Blog Caroling 2013: Mary Did You Know

by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene

Sung by CeeLo Green, on The Bible

The Christmas Season is once more upon us, and what is it that we hear? 

Is there anything positive out there? 

Or is it all squabbling over who said this, or who did that? 

Is there any peace in our homes...our communities...our towns, cities and nations? 

Or is this a time of unrest? 

Do you have that same child-like expectancy of Christmas morn as when you were a child? And were they really "the good old days?" 

And if so, for whom?

I am finding more and more the older I get that Christmas was just the beginning...

A time at the end of our calendar to help us to refocus on the true meaning of our existence. 

And as we enter a new year...2014...will it bring us closer to the Reason for the Season?

It is my earnest prayer that we...my family...my friends...and my brothers and sisters in Christ...will rekindle that flame that once burned with a Passion...so that all may see your light shine that they, too, might know Him...Jesus.

Mary did you know...

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?

Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will make a blind man see?

Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.

The lame will leap, the mute will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?

This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

On the last day of Blog Caroling...

This morning we are making a brief departure from Civil War Pension Files and the Waterman's Song for an interlude of Blog Caroling.

Started by the Footnote Maven's Tradition of Blog Caroling, she encourages all us GeneaBloggers to assist her in raising our "voices" with lyrics of the Christmas Season.

Here is my offering, The Coventry Carol.

Courtesy: DVIchannel,
Uploaded December 20, 2008

The Coventry Carol

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

By, by, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child.

By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All children young to slay.

Then, woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh

For they parting neither say nor sing,

By, by, lully, lullay.

There is an interesting history behind this English Carol of which I have only recently learned. The Coventry Carol was part of the Coventry Mystery Plays, of which there were originally ten in all. They were performed in Coventry, England in the 16th Century. The plays were performed by different guilds, each guild performing one. 

In an article entitled, Coventry Mystery Plays, the author notes that they were first performed as early as 1392. Each year the King of England would visit Coventry to see the performances. 

Traditionally, this carol was part of a pageant known as The Pageant of The Shearers and the Tailors, called such because of the two guilds which performed it. 

In a book entitled, Medieval and Tudor Drama: Twenty-Four Plays, by John Gassner, you will find a modernized version of the play. 

For a digital copy of the original manuscript, go to Archive.org.

I hope you will enjoy it as I have for many years, although it is quite a mournful song for the Christmas Season. Below you will find a choral version of The Coventry Carol.