Origin of the "Carol of the Bells"
An old Ukrainian song
Before we start, remind yourself what song we’ll be talking about:
Today it’s a staple Christmas melody, ubiquitous at Christmas time, with lyrics written in 1936:
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong dingHark how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say
Throw cares awayChristmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the boldDing, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the air
Ding dong ding dong dingOh how they pound
Raising the sound
O'er hill and dale
Telling their taleGaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry ChristmasHark how the bell
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say
Throw cares awayChristmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the boldDing, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the air
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry ChristmasOn on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone to every homeDing dong ding dong ding
Ding dong ding dong dingChristmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the boldDing dong ding dong ding
That is their song
With joyful ringDing dong ding dong ding
It’s a powerful song, but mostly because of its dramatic melody - it gives me goosebumps almost every time I hear it.
It’s been covered in a huge number of variations - for example this one, made for listening with speaker volume turned up to 11:
This acapella version is cute:
And of course, it’s a perennial favorite of fans of Darth Vader:
And of course, acolytes of the Old Ones tend to celebrate their own good times with a variant (thanks M.Z.):
It’s also been covered in numerous languages world-wide - here’s a version in Croatian:
One thing in common across virtually all the covers of this song is that the lyrics are vastly different from the original. Though the song is nowadays a Christmas anthem, it was originally sang in Ukraine at New Year’s and pre-dated Christianity. The New Year’s celebration for which this song was made is not a consumerism-driven one we have today, but a celebration of renewal of nature and a continuation of the cycle of life.
The original name for it is Shchedryk (Щедрик) which means bounty or generosity:
Bountiful, bountiful, a New Year’s carol,
A little swallow flew [into the household]
and started to twitter,
to summon the master:
“Come out, come out, O master [of the household],
look at the sheep pen,
there the ewes have yeaned
and the lambkins have been bornYour goods [livestock] are great,
you will have a lot of money, [by selling them].
Your products are good,
you will have a lot of money. (repeat twice)If not money, then chaff: [from all the grain you will harvest]
you have a dark-eyebrowed [beautiful] wife.”
Bountiful, bountiful, a New Year’s carol,
A little swallow flew.
In the song, a swallow, a herald of springtime, flies into a peasant’s backyard (probably the same successful peasants killed by Stalin in the holdomor genocide), and gives a kind of a prophecy or benediction: for the animals to be fruitful, grain abundant, money plentiful, and the wife pretty. Those are simple, sincere wishes for the time and place the song was created.
The song was elaborated and given the polyphonic form by the Ukrainian poet Mykola Leontovych circa 1816, after which it became legendary. The Ukrainian National Choir was basically fleeing the bolsheviks by going in an extended tour across Western Europe, and eventually they also visited the US. Audiences world-wide were particularly charmed by this song. Peter Wilhousky wrote the current English language lyrics in 1936, and so the song became known as the Carol of the Bells, with most people world-wide thinking it’s an American, or at least West-European song.
This is my favourite version in the original Ukrainian:
I dare you to not get goosebumps!
Sources:
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