Not Just “Deck the Halls” But Warm The Halls

"Deck the Halls" or "Deck the Hall", the original title, is a traditional Yuletide or Christmas and New Years' carol. The melody is Welsh dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, Nos Galan.

The lyrics first appeared in Welsh Melodies, a set of four volumes authored by John Thomas with Welsh words by John Jones and English words by Thomas Oliphant, although the repeated "fa la la" goes back to the original Welsh Nos Galan and may originate from medieval ballads.

The song is in AABA form. The series Welsh Melodies appears in four volumes, the first two in 1862, the third in 1870 and the final volume in 1874. As can be seen from the translation of Nos Galan below, Deck the Hall(s) is not a translation but new words to an old song.

The melody of "Deck the Hall" is taken from "Nos Galan" ("New Year's Eve"), a traditional Welsh New Year's Eve carol published in 1794, although it is much older. The Welsh and English lyrics as translated there are as follows:

Oh! how soft my fair one's bosom,
fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la:
Oh! how sweet the grove in blossom,
fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la:
Oh! how blessed are the blisses,
[instrumental flourish]
Words of love, and mutual kisses,
fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la:

That is a bit different than the song we now sing.  Originally, carols were dances and not songs. The accompanying tune would have been used as a setting for any verses of appropriate metre. Singers would compete with each other, verse for verse — known as canu penillion dull y De ("singing verses in the southern style"). Tunes originally used to accompany carols became separated from the original dances, but were still referred to as "carols". 

The connection with dancing is made explicit in the English lyrics by the phrase "follow me in merry measure" as "measure" is a synonym for dance. A collection of such sixteenth and seventeenth century dances danced at the Inns of Court in London are called the Old Measures. Dancing itself having been previously suppressed by the church was revived during the renaissance beginning in fifteenth century Italy.

If you need to warm your halls and are looking for a fast and fair company to work with for your Heating and Air Conditioning repair or replacement needs?  Give Aaron’s Mechanical Service a call and let us help you get cooled off! Call 623-388-4436.  We can deck your halls with warmth.

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