Over The River

Do you consider the song "Over The River and Through The Woods" to be a Thanksgiving or Christmas song?  Here's a little history about the song...

     "Over the River and Through the Wood" is a Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child. Written originally as     a poem, it appeared in her Flowers for Children, Volume 2, in 1844. The original title of the poem is, "A Boy's Thanksgiving Day". It celebrates her childhood memories of visiting her Grandfather's House. Lydia Maria Child was a novelist, journalist, teacher, and wrote extensively about the need to eliminate slavery.

It is sometimes presented with lines about Christmas, rather than Thanksgiving. For instance, the line "Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!" becomes "Hurrah for Christmas Day!". As a Christmas song, it has been recorded as "A Merry Christmas at Grandmother's". Although the modern Thanksgiving holiday is not normally associated with snow, New England in the early 19th century was enduring the Little Ice Age, a colder era with earlier winters.^[1]

If you are interested in reading more about Lydia Maria Child you can visit the Poetry Foundations website.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lydia-maria-child

Here is a Christmas version of the song to enjoy at home!

Holidays

As we begin our Holiday session of Music Together and Holiday season in most of our homes I wanted to give you a little information about the different songs you have on your Holiday Music Together CD.
As you listen to your CD you will hear music from the following celebrations:
Diwali - A 5 day festival

Observed by	Hindus, Jains and Sikhs
Type	Religious, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius,Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago,Surinam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji (National holiday in these countries)
Date	Decided by the Hindu Lunisolar calendar
2011 date	Wednesday, 26 October
2012 date	Tuesday, 13 November
2013 date	Sunday, 3 November
Celebrations	Decorating homes with lights and candles, Fireworks, distributing sweets and gifts

Hanukkah - An 8 day Jewish festival

2012 date	Sunset, December 8 to nightfall, December 16
Celebrations	Lighting candles each night. Singing special songs, such asMa'oz Tzur. Reciting Hallelprayer. Eating foods fried in oil, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Playing thedreidel game, and givingHanukkah gelt

Christmas - Christian (and non-Christian) Holiday

Observed by	Christians Many non-Christians[1]
Type	Christian, cultural
Significance	Traditional birthday of Jesus
Date	December 25 (alternatively, January 6, 7 or 19)[2][3][4] (see below)
Observances	Church services, gift giving, family and other social gatherings, symbolic decorating

There are many celebrations around the world this time of year.  We celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ in our home.  However, I feel it is important for my children to learn about other celebrations around the world.  Listening to music from many cultures is a fantastic way to introduce the youngest children to other cultures.  Music from other cultures has fascinating tonalities that are wonderful to expose your children to.