Advent with the Oxford Waits

'Tis the season --- Advent, that is. And time for a carol attributed to Thomas Ravenscroft and dating from the 17th century.

The performers are the Oxford Waits, a period (and costumed) ensemble based, as you might expect, in Oxford.

I'd thought I might print the lyrics, but there are so many versions it seemed wiser to select a performing group than enunciates clearly, which the Waits do.

The carol was composed (and performed) at a time in England when Christmas was celebrated much as it is today both in England and the United States --- with much excess and merriment --- although the season before it, in church, was considered a time of penance and contemplation, "little Lent."

Puritans --- forbears of those today, in a different context, who grumble about the war on Christmas --- were outraged at the merriment and once in power in 1647 attempted to cancel the whole thing and continued that effort for so long as they were in power.

Their American successors brought that hostility with them and, in Massachusetts, banned the celebration from 1659 until 1681. Christmas, they said --- and quite rightly --- was just a religious veneer applied to a pagan celebration.

The United States finally recognized Christmas as a federal holiday in 1870, but for quite a number of years thereafter the celebration was limited to a couple of days and then, as now, the stores --- both big and little box --- generally were expected to be open.