JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Rediscovery announced it is once again presenting “At Christmas be Mery” at Historic Jamestowne Saturday, Dec. 13.
According to Jamestown Rediscovery, visitors will step back in time to 1621 to join Sir Francis Wyatt, the colony’s newly arrived Governor, for an early Virginia Christmas celebration with costumed interpreters, a cappella performances, a bonfire and caroling.
Providing a unique opportunity to see Jamestown Island aglow with firelight, “At Christmas be Mery” explores the origins of traditions we now commonly associate with the holiday season, including hanging evergreens, caroling, and observing the winter solstice, the foundation said.
The Captain of the Guard will escort guests along a cresset-lit path to the 1618 church — today called the Memorial Church — where they will meet Gov. Sir Francis Wyatt and other leading Virginia dignitaries. A special addition to this year’s program, the William & Mary Christopher Wren Singers will perform traditional and Renaissance-era songs that would have been familiar to the early Jamestown colonists, the foundation added. After the program in the Church, visitors will herald in the season by throwing sprigs of holly into the nearby bonfire and making their wishes for the year ahead.
The title “At Christmas be Mery” is taken from “Fiue [Five] Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie” by English poet Thomas Tusser and published in 1580. The full line is “At Christmas be mery, and thanke god of all: and feast thy pore neighbors, the great with the small, yea al the yere long, have an eie [eye] to the poore: and god shall sende luck, to kepe open thy doore.” The poem refers to the gift-giving practices of the holiday season, which we are familiar with today.
“For the first 20 years of the colony, life in Jamestown was extraordinarily difficult, but records suggest that colonists continued celebrating Christmas like they had back home in England or other parts of Europe,” said Willie Balderson, Director of Living History & Historic Trades. “The confluence of different cultures and religions coming together in Europe created unique holiday traditions many people practice today, and I hope guests will come away with a renewed zeal to take part in activities that are literally hundreds of years old.”
The program will be offered on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 each, must be purchased in advance, are limited and will sell out. Purchase tickets at historicjamestowne.org. The program is held rain or shine.
