Countless musicians have performed and re-injected life into traditional songs with examples ranging from Thin Lizzy's (and later Metallica's) Whiskey in a Jar (traditional Irish song) to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's latest collaboration Among The Gold.
"Traditional" should not be used for the artist name, if the real name of the performing artist or group is known. Rather it should be used for the writer/composer, if they are unknown. The MusicBrainz style guidelines can give you an orientation for better tagging: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Unknown_and_untitled/Special_purpose_artist
Here We Come A-Wassailing
Traditional Lyrics
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Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door;
But we are neighbours' children whom you have seen before.
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We have a little purse made of ratching leather skin;
We want a little sixpence to line it well within.
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress, too;
And all the little children that round the table go.
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
The song "Here We Come A-Wassailing" is a traditional English Christmas carol and has its origins in pagan traditions, particularly the ancient practice of wassailing. Wassailing was a custom where people would visit their neighbors' homes during the Christmas season, singing and offering good wishes for the New Year. This song is a perfect example of this tradition.
The first stanza of the song describes the people coming to wassail among the green leaves. They are seen strolling around and wishing love and joy to everyone. They share their wassail with everyone and wish them a happy new year. The chorus repeats this message of good wishes and blessings of a happy new year.
The second stanza of the song explains that they are not the daily beggars who beg from door to door. Instead, they are the neighbors' children that people have seen before. This stanza has a strong message of community and togetherness. The children are not strangers; they are part of the community and are there to share the joy of the season.
The third stanza describes the wassailer's little purse made of ratching leather skin. They want a little sixpence to line it well within. This is a reference to the wassail bowl which is passed around to everyone. The sixpence is thrown into the bowl to wish prosperity and good fortune to the household.
The final stanza offers a blessing to the master and mistress of the house, as well as all the little children who gather around the table. This stanza is a reminder of the importance of family and community during the holiday season.
Line by Line Meaning
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
We are singing this song about going wassailing while looking at the green leaves around us.
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
We are happy and proud to be here, walking around for everyone to see.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
We wish you love and joy, and we are sharing our wassail drink with you.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We ask God to bless you and give you a happy new year.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We repeat our wish for God to bless you and give you a happy new year.
We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door;
We are not beggars who ask for food or money every day.
But we are neighbours' children whom you have seen before.
We are the children of your neighbors, you have seen us before in the neighborhood.
We have a little purse made of ratching leather skin;
We have a small purse made of tough leather material.
We want a little sixpence to line it well within.
We are asking for a small coin so we can put it inside our small purse.
God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress, too;
We ask God to bless the owner of this house and their spouse.
And all the little children that round the table go.
We also wish for God to bless all the little children sitting around the table.
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
We repeat the opening line of the song, as a way to wrap up our wassailing journey.
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
We repeat our happiness and pride about our journey as we are leaving.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
We repeat our wish for love and joy, and reiterate that we have shared our wassail drink with you.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We repeat, one last time, our wish for God to bless you and give you a happy new year.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We end the song by repeating our final wish.
Contributed by Jack N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Teddy Roosevelt
Great ๐
Rachel Cois na Coillte
Very festive Christmas music. I found your excellent channel recently and have been binge watching your videos. Best wishes to you from Ireland!
Patriotic Archive
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad to hear you enjoy the channel ๐
Andrew Heaney
Lovely carol and so heart warming that someone cares enough to share Olde English traditional songs , God bless you sir .
Patriotic Archive
Thank you for the kind words mate! I'm glad you enjoyed the carol ๐
Dead Crusader
One of my favorite songs for the season. Merry Christmas!
Patriotic Archive
Merry Christmas!
Mark Worrall
What lovely music, must say sir I's weep a little, I love the background and seeing that lovely editing of the islands smack bang in the middle of every video.
Thanks again for a necessary addition to my collection of Patriotic Britonic Beats haha. Hope you have a very merry christmas Patriotic Archive and to all as well who enjoy PA's work a very merry christmas!
P.S; Patriotic Britonic Beats sounds like a good radio station name..... ;)
Patriotic Archive
Tis a wonderful carol. Thank you for the kind words mate ๐ I really do appreciate all the support the channel receives. Leon Best has suggested the radio idea aswell... I'd love to see it haha.
Viscount Castlereagh
Another brilliant upload, and just in time for me arriving home from work. Thank you, and a merry Christmas my friend!