Deck the Halls
Level 1, C
The melody for this one is Welsh, and much older than Christmas itself--it comes from a 16th-century New Year's Eve song called “Nos Galan.” In Wales it was originally sung as a kind of friendly singing contest, with one person singing a line and everyone else answering with “fa-la-la-la-la.” The English words about holly and boughs weren't added until 1862, by a Scottish writer named Thomas Oliphant. So next time you play the fa-la-las, you're echoing a Welsh New Year's tradition that's a few hundred years old.
