Performed Live at McNeese University as part of the Banner Series. Danny O’Flaherty’s Celtic Christmas In December of 1990, Danny O’Flaherty teamed with Welsh harpist Robin James-Jones to present the first Celtic Christmas show. The performance, exploring the old Christmas customs and songs of the Celtic nations, quickly became a popular annual tradition itself. Now you can slip back in time, and savor the Christmas yuletide season as it has been celebrated for centuries among the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. In a live performance, Danny O’Flaherty, actors Michael Cahill, and Janet Shea, along with other talented cast members and musicians, will weave a magical evening of story and song on site at the venue. Danny O’Flaherty’s Celtic Christmas traces the roots of our present holiday celebrations. As Christianity spread across the western world, it incorporated many existing pagan practices such as linking the nativity with a feast day for the winter solstice. This assimilation was most complete among the Druidic pagans of the Celtic world especially in Ireland where St. Patrick established the first truly non-Romanized Christian community. All the Celtic countries incorporated the Druids’ respect for fire and sacred evergreens into their Christmas landscape. Revelry and good spirits were widespread as was the merry custom of wassailing. However each of these nations also developed their own distinct traditions:   The Irish and Manx hunted the Wren   The Welsh followed the Gray Mare   The Cornish had a Kissing Bush   The Britons anticipated the arrival of the Infant Jesus down their chimneys   The Scots awaited the First Tooter (New Year) to determine their fortune. In story and song, light hearted and moving, Danny O’Flaherty’s Celtic Christmas tells the tale of the charming and unique yuletide customs that evolved over the centuries in the nations of the Celts. A Celtic Christmas Selected Lyrics (chorus): My Little Sabot (Brittany) Janet Shea and Danny O’Flaherty Leave me presents in my sabots, So I was dressed in my sleeping clothes I got tucked away in my box bed Where Christmas dreams came into my head. Bonfire (Scotland) Danny O’Flaherty and Khaetidawne Quirk Come to the place where the stone circle stand Hear the wild wind Song sweep over the land. Gather the twigs and the pine cone to bring To an ancient stone circle for kindling. Logs to Burn (Wales) Traditional/new lyrics: Danny O’Flaherty and Khaetidawne Quirk Logs to burn! Logs to burn! Logs to save the coal a turn. Here’s a word to make you wise When you year the Woodsman cry. The Road That Mary Trod (Ireland) Oh where, oh where is the road that Mary trod That brittle cold, the desert night? She gave birth to our God. Danny O’Flaherty’s Celtic Christmas is a night that will be long cherished by every member of the audience.

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