I'm an atheist. Almost always have been, probably always will be. But I really enjoy Christmas; it's a top notch pagan festival, the hinge of the year and as good a time as any to get together with my family, sing songs and eat ourselves stationary. I'm lucky, I get on well with my family.
It's the songs I really like. I'm not over keen on many of the better known carols I'm afraid; they tend to be let down somewhat by rather dirgy tunes, but on Saturday I was part of a choir (rather a strong word for it) singing some of the carols from the Sheffield tradition.
The Sheffield tradition?
It's like this. For some reason, the people in the villages north and west of Sheffield have kept a tradition of singing carols in pubs and, in the period between Remembrance Sunday and Christmas many of the pubs in the area play host to their local carollers (usually on Sunday afternoons or Saturday night). They've done this, literally since time immemorial and nobody in the area thought much about it, after all, it was just what you did. I have a friend from the area who moved away and was surprised to find the same thing didn't happen in his new local, but he never really thought of his tradition as 'special'.
But it is. If you go to one of these sessions you may find that the words are familiar but the tunes are completely different, and they are a joy to sing with wonderful fugues and harmonies. Top stuff. And all in a fantastic atmosphere. If you ever have the chance, go.
So, last Saturday a friend of ours put together a choir to sing some of these songs for an audience in Chelmsford, and a good time was had by all. But we were just the support act. The group that this audience had paid to see are one of England's treasures; the Copper Family of Rottingdean.
You've probably never heard of them. The Copper Family is one of the old families of the village of Rottingdean in Sussex and they are a family of singers. For some reason they have preserved a tradition of singing songs in harmony. Bob Copper, at 86 the oldest member of the family is singings songs that his grandfather learned from his grandfather and Bob's grandchildren have learnt those songs from him and are still singing them.
And what songs. The Coppers have around 50 songs in their tradition, almost all of them were unique to them (there are other traditional singers from whom songs have been collected), and certainly their tradition of singing in harmony is pretty much unique. Many of them have become 'standards' in the folk scene, but it was a real treat to hear them sung in their 'original' form by the family that kept them for us. The Coppers are not great singers, I've heard people singing Copper songs who sounded much better than Bob and his kids but that's not really the point. And the look on Bob's face as 200 people join in with harmonies on songs that he was worried would die with him was a true treat.
So, on Christmas Eve I'll be off taking part in one of the Cawley family traditions at my parents' house when around 100 friends and family will gather for mince pies and sausage rolls, and then we'll all sing a few carols before everyone heads off back home or down the pub, or to midnight mass. We've got a new generation in the family this year, a whole crop of toddlers so I wonder if we'll get any singing done or if we'll just spend the time playing with the kids. Whatever happens I suspect we'll enjoy it and get Christmas off to a cracking start.
