what is the meaning of deck the halls
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Deck the Halls
“Deck the Halls” (originally titled “Deck the Hall”) is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, “Nos Galan”, while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862.
History
The tune is that of an old Welsh air, first found in a musical manuscript by Welsh harpist John Parry dating back to the 1700s. Poet John Ceiriog Hughes later wrote his own lyrics. A middle verse was later added by folk singers. In the eighteenth century the tune spread widely, with Mozart allegedly using it in his 18th violin sonata (1778) and later Haydn arranged it in under the Welsh title, “Nos galan” (Hob. XXXIb:29, 1803).
Deck the halls is a phrase that one may hear during the holiday season. We will examine the definition of the term deck the halls, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.
To deck the halls means to decorate for Christmas, especially if one will be entertaining guests. These decorations. may include centerpieces, swags or a garland made of branches or boughs of fir, pine, cedar, balsam or greenery from other types of evergreen limbs. Garlands or wreaths may include smaller Christmas decorative touches such as ribbon, ornaments, or pine cones. To hang a holiday wreath such as a berry wreath is a joyous touch. At Christmas time, the front door is often decorated, making things festive and merry, bringing cheer inside and outside the house.
Christmas
Decking the halls is not confined to literally decorating halls. During the Christmas season, people celebrate by hanging stockings and displaying candles, mistletoe, a figurine of a reindeer, angel, snowman or Santa Clause, nativity sets, baskets, tinsel, bells, a poinsettia, a Christmas tree with tree decorations such as ornaments, colored lights and other Christmas decorations, and any seasonal family treasure or handmade crafts that are a tradition for their particular family.
Whether natural decorations from the outdoors or artificial metallic items made of glitter and sparkle, these seasonal adornments create a winter wonderland and bring yuletide spirit. The phrasedeck the halls is derived from a well-loved Christmas song, entitled Deck the Halls: “Deck the halls with boughs of holly / Fa la la la la la la la la / ‘Tis the season to be jolly / Fa la la la la la la la la.” One of many Christmas carols with older roots, Deck the Halls takes its melody from the Welsh air Nos Galan which means New Year’s Eve, and dates at least to the 1500s.
The lyrics that we sing today were written in 1862 by Thomas Oliphant, a Scottish musician. In this case, the word deck is used to mean to adorn with something ornamental, from the Dutch word decken, meaning to cover. This use of the verb to deck is seen in the phrase all decked out, used to describe someone who has dressed in finery. Related phrases are decks the halls, decked the halls, decking the halls.
To imbibe copious alcoholic beverages as a way of dealing with Christmastime stresses.
2. Punching a bag of Halls Cough Drops
1862
Traditional Christmas songs are a treasure trove of archaisms and words that have changed their meanings through the centuries.
“Deck the Halls,” published in 1794, but dating from a much earlier Welsh carol, contains several such words. The melody dates to the sixteenth century. The familiar English lyrics were written by Thomas Oliphant (1799-1873) in 1862.
I’ll focus on the relevant lines and avoid all the fa la la la la la la la las.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
As a verb, deck’s earliest meaning in English was “to cover,” as with a roof. Next, it could mean to cover with garments, especially rich or ornamental garments. In “Deck the Halls,” it refers to the act of decorating a room with holly boughs.
Don we now our gay apparel
The verb don means “to put on.” It’s a shortening of the verbal phrase “do on.” Its opposite is doff, “to take off”—a shortening of “do off.”
The adjective gay has numerous definitions. The ones that fit the context here are “Bright or lively-looking, especially in color; brilliant, showy.” and “Finely or showily dressed.”
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Troll the ancient Yuletidecarol
When I was a child, my first encounter with troll in “Deck the Halls” puzzled me because I associated the word with the Norwegian folk tale, “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” in which a Troll “with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker” lurked under a bridge, waiting to pounce on its victims.
Today’s youngsters are more likely to think of “trolling” as the actions of an internet troll : a person on the internet who seeks to stir up conflict by “trolling” other users with ugly remarks and misinformation.
Here’s an early definition:
to troll: “To sing (something) in the manner of a round or catch; and to sing in a full, rolling voice; to chant merrily or jovially.”
Yuletide combines the words Yule and tide. Yule derives from an ancient Germanic winter festival. Tide can mean “time” or “season.” The meaning in “Deck the Halls” is “Christmas time” or “the Christmas season.”
This may be my imagination, but Yule seems to be catching on in some commercial quarters, possibly as a nonsectarian stand-in for Christmas. I noticed a caption under a photo in which a woman and her daughter said to “look at yule trees for sale Thursday at Wisconsin Tree Farms.”
Finally, the word carol is one that has changed meaning over the years. It originally denoted dancers holding hands in a circle. Then, it developed the general meaning of “a joyous song.” As a verb, carol is frequently used in the context of birdsong, but the most common modern meaning of the noun is a hymn or song about the birth of Jesus. To carol, is “to sing Christmas songs.”
Related post: Happy Yuletide!
To all our readers, best wishes for a
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Joyous Kwanzaa
Prosperous Pongal
Delightful Dongzhi
Super Solstice
and any other cherished winter festivals I don’t know about.
HOW TO USE “DECK THE HALLS” IN A SENTENCE
Songwriter Thomas Oliphant
Oliphant was a Scottish songwriter and author who was responsible for many popular songs and writings. He made his way by writing new lyrics to old melodies, interpreting foreign songs into English; not necessarily directly translating, but, as in “Deck the Halls,” coming up with lyrics that fit the mood of the song. He became a lyricist for the court of Queen Victoria and eventually became a popular translator of music.
Madrigal Influence
Madrigals a traditional secular musical form during the Rennaissance in Europe and typically sung a cappella (without instrumental accompaniment). They usually featured poetry set to music, with a composer adding “accompaniment” sections for some voices (such as “fa la la”).
Oliphant was Honorary Secretary of the Madrigal Society, where he mostly reinterpreted Italian madrigal songs into English. Most of his translations were in a similar style to “Deck the Halls,” with entirely new lyrics set to familiar melodies.
American Christmas Carol
Another version of the lyrics, which removes the references to drinking and is close to the one commonly recited today, published in the 1877 edition of the Pennsylvania School Journal. It still uses the singular “Hall” and changes “Yuletide” to “Christmas.”
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