ADVENT CALENDAR – DAY 5
What’s my favorite Christmas carol? There are several, certainly, but near the top of the list must be “The Boar’s Head Carol.” Why? Because what’s more festive than a steaming head of boar? I also love the fact that half of the thing is in Latin, so I have no idea what I am singing about.
The carol dates from the 15th century and grew out of the ancient custom of sacrificing a boar for the Yuletide feast. Like so many of the arcane Christmas traditions, it can be traced to the Northern folk, who sacrificed a boar to Freyr, the god of virility and prosperity, to bless the New Year.
With the advent of Christianity, St. Stephen stepped up as the deliverer of boar to the Yuletide banquet, and Christmas ham has been with us ever since. The presentation of the boar’s head has become symbolic of the Christ Child’s triumph over sin.
The carol also has academic associations, not only because of the refrains (which are sung in Latin), but because of an enduring ceremony at Oxford, among other institutions of higher learning.
Tradition holds that an Oxford student was out strolling in the forest one day, immersed in Aristotle, when he was set upon by a wild boar. Thinking quickly, the student thrust the volume into the boar’s mouth and cried, “Græcum est!” (“With compliments of the Greeks!”), there at the boar was choked to death.
A celebratory feast held at Queen’s College involves three chefs bearing the boar’s head into the hall, with a solo singer accompanied by torch bearers and choir. During each of the verses the procession halts, then proceeds again with the chorus. At the high table, the Provost distributes the dish’s herbs to the choir and bestows an orange, which is held in the boar’s jaw, to the solo singer.
The carol goes something like this:
The boar’s head in hand bear I,
Bedeck’d with bays and rosemary.
And I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio (Translation: As many as are in the feast)
CHORUS
Caput apri defero (Translation: The boar’s head I offer)
Reddens laudes Domino (Translation: Giving praises to the Lord)
The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the rarest dish in all this land,
Which thus bedeck’d with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico. (Translation: Let us serve with a song)
CHORUS
Our steward hath provided this
In honor of the King of Bliss;
Which on this day to be servèd is
In Reginesi atrio. (Translation: In the hall of Queen’s [College, Oxford])
CHORUS
Here it is, in an early version known as “The Borys Hede”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgYkie0Rv4k
More commonly, it goes something like this:
Finally, John Langstaff, from “The Christmas Revels”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzccYxYVEg
A whole lot more on the carol and ceremony: