A traditional Czech Carol translated by Percy Dearmer). This traditional Czech carol, about a cuckoo, a pidgeon and a dove, reminds us of the importance of diversity in the bird population.  The Birds Directive  is a codified version of Directive 79/409/EEC, which is the EU’s oldest piece of nature legislation.  This is the sort of… Read More »

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Your branches green delight us! They are green when summer days are bright, They are green when winter snow is white. O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Your branches green delight us! It is amazing to think that this carol in its original form is not really about Christmas… Read More »