Nu Är Det Jul Igen: A Song History

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A ring game titled "Och nu är det jul," with words very close to today's song, appears in Ringlekar på Skansen, the Nordiska museet collection of ring games, whose third edition was printed in Stockholm in 1908.[1][2] In that version the singers announce that Christmas will last until Easter.[3] The second strain of the tune reverses this, so that Easter lasts until Christmas.[3] The book's notes credit this game and ten others from Västergötland to V. Bergström, as written down by G. Nyström.[4] The preface to the 1901 second edition explains that its eleven new games came from Wilhelm Bergström, who had been directing the ring-game rehearsals at Skansen for the past few years, and were transcribed by Gunnar Nyström.[5] Ring games had been performed at Skansen since the spring of 1897.[6]

Wood engraving of men and women in a winter wood cutting and gathering evergreen boughs and a small fir

Winslow Homer, Christmas–Gathering Evergreens, wood engraving, 1858. Americans bringing in Christmas greenery rather than Swedes dancing round the tree; it has no connection to the song.

Stockholm's cathedral parish gave the title as "Nu är det jul igen" and labeled it a danslek, or dance game, in its online Advent and Christmas sing-along of December 2020, and the words printed there withdraw the claim about Easter because Lent falls in between.[7] In Denmark it is sung as "Nu er det jul igen," and an article on Danish Christmas songs in the University of Copenhagen's University Post describes families singing it over and over as they circle the Christmas tree holding hands, until one of them lets go and leads everyone off on a dash through the house.[8] In Sweden, Nordiska museet notes, Christmas is traditionally danced out on Tjugondag Knut, January 13, with a party at which the tree is plundered and thrown out.[9]

Mark Gilston includes the song in Christmas With Dulcimers, a book of mountain dulcimer tablature he publishes himself, whose 56 pages mix well-known Christmas pieces with melodies players are less likely to know.[10]

Our book that contains the song "Nu Är Det Jul Igen"

Sources

  1. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen" (Nordiska museet, 3rd ed., 1908).
  2. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen", p. 40: No. 32, Och nu är det jul.
  3. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen", p. 41.
  4. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen", p. 72: Anmärkningar.
  5. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen", Förord till andra upplagan.
  6. Project Runeberg: "Ringlekar på Skansen", Förord till första upplagan.
  7. Svenska kyrkan, Stockholms domkyrkoförsamling: "Sjung med! Advent och jul".
  8. University Post (University of Copenhagen): "Iconic Danish Christmas songs".
  9. Nordiska museet: "Tjugondag Knut".
  10. Mark Gilston: "Christmas With Dulcimers".
  11. Image: Winslow Homer, Christmas–Gathering Evergreens, wood engraving, 1858. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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