Holy Innocents, “Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child/ Bye bye, lully, lullay…”

December 28 marked the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents. I remember it as the day we would sing the Coventry Carol. Listen to the clash of notes, the moving notes in the tenor line, and the Picary third.

I found this interesting history by Helen Brown in the Financial Times, 

Sung from the perspective of women soothing their soon-to-be-slaughtered babies, the “Coventry Carol”is surely the darkest of all Christmas songs. First written down in 1534, this maternal lament was originally part of a medieval mystery play, performed annually in the city from the late 12th century until 1579. Mounted in June, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, The Shearmen and Tailors’ Pageant was a Nativity play retelling events from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents...

...The Protestant monarchy eventually banned the mystery plays because of their Catholic origins. But an original prompt book belonging to an actor/manager called Robert Croo survived long enough to be transcribed by a local antiquarian in the early 19th century. The carol was restored to popularity after the Coventry blitz of November 1940.

Codenamed “Moonlight Sonata”, the 11-hour German raid targeted the city’s munitions factories. More than 550 people were killed and 43,000 homes were destroyed, along with the medieval cathedral. Two charred roof-beams which had fallen in the shape of a cross were bound and placed at the site of the ruined altar.

That Christmas, BBC radio broadcast a service from the ruins during which the provost Dick Howard offered a message of peace. “We are trying,” he said, “hard as it may be, to banish all thoughts of revenge… We are going to try to make a kinder, simpler, a more Christ Child-like sort of world in the days beyond this strife.” The broadcast (part of which is accessible online) ended with the “Coventry Carol”. 

I am reminded of the cruelty of the world into which both we and Jesus were born. 

I can't help but think of the innocents killed by abortion each year in the present world.

I have sung the Coventry Carol several times as a member of various choirs, and being aware of these realities, it is hard to do so without tearing up.