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The Holly Bears a Berry (The Sans Day Carol)

[ Roud 514 ; Ballad Index K091 ; Bodleian Roud 514 ; trad.]

The Watersons sang The Holly Bears a Berry in 1965 on their first album Frost and Fire. This recording was also included on the Topic CD sampler The Season Round. A live version from a Christmas radio programme recorded in December 1980 at Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, was published in 2005 on the CD A Yorkshire Christmas. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album’s sleeve notes:

Another spring carol, proper to the period between Passiontide and Easter. In it the evergreen holly is celebrated along with the dying and resurrected god. In tradition this carol lasted longest in Cornwall. It shares some verses with the better known Holly and the Ivy.

Sandy Denny sang The Sans Day Carol in Alex Campbell’s house at 19 Rupert St, Glasgow on 5 August 1967. This was published in 2011 on their CD 19 Rupert St.

The Voice Squad sang The Holly She Bears a Berry on their 1987 album Many’s the Foolish Youth. Seán Corcoran noted:

This is an Easter carol from Cornwall which beautifully combines elements of paganism and older beliefs with Christianity.

Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band sang Now the Holly Bears a Berry (The Sans Day Carol) in 1987 on their Saydisk album A Tapestry of Carols, in 1998 on their Park Records CD Carols at Christmas, and in 2005 on their Park Records CD and DVD An Evening of Carols and Capers.

BACCApella (the singers of Bacca Pipes Folk Club; amongst them at the time were Maggie Boyle, Lynda Hardcastle, Fay Hield, Mike and Helen Hockenhull, and Tim Moon) sang The Sans Day Carol in 1999 on their privately released CD The Haworth Set.

The New Scorpion Band sang The Sans Day Carol in 2001 on their CD The Carnal and the Crane. They noted:

The Rev G Doble notated this carol from the singing of Mr Thomas Beard in the village of St Day, near Redruth in Cornwall. St Day, or Dei, was a Breton saint, abbott of the monastery of Landevennec. The adoption of his name by a Cornish village bears witness to the close historical links between the two regions. The words of the carol are of the familiar Holly and Ivy type, evoking the custom of using these evergreen plants as decoration during the midwinter festival. The custom was universal in mediaeval times, and in fact seems to be much older, reaching back to the pre-Christian Saxon festival of Yule, and perhaps even the ancient Roman Saturnalia. In this case the ivy does not make an appearance, and the carol is rather unusual in its list of multicoloured holly berries.

We use village band instruments again—comet, tenor horn, euphonium, tuba, violin, melodeon, guitar, percussion and vocals.

Paul Sartin sang the Sans Day Carol in 2009 on Belshazzar’s Feast’s WildGoose album Frost Bites. He noted:

Sans Day Carol is named for the village of St Day, Cornwall, itself dedicated to the Breton St Day or St They who inspired a following in the county. The first three verses were sung by Thomas Beard in the village, the fourth [is] an originally Cornish-language later addition (Oxford Book of Carols).

The Albion Christmas Band sang The Sans Day Carol in 2011 on their CD A Sound in the Frosty Air.

Kate Rusby sang this carol as First Tree in the Greenwood on her 2011 Christmas album, While Mortals Sleep.

Andy Turner sang The Holly Bears a Berry as the 3 April 2015 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

GreenMatthews sang The Sans Day Carol on their 2015 CD A Brief History of Christmas.

Piers Cawley sang The Sans Day Carol at a Trad Song Tuesday Twitter singaround. He included his recording in 2020 on his download EP Trad Song Tuesdays Volume 1.

Lyrics

The Watersons sing The Holly Bears a Berry

Now the holly she bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus who’s wrapt up in silk.

Chorus (after each verse):
And Mary she bore Jesus, our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the green wood
It was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree that’s in the green wood
It was the holly.

Now the holly she bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus who died on the cross.

Now the holly she bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus who died for us all.

Now the holly she bears a berry as blood it is red,
And we trust in our Saviour who rose from the dead.

Maddy Prior sings Now the Holly Bears a Berry

Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus all wrapt up in silk.

Chorus (after each verse):
And Mary she bore Jesus, our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood
It was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree in the greenwood
It was the holly.

Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus who died on the cross.

Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus who died for us all.

Now the holly bears a berry as blood it is red,
Then Mary bore Jesus who rose from the dead.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard