Christmas Invitations with Ryba and Barnes (Traditional Czech and Dorsetshire Christmas Celebrations)

This Czech Christmas Mass by Ryba always sets the scene


and a poem by William Barnes:

Chris'mas Invitation

Come down to-morrow night; an, mind
Don’t leave thy fiddle-bag behind;
We’ll sheake a lag, an’ drink a cup
O’eale, to keep wold Chris’mas up.

An’ let thy sister teake thy earm,
The walk won’t do her any harm;
There’s noo dirt now to spweil her frock,
The ground’s a-vroze so hard’s a rock.

You won’t meet any stranger’s feace,
But only neighbours o’the pleace,
An’ Stowe, an’ Combe; an’ two or dree
Vrom uncle’s up at Rookery.

An’ thou wu’lt vind a rwosy feace,
An’ peair ov eyes so black as sloos,
The prettiest woones in all the pleace, –
I’m sure I needen tell thee whose.

We got a back-bran, dree girt logs
So much as dree ov us can car;
We’ll put ‘em up athirt the dogs,
An meake a vier to the bar.

An’ ev’ry woone shall tell his teale,
An’ ev’ry woone shall zing his zong,
An’ ev’ry woone wull drink his eale
To love an’ frien’ship all night long.

We’ll snap the tongs, we’ll have a ball,
We’ll shake the house, we’ll lift the ruf,
We’ll romp an’ meake the maidens squall,
A’ catchen o’m at blind-man’s buff.

Zoo come to-morrow night; an’ mind,
Don’t leave thy fiddle-bag behind;
We’ll sheake a lag, an’ drink a cup
O’eale, to keep wold Chris’mas up.


Enough to keep the blues away!
Or to sink deeper...

Just 25 years ago:

Last Christmas in Prague, 1988

(Kaprová Koleda)

I’d like to write a Christmas poem,

Or, better still, a carol.

Dujdaj, dujdaj, dujdajda!

“The carp in their tanks,

The tanks in the squares,

The squares in the cities,

The cities in chains.”

Veselme se? Radujme se?

A dying fall of Ryba.

***

Christmas Past (Prague)

Veselé vánoce a šťastný nový rok



Learn a Czech Christmas Carol with Radio Prague

John Clare, Christmass

Ethiopian Nativity, From the British Museum Calendar, 1969