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The Holly Bears a Berry (The Sans Day Carol)

[ Roud 514 ; Ballad Index K091 ; trad.]

The Watersons sang The Holly Bears a Berry in 1965 on their first album Frost and Fire. This recording was also included on the Topic CD sampler The Season Round. A live version from a Christmas radio programme recorded in December 1980 at Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, was published in 2005 on the CD A Yorkshire Christmas. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

Another spring carol, proper to the period between Passiontide and Easter. In it the evergreen holly is celebrated along with the dying and resurrected god. In tradition this carol lasted longest in Cornwall. It shares some verses with the better known Holly and the Ivy.

Lyrics

The Watersons sing The Holly Bears a Crown

Now the holly she bears a berry
As white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus
Who's wrapped up in silk.

Chorus (after each verse):

And Mary she bore Jesus, our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that's in the green wood
It was the holly.
Holly, holly,
And the first tree that's in the green wood
It was the holly.

Now the holly she bears a berry
As green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus
Who died on the cross.

Now the holly she bears a berry
As black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus
Who died for us all.

Now the holly she bears a berry
As blood it is red,
And we trust in our Saviour
Who rose from the dead.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard