JINGLE BELLS by Mary Davis

By Mary Davis

Jingle Bells is one of the quintessential Christmas carols and probably the best known one around the world. It was originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh and is a standard at Christmas. The season wouldn’t be the same without it.

BUT . . .

 

Jingle Bells wasn’t written as a Christmas song. Nope. It was written for Thanksgiving. That makes it a Thanksgiving carol. However, it’s not even really about Thanksgiving. It’s about horse racing and dating. LOL!

 

Though the author of this time-tested carol is not in question, when and where it was written is.

 

Let’s roll back time to 1850. James Lord Pierpont was a young man of twenty-seven. (I won’t get into some of his less desirable traits.) His father and older brother were both ministers of Unitarian churches.

 

In 1850, James’s father asked him to write a song for the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration, or so the story goes. At that time, Thanksgiving wasn’t a national holiday. It was celebrated sporadically since 1789. It wasn’t until 1863, when President Lincoln declared a national day of thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday in November, that it became consistent across the country. Controversy surrounded which Thursday to observe this celebration, moving to different Thursdays in the month at the current president’s discretion. In 1942, Thanksgiving finally had a permanent home on the fourth Thursday in November.

 

Now, back to 1850 in Medford, Massachusetts. James was struggling with what to write for a Thanksgiving song when he saw some children sledding. He went out and joined them for over an hour, racing down the hill on a borrowed sled. His time in the snow brought back memories of when he was a teen racing horse-drawn sleighs with his buddies. At the end of the races, the winner would receive a hug from one of the girls watching. Which meant, they were racing for hugs and for the admiration and respect of girls. Things haven’t changed much.

James Lord Pierpont

James, being a bit of a rebel, penned verses of those younger years, racing horses to impress girls. He thought that was something to be thankful for. The song was a hit at the Thanksgiving service causing people to hum the tune as they left, and they asked for it to be performed again at Christmas. The repeat performance was received equally as well. Out-of-town visitors at the Christmas service enjoyed it so much, they jotted down the words and memorized the tune.

 

When James Pierpont headed down South in 1857, he took his Thanksgiving song with him. Oliver Ditson and Company published it in that same year in August, and James got it copyrighted a month later on September 16. This is what leads to the confusion of when and where it was penned. Both Medford, Massachusetts and Savannah, Georgia lay claim to the origin of this little ditty.

Back to this being a racing and dating song.

 

Line one of verse one — “Dashing through the snow”. Dashing denotes speed or a race.

 

In verse 2 (lesser well known) — “And soon, Miss Fanny Bright was seated by my side”—the narrator has a girl in the sleigh, and then proceeds to drive either at a great speed or in a reckless manner to end up in a snow bank and tipped over—“He got into a drifted bank and then we got upsot.”

 

Then in verse 3 (also lesser known) — He falls in the snow and a rival laughs at him.

. . . I went out on the snow,

And on my back I fell;

A gent was riding by

In a one-horse open sleigh,

He laughed as there I sprawling lie,

But quickly drove away.

I think they were racing because he says “on” the snow, not in the snow.

 

Last but not least, in the final verse — the narrator tells another fellow to pick up some girls, find a fast horse, then go racing with the fast horse.

. . . Take the girls tonight;

. . . Just get a bobtailed bay

Two forty for his speed

Hitch him to a sleigh

And crack! You’ll take the lead.

Two forty was a horse that could run a mile in two minutes and forty seconds or 22.5 mph.

 

Regardless of how this beloved carol began, over the decades, recording artists—such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, the Andrew Sisters, and many others—have put their stamp on the tune and turned it into a Christmas favorite. Also, the lyrics and pacing have been tweaked since James Pierpont’s original version.

 

So special is this carol that Jingle Bells was the first song to be performed in outer space. On December 16, 1965, the crew of the Gemini 6 played it on harmonica backed up by sleigh bells. Both of which they smuggled aboard before liftoff.

Gemini VI

MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR (Heroines of WWII series)
3rd Place 2023 SELAH Award

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) flies a secret mission to rescue three soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two daughters, an excellent pilot, and very patriotic. She joins the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). As she performs various tasks like ferry aircraft, transporting cargo, and being an airplane mechanic, she meets and develops feelings for her supervisor Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg. When Peggy learns of U.S. soldiers being held captive in Cuba, she, Major Berg, and two fellow WASPs devise an unsanctioned mission to rescue them. With Cuba being an ally in the war, they must be careful not to ignite an international incident. Order HERE!

MARY DAVIS, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has over thirty titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE LADY’S MISSION. Her other novels include THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle Book 4) THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) is a SELAH Award Winner. Some of her other recent titles include; THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT, THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT, “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection, Prodigal Daughters Amish series, "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of thirty-seven years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub

Sources

Stories Behind The Greatest Hits Of Christmas, by Ace Collins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells

https://www.grunge.com/285218/the-history-of-jingle-bells-explained/

https://www.liveabout.com/jingle-bells-history-2456082

https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-jingle-bells

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lord_Pierpont

Thanksgiving Through the Years

 By Sherri Stewart

 

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I thought it useful to consider how our modern-day traditions correspond to those of the first Thanksgiving and even the Thanksgivings of the first few centuries. It is easy to celebrate when everything is going well in one’s life, but if any of us have experienced losing a loved one before a major holiday, the word thanksgiving doesn’t flow so glibly off the tongue. Indeed, in that first Thanksgiving of 1621, only four women of the original eighteen who’d reached the new world survived to cook the three-day celebration for the remaining fifty men and children, and the Wampanoag. The disparity in numbers may have been due to the fact that the women had to remain on the Mayflower while the men went ashore to build shelters. Susan Hardman Moore. Yale Books. November 2014  

www.history.com

While Washington and Adams (the first two presidents) were in favor of celebrating the national holiday of Thanksgiving, Thomas Jefferson was adverse to the idea of the government legislating a national holiday. In his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, he said there should be a “Wall of Separation between the Church and State.” Note that this was in a letter, not in the Constitution, but because of a bigamy case, Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878), the Supreme Court ruled that Jefferson’s letter should be used to interpret the First Amendment of the Constitution. For the next sixty years, Thanksgiving was relegated to the jurisdiction of the state or the colony.

www.monticello.org

It wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln instituted Thanksgiving as a national holiday, in part because the president wanted to unify a country that was badly broken after the Civil War. He was also moved by an impassioned letter written to him by Sarah Josepha Hale, who was editor of Godey’s Lady Book, a ladies’ magazine. She also wrote, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Her lobbying effort to make Thanksgiving a national holiday can be traced back to a passage of her 1827 novel Northwood. “We have too few holidays,” she wrote. “Thanksgiving like the Fourth of July should be a national festival observed by all the people … as an exponent of our republican institutions.” Olivia B. Waxman. Time. Nov 2016

Although most Americans consume turkey on Thanksgiving Day, the first Thanksgiving in 1621 most likely featured deer or fowl (partridge, quail), due to the fact that chickens, turkeys, and cattle were not  slaughtered because of their ability to produce eggs and milk. Advertisements, menus, and cookbooks show that the traditional turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie meal hasn’t changed much since the early part of the twentieth century.

whatcomtalk.com

Many of the origins of Thanksgiving’s modern traditions may surprise the reader. While Thanksgiving may be a huge day for food consumption, it’s also the most popular day of the year to run in a race. “Turkey trots” have been around since 1896 when the Buffalo YMCA hosted their first holiday 8K. These days, more than 14,000 runners will run in turkey trots all over America. For those Thanksgiving revelers who prefer to play “armchair quarterback,” the first official Thanksgiving NFL game took place between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears in 1934, but playing football on this particular holiday can be traced back to 1869.  Although the dismal origins of Black Friday go back to 1869, only in the last decade have stores begun to open on Thanksgiving Day. Erin Johnson, MakeItGrateful.com So, what traditions do you keep with your family? Your answer, please.

peachridgeglass.com

Selah Award finalist Sherri Stewart loves a clean novel, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that challenges her faith. She spends her working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing her own. Her passions are traveling to the settings of her books and sampling the food. She traveled to Zürich for Secrets Dark and Deep. A widow, Sherri lives in Orlando with her lazy dog, Lily. She shares recipes, tidbits of the book’s locations, and other authors' books in her newsletter.

Subscribe at stewartwriting.com/newsletter

An Uncommon Gift

Ella Davis’s papa always told her there’d be no class difference in Heaven, but Ella has years to live on God’s green earth until she reaches her reward. She’s content to be a maid on the Huntington Estate, as long as she has her books and her kitten. But when her ladyship, Amberly Huntington, coerces Ella to take her place on the Mauretania, the fastest ocean liner in 1910, Ella’s worst nightmare has come to pass. She must pretend to be nobility for the eight days it takes to reach New York. In other words, she must live a lie—and this just before Christmas! https://bit.ly/47MTvYX

Magic and the Law in Ancient Rome (Part 2 of 3)

By Liisa Eyerly

Have you ever wanted a rival sports team to lose? How about wishing revenge on a failed love relationship or their new love? Not happy with the opposing political view? Did someone ever steal from you or cause you harm? A common response is to wish for a bit of payback. In Ancient Rome, the boundaries between divine will and witchcraft were often blurred, with curses serving as a potent tool for those seeking to influence events or exact revenge. Whether driven by personal grudges, political ambitions, or competitive spirit, Romans frequently turned to curses to address conflicts and desires.

File:Alfredo Tominz – The chariot race in the Circus Maximus.jpg|Alfredo_Tominz_-_The_chariot_race_in_the_Circus_Maximus CC

These curses were inscribed on tablets, known as defixiones, and could be directed at rivals in various domains—sports, love, business, and even legal disputes. The tablets typically invoked the help of spirits or deities, urging them to inflict harm or misfortune on the target. A vivid example of this practice is found in a curse tablet that calls upon a spirit to "torment and kill the horses of the green and white teams" and their charioteers, Clarus, Felix, Primulus, and Romanus, reflecting the fierce competition and high stakes of chariot racing in Roman society.

These curses were not just empty threats; they were believed to carry real power. The act of inscribing the curse, often accompanied by a drawing of an anatomically correct deity, was thought to bind the target to the desired outcome, whether it was a rival's downfall, a lover's return, or a competitor's failure. This belief in the efficacy of curses underscores the complex relationship Romans had with the divine, where the line between seeking divine favor and engaging in witchcraft was often indistinguishable.

Personal grievances also found their way onto curse tablets in Ancient Rome, where people sought to exact severe punishment on those who wronged them. One such tablet laments the theft of two gloves, with the owner, Docimedis, invoking a curse that the thief should lose their mind and eyesight in the goddess's temple.

Roman bath in Bath England.

Bathhouse stealing was common, and another curse reveals the extent of anger and desire for retribution in Roman society: "The human who stole Verio’s cloak or his things... may the worms, cancer, and maggots penetrate his hands, head, feet, as well as his limbs and marrows." The severity of this curse highlights the intense emotions and beliefs in the power of these spells to cause real harm.

Even high-ranking individuals, such as senators, were not immune to these curses. One particularly vicious curse targeted Senator Fistus, with the intent to "Crush, kill Fistus, the senator. May Fistus dilute, languish, sink and may all his limbs dissolve..." This demonstrates the widespread use of curses across all social strata, reflecting the deep-rooted belief in their efficacy.

Defixio tabella with a curse in Greek. Lead, 4th century CE. Rome Baths of Diocletian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The belief in and practice of magic were not limited to the general populace; even politicians, philosophers, and emperors engaged in these mystical arts. Pliny the Elder, a respected naturalist and writer of the first century AD/CE, observed that magic had become deeply intertwined with medicine, religion, and astrology. He noted its powerful influence, stating that "The senses of men being thus enthralled by three-fold bond, the art of magic has attained an influence so mighty, that at the present day even, it holds sway throughout a great part of the world, and rules the kings of kings in the East."

This observation by Pliny underscores how pervasive and influential magic was in the ancient world, affecting not just common people but the highest echelons of society.

In the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine I sought to regulate the pervasive use of magic within the Roman Empire by drawing a clear line between what was considered acceptable and what was not. He ruled that “helpful charms,” which were seen as benign, were permissible, while “antagonistic spells” were punishable offenses. This distinction reflected the Roman authorities' broader approach to divination, where certain state-sanctioned practices, such as augury (interpreting bird behavior) and haruspication (examining sacrificed animal entrails), were respected for their role in maintaining the pax deorum, the harmony between the human and divine realms.

A bronze reproduction of the so-called “Liver of Piacenza”, an animal liver engraved with the Etruscan names of the deities connected to each part of the organ. Lokilech, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

In contrast, antagonistic spells, like those inscribed on curse tablets, were deemed dangerous and could be met with severe punishment, including crucifixion. Despite these harsh penalties, the use of curse tablets persisted, underscoring the deep-rooted belief in their power.

Christians in this era often faced accusations of wielding supernatural powers. This fear is vividly captured in the Passion story of Perpetua and Felicitas from the third century, where a Roman judge feared that these Christian women would magically disappear and escape their impending execution at the celebration of Emperor Septimius Severus’s birthday, highlighting the tension between emerging Christian beliefs and entrenched pagan practices.

In a letter, Emperor Hadrian accused Christians, Samaritans, and Jewish leaders of being involved in astrology, soothsaying, and anointing—practices often associated with magic. Christians consistently rejected these accusations, emphasizing their abhorrence of magical arts. This stance is echoed by the second-century church leader Irenaeus, who stated that while Christians did indeed cast out devils, they did so not through "wicked curious arts" like incantations or angelic invocations, but by directing prayers to the Lord and invoking the name of Jesus Christ.

Healing of the lame man Acts 3 :1-8. Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Christianity acknowledged the presence of evil spirits and the malevolent influences that existed in the world but firmly distinguished its practices from those of magic. This is illustrated in the Gospel of Luke (10:8-9,17), where Jesus instructs His disciples to heal the sick and proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God, with the disciples later rejoicing that "even the demons are subject to us in Your name." This passage highlights the Christian belief in the power of Jesus' name to overcome evil, further distancing their faith from the magical practices of the time.

Bibliography

Magic of ancient Romans « IMPERIUM ROMANUM
Brenk, E. (1977). In Mist Apparelled: Religious Themes in Plutarch’s “Moralia” and “Lives”. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 59. ISBN9789004052413.
Tatum, J. (1979). Apuleius and the Golden Ass. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 28–29.
Mystakidou, Kyriaki; Eleni Tsilika; Efi Parpa; Emmanuel Katsouda; Lambros Vlahos (1 December 2004). “Death and Grief in the Greek Culture”. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying. 50 (1): 24. doi:10.2190/YYAU-R4MN-AKKM-T496. S2CID144183546. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
11 of the Most Infamous Ancient Curses in History – Oldest.org
7 Ancient Roman Curses You Can Work into Modern Life | Mental Floss
Ancient Roman Curses Translated – The Language Blog by K International (k-international.com)
Benko, Stephen. Pagan Rome and the Early Christians. Indiana Univ. Press, 1986.
Stern, K. B. (2020). Writing on the wall: Graffiti and the forgotten jews of antiquity. Princeton University Press.
Disturbing Red Painted Curse Discovered In Jerusalem Catacomb | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)
The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity – Wikipedia
Magic in the Greco-Roman world – Wikipedia
Ancient Spells and Charms for the Hapless in Love | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)

In the bustling streets of ancient Ephesus, fortunes can change in an instant. When one of the city’s wealthiest citizens is found crushed beneath his own triumphant memorial, the powerful elite demand justice—but at what cost? Enigmatic investigator Sabina faces her most perilous case yet. As secrets unravel and enemies close in, she must navigate political intrigue, dark sorcery, and forbidden love to uncover the truth. In a city where everyone has something to hide, who can be trusted? And how far will Sabina go to solve a mystery that could cost her everything?

Liisa Eyerly’s Secrets of Ephesus series adds a Christian twist to first-century Roman Empire mysteries. Her debut novel, Obedient Unto Death (2022), won the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award and first place in Spiritual Fiction. The second book, Fortunes of Death, launched in October. A lifelong mystery lover, Liisa was inspired by the Apostle Paul’s depiction of early Christians. After careers in teaching, librarianship, and stained glass, she began writing full-time at fifty. Liisa lives in northern Wisconsin with her husband and enjoys pickleball, kayaking, Bible study, and visiting Ancient Roman sites.


You can purchase her books at:

at https://www.crossrivermedia.com/product/fortunes-of-death/

Her Amazon book page https://amzn.to/4cs2bok

visit Liisa at her website www.LiisaEyerly.com

Author Facebook page at Liisa Eyerly Author page