โJingle Bellsโ
In Victorian times, it was fashionable to go carol singing with small handbells to chime carol tunes. At times, only the bells would be used to carry the tune, especially on colder days(๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ด๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด).
Handbell ringing is still popular today.
One familiar Christmas carol is โJingle Bellsโ. Composed by organist James Pierpont, โJingle Bellsโ was first named โ๐ฎ๐๐พ ๐ง๐๐๐๐พ ๐ฎ๐๐พ๐ ๐ฒ๐ ๐พ๐๐๐โ ๐บ๐๐ฝ ๐๐๐ป๐ ๐๐๐๐พ๐ฝ ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ช๐ง๐ฉ ๐บ๐ ๐บ ๐ณ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐! It became increasingly associated with Christmas because of its snowy lyrics.
Often only first verse and chorus are sung-other verses actually mention driving the โone horse open sleighโ fast and crashing it! ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ, ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต? Leave it to the Victorians to slide a touch of cringe everywhere they could(๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฎ๐ข๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ.๐ซฃ)
โJingle Bellsโ was the first song to be broadcast from space. In December 1965, astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra said they had spotted a sleigh in space. They took out a harmonica and sleigh bells which they had smuggled onto the Gemini 6 space craft. They played and sang the song to mission control.
photo by Marta Filipcyzk
