And you thought it was over… But wait, I have to share with you a forgotten Christmas carol. It is one that I had never heard of – until today. And since it is now in my head, I must share. I’m compassionate like that.
The carol is called “The Cherry Tree Carol”, and apparently it has been around since the 15th century. The story is drawn on Apocryphal writings of Matthew – but before we discuss the story, you must first take a listen. For your convenience, here is an Celtic version, because I refuse to post Joan Baez, Judy Collins, or Peter, Paul and Mary on my blog. Mark my word: It will never, ever happen.
Here is a recording, as well as some lyrics. They don’t match up as there are many different versions.
1. Joseph was an old man,
An old man was he,
He married Virgin Mary,
The Queen of Galilee.
An old man was he,
He married Virgin Mary,
The Queen of Galilee.
2. As Joseph and Mary was walking,
Was walking one day,
‘Here are apples, here are cherries,’
Mary did say.
Was walking one day,
‘Here are apples, here are cherries,’
Mary did say.
3. Then Mary said to Joseph,
So meek and so mild,
“Joseph gather me some cherries,
For I am with child.”
So meek and so mild,
“Joseph gather me some cherries,
For I am with child.”
4. Then Joseph flew in anger,
In anger flew he,
‘Let the father of the baby
Gather cherries for thee.’
In anger flew he,
‘Let the father of the baby
Gather cherries for thee.’
5. Jesus spoke a few words,
A few words spoke he,
‘Give my mother some cherries,
Bow down, cherry tree!
A few words spoke he,
‘Give my mother some cherries,
Bow down, cherry tree!
6. Bow down, cherry tree,
Low down to the ground.’
Mary gathered cherries,
And Joseph stood around.
Low down to the ground.’
Mary gathered cherries,
And Joseph stood around.
7. Then Joseph took Mary
All on his right knee,
‘What have I done, Lord?
Have mercy on me.’
All on his right knee,
‘What have I done, Lord?
Have mercy on me.’
8. Then Joseph took Mary
All on his left knee,
‘Oh tell me, little Baby,
When thy birthday will be.’
All on his left knee,
‘Oh tell me, little Baby,
When thy birthday will be.’
9. ‘The sixth of January
My birthday will be,
The stars in the elements
Will tremble with glee.’
My birthday will be,
The stars in the elements
Will tremble with glee.’
——-
OK, got it? Joseph and pregnant Mary are traveling and come upon a cherry tree. Mary asked Joseph to pick some cherries for her. Joseph got angry and replies “Why don’t you get the baby’s dad to do it for you.” Harsh much?
Then of course, like a good son would, the in utero Jesus decides to get involved. He commands the cherry tree to bend low so Mary could gather her own cherries.
Here are some issues that I have.
1) Joseph was awesome. ’nuff said. He would have gotten the cherries for Mary without her even asking. Unless, of course, they weren’t actually their cherries, because that would be stealing…
2) Cherry season in Israel is late May through early June. As if picking the date for the birth isn’t already confusing enough. It gets worse…
3) Jesus tells a contrite Joseph that he will be born on January 6th. What? I’m still wrestling with April 6th.
4) Joan Baez sings about it – that right there should tell you something is amiss. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Sting does too, but it is still iffy)
5) The only things our in utero children ever told my EC were: Check out my kung-fu kick, and prepare to vomit.
So, there you go. A belated Christmas gift from me to you. But wait! There’s more!
I have been told that this carol was performed in Sacrament meetings last Sunday. Seriously! The only thing I can think of is that the Bishop was playing with his iPhone when the Ward Music Coordinator sprang the idea in Ward Council, and he just said, “Sounds great!”
Feel free to make comments and tell me how lovely the melody is, and how sweet the story is, and how yummy cherries are when you’re pregnant. I will not participate. I am too big of a Joseph fan to buy into this character assassination. Joseph was awesome.
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As performed, it’s pretty. If you aren’t listening to the words and following the storyline of the song. I agree about the song. It should go back into obscurity.
I like this group as I’m a fan of Celtic music. These guys are good. But hey, you’re never going to feature Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez or Judy Collins? Them’s fightin’ words, pardner.
Bring it.
Hahaha, have to comment on this one. This is one of my family’s favorite “Christmas Carols.” We laugh through it every year. It’s #2 only to the Christmas Macarena, which has a long and glorious tradition in our home.
The best part is, “while Joseph stood around.” hahahaha! Cracks me up every time.
On a serious note, Joseph is TOTALLY The Man. I’ve spent a lot of time pondering about him and his role in the Savior’s life, and he is completely amazing. One of my heroes for sure.
Sorry, I’m late to this post. I just found the blog this week. I agree with MMM 100%. Don’t fictionalize the life of Christ, unless you’re The Living Scriptures, in which case you get a pass because you make my kids look smart in Primary. This reminds me of that “I saw 3 ships” Christmas song. When did “our Savior, Christ, and his lady” come in on a ship? It definitely wasn’t on “Christmas day in the morning.” Both of them are dumb songs. Enough said.
Sorry I’m just now commenting. I was too busy going crazy over Christmas to read blog posts.
I feel like an idiot because I have heard this song a million times. It’s on my fave Christmas album called Songs of Angels by Robert Shaw (it’s a lovely non-folksy version). I have never listened to the words! All I’ve ever heard is “Joseph” and “Cherry Trees”. I just assumed it was all holy.
I really like the lyrics now that I’ve read them. Because even though Joseph was a great guy, he was still human. And maybe he’d just been getting raked over the coals about his wife being pregnant before they were married or something. Maybe his mom was giving him a hard time or maybe the neighbors were gossiping and he was feeling a little ticked.
I can totally hear my husband making some smart-aleck remark like that.
I like the song. Not the hippie versions, though.
You’ll be pleased to know that as ward chorister this year I put my foot down and said firmly said “no” when a woman wanted the RS sisters to sing “Counting my Blessings instead of Sheep” (White Christmas movie)in Sacrament Meeting. Look for the good, look for the bad. Whatever floats your boat. Just keep on the straight and narrow.
Maybe the article posted already mentioned this…. But Jan 6th is the day Christmas is observed in the Orthodox church.
I cringed when someone performed Little Drummer Boy in our sac mtg one year, complete with drums!
Jose Feliciano sings a version of this carol on his Feliz Navidad album. I always assumed it was a Catholic carol because Jose is Catholic (at least I assume he was raised Catholic because he’s Hispanic). I really like his rendition. Many years ago I was in a ward choir where we annually sang a carol that began something like “In the Bleak Mid-winter, ground as hard as iron.” Bethlehem, in Israel, has a Mediterranean climate which in April, when I believe Christ was born, would NEVER have had snow and cold enough to make the ground that hard. This ward was in San Diego, CA, which has a similar climate. I don’t know where the choir director was from, must have been Utah, but I’ve found that Christmas preferences depend on where you spent your childhood and teen years. Those experiences imprint the “real” Christmas on you and anything else is wrong. Now, where was I going with this? Oh, perhaps the leader who chose this carol had some kind of connection to it. It’s true that the carol is not appropriate for Sacrament Meeting, but let’s be charitable, I don’t think it was chosen to stir up controversy.
I’d never heard of that song before and I wish it could have stayed that way. If my ward choir director had tried to make us sing that, I would have quit. And possibly gone inactive.
MMM, I love every single blog post you ever type. I gotta be honest, I even forward them to my husband at work. And he loves them (he is anti-social networking, blogging, etc., much to my chagrin). I appreciate your ability to find the humor in our culture, while staying true to doctrine.
I loved all the Christmas posts, too! (Even before you edited the Easterbunny out of the Resurrection picture to make your point.) The Kelly household are your biggest fans… Carry on!
I thought the message of Joseph saying “let the real father get the cherries” and then the baby Jesus getting them is a hint at the belief in the trinity – that they are one in the same!
I also thought that the song was strange and never would of gotten the message Jocelyn got, but I’m glad I got all the messages one could of had. I hope they explained that song they way Jocelyn did in Sacrament mtg before they sung it.
Never heard it. And that’s saying a lot as musically involved as I am. Glad I never have.
The Jan 6th day reference in the song is messed up too. Hello….Spanish heritage! Three Kings’ Day is Jan. 6th, the ‘traditional’ day the Wise Men came to visit the baby Jesus. There are HUGE parades in Spain and some Latin American countries. Balthazar is always the best. 🙂
Also I thought this article from the Deseret News last year was very interesting.
What was the real date of Jesus’ birth?
I know I’m in trouble when I’ve have awoken Team Jocelyn. And I really shouldn’t perpetuate this discussion, but it’s not often that I can lure Jocelyn into writing lengthy comments.
Jocelyn my dear, I know you look for the virtue in things and stories, but here you embrace a song that casts Joseph as a cynical old man given to “flying off in anger”. (Even in the PPM version) I have no problem with the idea of pondering the difficulties that the couple had to go through, but why saddle Joseph with such a negative character trait? Nobody writes songs painting Mary in a negative light.
To me, it’s a dumb song – and you can’t dance to it.
So much to say! So little time!
First of all, this would be inappropriate in Sacrament Meeting, hands down. For SOOOOO many reasons. Doctrinally at the top of the list.
Second, I agree with you, MMM. On all of it.
Thirdly, Vikiviki, that scripture of Christ speaking in utero has been argued before –and I totally get why it could be confusing. But here’s what I learned about it all:
MANY times, Christ has had other people speak for Him as if it was Him. Heavenly Father has done the same thing. We find several examples in the scriptures where an angel will be speaking in behalf of our Savior, but not actually BE our Savior.
Another idea (one that I like) is that I truly believe what we’ve been told about the veil being very thin. We’ve been told that if we were to truly see with our spiritual eyes, we would be surprised at how close Heaven is to us (and all around us, etc.). And although this is not doctrine (as in, the Brethren of the Church have specified, because, frankly, it doesn’t really matter), I truly believe that the veil continues to be thin for our infants in utero. I wonder if they have the freedom to come and go –to be almost in both places at once. There are so many people who don’t believe the Spirit enters the body until the baby is born (My annoying FIL had the nerve to tell me he “witnessed” my son’s spirit enter his little body when my FIL heard his first cry) and others are convinced it’s at conception. I, however, feel differently (and could talk about it all day long), and like I said, I think it’s not as cut/dry black/white as we think it is.
With that said, the lyrics of this song are just annoying because of how off-base they are doctrinally. Does it mean Jocelyn can’t like it? No –it just means it’s completely inappropriate as a song sung in Sacrament Meeting. But it’s not the only Christmas song we shouldn’t be singing in Sacrament Meeting.
P.S. I think the words are tacky, too. Because I get tired of the Joseph hating. I can’t imagine the amazing humility and awesome character that man had to do what he did –he makes me think of other humble men of God who quietly go about doing their awesome service without much complaint. I mean, the man was going to “put Mary away privily” –I doubt he would ever have been snarky to that poor woman in her state. Ever.
I think there is a big difference between Liking a song and having a song be appropriate to be sung over the pulpit, thus equating it to scripture,things said with the spirit are supposed to be scripture and as many a person cannot differentiate the light of Christ from the Holy Ghost I fear there would be people in that sacrament meeting trying to take doctrine from the song. I have a great appreciation for folk songs I have sung many I wouldn’t sing any of them in church, so I will admit it and say it was my ward that this song was sung in and to my knowledge the lyrics posted are the lyrics that was sung but I don’t remember if they used that date or not I was trying to keep my kid from smashing his head into some bricks
Didn’t even want to listen. I’m too big a Joseph fan, too. Great post.
JWW
Woohoo…Team Jocelyn!! (Should I have t-shirts made up or what?) ha ha 🙂 We love you, MMM!
There are a ton of different versions of this carol. Check this out–http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/cherry_tree_carol-notes.htm
Which one was sung is Sacrament Meeting? It very well might have been one of the versions that has Joseph command the cherry tree to bow down.
I am on Jocelyn’s team on this one.
This happened to have been an unfamiliar carol to most people here (because it is Medieval English), but it could just as easily been one we LDS people hijacked because it refers to the pre-mortal Jesus.
OF course, I wouldn’t like a song like that either (casting Nephi in a bad light), but as I said before, I don’t think my favorite version of the song casts Joseph in a bad light…but also you cannot deny that Joseph and Mary “being human” is a core part of the story of Christ’s birth.
I guess I just would rather look for the virtue in things and stories, etc. This song was merely a straw man that you picked apart as a comical device…which is fine! (I’m not even going to ask why it was sung in Sacrament…I don’t really care.)
But I choose to absolutely adore the thought of a husband and wife figuring out who this baby was together…or rather Mary watching with delight as the cherry tree bent down to the will of the Christ child…which would then teach Joseph so much about his role as well. This scenario of wife understanding things like this before the husband is so very common, it makes me smile.
Remember, it’s just a song, MMM. No one is confusing it with scripture, except maybe people in the ward where this was sung? There is much that Mary “kept”, and I am sure that she experienced so many miraculous moments. As a woman, who has experienced similar moments in bearing children, I can feel a kinship to Mary through this little song.
About saying things in utero..there is this scripture that comes to mind… (3 Nephi chapter 1)
10 Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.
11 And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers.
12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
That scripture always made me wonder again about when the spirit actually enters into the body – because that is one mystery that I can’t wait to figure out in the next life. I just think that once his eternal spirit was IN the physical body (inside of Mary), then HOW could he speak directly to Nephi?
Anyhow, maybe I am just missing something that is spectacularly simple here, and I am too dense to pick up on it?? IDK.
Also, the first verse of that song made it sound like they were already married and then he finds out she is pregnant…pretty sure that she was pregnant FIRST and then he married her. I can’t believe that people are actually lovin’ on that song. WOW.
Thanks for the interesting discussion that ensued from that crazy song.
Holly: Thanks! Very cool discussion of the Savior’s birthdate. Probably more than I ever wanted to know!
Oh Jocelyn, you don’t get me at all. I LOVE using my imagination when it comes to Christmas! Santa comes to our house, I don’t mind that my kids think that elves love maple syrup. I adore the Bumble and the Winter Warlock. Rudolph, the Grinch, Ralphie and Santa.
I DON’T like it when people take liberties with scripture, and assign negative character attributes to the earthly guardian of the Savior that have no basis in scripture. I also don’t like the deification of the Virgin that much of the world participates in. Leave the sacred sacred. Don’t fabricate.
Similarly, I don’t want to hear songs about Nephi beating up his brothers and mocking Lehi when he was young because it makes him out to be more “human”.
However, I am not mad at you, and not just because I’m afraid someone might write a song about it.
Ha ha! I love this song because we sang it in a folk group I was in. But I agree that the idea of Joseph really acting that way isn’t my favorite part. And singing it in church just doesn’t make any sense. I think the handbook says to use texts that are in keeping with church doctrine.
As for why January 6th see this exhaustive resource:
http://themoorings.org/apologetics/chronology/Chrmas.html
I am completely destroyed (but in a good way) as the Primary kids sing “When Joseph Went to Bethlehem.” An unfortunate lot of wonderful both religious and secular music is encumbered and scuttled by bad text.
I can’t stand this post at all.
I love the Cherry Tree song…the version I like is by Peter, Paul, and Mary…Verses 5-9 that you have quoted here are not right and make no sense.
Listen to the PPM version. http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-cherry-tree-carol-lyrics-peter-paul-mary.html
It’s beautiful. It is again an imagined version (I know you hate the use of imagination when it comes to Christmas, but whatev!)
As a woman I totally get this song…when sung with the right verses, and think it is beautiful.
I think it shows Joseph as a man, who would have been rightfully upset by the news that his betrothed was pregnant and not by him…UNTIL the Lord helped him to understand WHO this baby was that she was carrying.
I love love love this song and the emotional interaction that it portrays. Minus those weird verses that you quotes, it doesn’t make Joseph into a bad man…just makes him out to be human.
Oh my. I am more than apalled at the lyrics to this song. What is wrong with people that they would think its okay to sing this in SACRAMENT MEETING?!
PS. My children told me the same things while in utero. Also that they would be awesome at punching their siblings later in life.
I have never heard this song and I am confused how It ever made it into a sacrament meeting! Joseph had to be incredible. God wouldn’t let just anyone be the earthly father to the Savior. Great post!
Oh. My. Word. Do people think before they write?
(I would love to listen, but my speakers don’t work. It only took me 12 seconds to realize what was wrong. I have heard Sting’s version – its okay.)