Folk Plus is hosted and planned by Angela Page and airs Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on WJFF,
at 90.5 fm in Jeffersonville, N.Y. and 94.5 in Monticello N.Y.
We are Hydro-Powered Public Radio and stream online at WWW.WJFFRADIO.ORG welcome new web listeners

Happy feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) - Babylonian, Happy Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, Mithra  - Roman
Happy Saturnalia, the month of celebrating the god of agriculture?-- Roman, Happy Yule Time (winter solstice celebration of the  Norse aka Vikings!)
Happy Oden -German, Happy Christmas Eve and Hannukay Eve, Happy Kwanza

1. Christine Lavin & friends: (Wm.Shield/C.Lavin) A Christmas/Kwanza/Solstice/Chanukah/Boxing Day Song (2:06)
The Runaway Christmas Tree - Appleseed christinelavin.com)

2. Roy Zimmerman: Chrisma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwanza (2:38)
Peacenick - Metaphor  (royzimmerman.com)

Aired a live call from a college student from the area now helping with Katrina relief along with four other students from SUNY, Oneonta. They are working under the guidance of Americorp in Pass Christian Mississippi where people are living in tents built by the navy. http://www.escort.org/TJH/MSphotos/
All have been equalized by the storm; the poor and the rich. He said that they had "all lost everything in a matter of 11 hours" many chopping holes in their roofs to escape the rising waters. Most homes show water lines just under the second story ceilings. Despite their grief there is hope in the despair. The call was a quick reminder that this disaster goes on, despite our preoccupation with what we are doing this week.

3. John Forster:  The All-Purpose Carol (3:13)
The Official Bootleg Album" Limousine LR 08192 3 (johnforster.com)

4. Nancy White - Sabbas Goy C'est  Moi 242
Sitckers on Fruit - Borealis

5. David Roth - Little Christmas Song 3
Think Twice - Wind River

From some blogging discussions: "The dates of christian festivals were incorporated from pagan ones in the 3rd, and 4th century to make it easier to convert people from Roman Paganism to Christianity."         "Jesus was not born in 0 AD, the apporixmate time of his birth was guessed in the 6th centuary and got wrong."             "There is no 0 A.D. on the Gregorian calendar. It jumps from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D., and people recognized that Jesus was probably born a few years B.C."

Christmas doesn't seem to surface til about 312 AD. reworking some Pagan practices such as the Yule Log; The lighting of the fire was a festive family event, to hurry the return of the sun. Mistletoe  was linked with fertility and viewed as a bringer of peace by the Druids.  Druids (and some other ancient cultures) saw evergreen trees as symbols of everlasting life, because they seemed to live through the winter's cold.

6. Dar Williams -  Christians and the Pagans
Honesty Room - Razor and Tie (darwilliams.com)

7. Darryl Purpose - You Must Go Home for Christmas 4:18
Same River Twice - www.darrylpurpose.com

8. Chuck Brodsky: On Christmas I Got Nothing (2:55)
Radio - Red House  (chuckbrodsky.com)

9. David Seville - The Chipmunk Song
Lets All Sing with the Chipmunks - Liberty
"I still want a hula hoop....."

10. Harvey Reid & Joyce Anderson - Angels We Have Heard on High 255
Christmas Morning - Woodpecker Records

The story of Christmas comes chiefly from the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament. According to Luke, an angel appeared to shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem and told them of Jesus's birth. Matthew tells how the wise men, called Magi, followed a bright star that led them to Jesus.  The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in A.D. 336 in an early Roman calendar. In the late 300's, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.  The popularity of Christmas grew until the Reformation, a religious movement of the 1500's. This movement gave birth to Protestantism. During the Reformation, many Christians began to consider Christmas a pagan celebration because it included nonreligious customs. During the 1600's, because of these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America. The old customs of feasting and decorating, however, soon reappeared and blended with the more Christian aspects of the celebration. The word Xmas is sometimes used instead of Christmas. This tradition began in the early Christian church. In Greek, X is the first letter of Christ's name. It was frequently used as a holy symbol.

11. The Heron's Glen Chorus: North Fort Myers, Florida
Director is Dale Dungan and the assistant director is Pat Kirchchoff.
Oh Holy Night and Mary Did You Know? (2:10) (350) - Jean Purins, lead vocals Bob Shroeder is the Tenor and Woody Reed on the guitar

The pursuit and capture of the wren has several thoughts about origion. "Wren Boys" would chase a wren til exhaustion, then carry it house to house exchanging tokens for lucky feathers. Also its a pagan custom of sacrificing a sacred symbol at year's end. The wren has been revered in Ireland as the "king of the birds." An Irish folktale tells of a contest held among birds to see which could fly the highest - the eagle did, but lost when a clever wren, hiding on the back of the eagle, flew off soared higher in the sky. The custom of going on the wren fell into disfavor around the turn of the century, and died out completely in most parts of Ireland, but has been revived throughout much of the country. Wrens are no longer killed-- an artificial wren may be used, or a real wren in a cage.The "Wren Boys" now include girls, and money collected iis often used for community or school projects. www.noblenet.org/year/ststephen.html

12. John Roberts and Tony Barrand - The Cutty Wren 330
Second Nowell, Vol 2: A Pageant of Midwinter Carols - Front Hall Records

13. Les Barker - Hunting the Cutty Wren  321
Oranges and Lemmings - Mrs Ackroyd Records

14. Odetta- Poor Little Jesus 156
My Eyes Have Seen -Vanguard

Happy Kwanza: a non-religious celebration, founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, during which African Americans celebrate
and reflect upon their rich heritage

15. Sweet Honey - Nyoko Boko, Improv from West Africa
Still the Same Me - Rounder Kids

16. Sweet Honey - Still The Same Me 159
Still the Same Me - Rounder Kids

17. Sweet Honey - We Shall Not Be Moved
Still the Same Me - Rounder Kids

18. David Wilcox - Rudy Rap
cassette off radio

19. Kevin Briody - Walnuts & Rice 338
Familiar  - Tune Me

Happy Hannukah Eve. Paul Stamler of KDHX St. Louis, MO says: "The holiday is, of course, very old, but until comparatively recent times it was a minor event in the calendar of Jewish tradition. (Like all Jewish holidays except Yom Kippur, it adheres to the formula "They tried to kill us; we won; let's eat.") The Big Holidays for Jews always have been Passover and the Days of Awe (beginning with Rosh Hashanah -- New Year's Day -- and ending with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement). It was an important holiday in a spiritual and historical sense,  because it celebrated the first successful struggle for religious freedom in human history, as far as is known.

20. Magpie - Ballad of Chanukah 502
Celebration of the Solstice - Sliced Bread

21. Hugh Blumenfeld - This Mountain 344
Mozart's Money - 1800 PRIME CD

From Menachem Vinegrad Menachem Vinegrad, Radio Upper Galilee, Israel.
Christmas is not celebrated among Jews in Israel- but is celebrated by hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from the exUSSR- many of whom are either Christians with a Jewish parent or grandparent, or are married to Jews. Christmas trees and decorations are sold in many shops here, which would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. There are of course local Christian Arab communities- mainly in Galilee , Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and in southern Lebanon- where my airwaves and messages of  Good Music, Peace and Goodwill are hopefully listened to!  Hanukka is mainly a children's festival here- with several expensive pantomime-like musicals to strain the parents' pockets.  I was hard put to find any decent Hanukka music in keeping with the qulity of the show I present- so I too am airing Klezmer music, which is also rarely heard on Israeli radio.

22. Shelly Posen - Light One Candle 301
Manna (Well Done)

23. Cali Rose - Pooey, Pooey, Pooey, It's Christmas 251
Gets Goofy - Soup to Nuts Music

24. Roy Zimmerman - Christmas Is Pain (3:29)
Peacenick  - Metaphor   www.royzimmerman.com

25. Unknown MC cut: Didn't I Get This Last Year
Do the Capital Steps do this? Sounds like them.

26. Artisan: I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (2:16) (Rox)
Paper Angels -  Boing 9806 (artisan-harmony.com)

27. Stan Rogers -  First Christmas
Between the Breaks... Live!-Fogarty's Cove

28. Al Garry, Jan Newley, Bill Evans and the Blazers - Drummer Boy
The HIt Parade - Paradise Records

29. Tom Prasada-Rao -  Christmas in the Asharm 424
Christmas in the Asharm - http://www.thedreamsicles.com/tom/

30. Erik Frandsen - Christmas in Brooklyn 322
Antiques: New and Used - fresnoslim@netzero.net

31. Leslie Ritter and Scott Petito- Give a Little Hope 338
This Chrismas Morning - www.leslieandscott.com

32. Albert & Gage- Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus 213
One More Christmas (MoonHouse)

33. Under signoffs
Albert & Gage- Linus and Lucy - One More Christmas (MoonHouse)

Folk Plus is a SING OUT! magazine Radio Partner (www.singout.org)

Thanks to all well wishers with my curret battle with neurotoxic poisoning and chemical sensitivities    (http://pagewebberink.com/~angie/)
We should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals, we should look around and see what other course is open to us."  Rachel Carson
 

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