One of the most popular Christmas songs is Winter Wonderland. It does not contain as many old words as other such songs. However within the words is an adult topic.
One less common word is parson. A parson was an independent Protestant minister who was not associated with any specific place. The word parson is thought to have come from the Latin persona ecclesiae meaning 'person of the church'.
In the pioneering days of North America, they often travelled over large areas performing religious services and ceremonies because nobody else was available to do so. Very often young people in remote and wild places had a friend perform the marriage services, before the couple shared a bed. They intended to go to a real parson when one was available. In this song a young man and woman walk in the winter weather and plan to get married. In the song they said they will wait for the parson. (Although I wouldn’t bet on it! They made a pretend parson out of snow!)
A meadow (Old English spelling: madwe) is originally a low-lying grassy field where a pond has been filled in by years of water-plant growth, death and decomposition creating a rich soil. Meadows were prone to flooding and more valuable crops were not trusted to them. More recently, meadows can also be any grassy field.
A lane (Old English spelling: lane and lanu) is a narrow country road. Normally cars would not be able to pass each other, without turning off to the side. Lantau island's narrow roads are lanes. Modern roads are wider and each driving width is called a lane.
To conspire (Old French spelling: conspire – literally meaning to breathe together) is when people secretly plan to do something illegal or socially unacceptable. The use of this word is another hint about maybe not waiting for the parson.
The song, Winter Wonderland was written by a sick young man who was trying to cheer himself up. In the early 1930's, Richard Smith (1901-1935) was slowly dying of consumption (tuberculosis). He dreamed about playing outside in the snow and flirting with young ladies. So he wrote the poem Winter Wonderland. He showed the poem to his friend Felix Bernard (1897-1944). To cheer up his sick friend, Felix wrote music for it and turned the poem into a song. Richard died shortly afterwards.
There is a lack of snowman building in Hong Kong, due to the naturally warm weather. However there are still many young couples making similar plans for the future.
Sleigh bells ring are you listening
In the lane snow is glistening
A beautiful sight
We're happy tonight
Walking in a winter wonderland
Gone away is the bluebird
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song as we go along
Walking in a winter wonderland
In the meadow we can build a snowman
We'll pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man
But you can do the job
When you're in town
Later on we'll conspire
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The plans that we've made
Walking in a winter wonderland
In the meadow
We can build a snowman
And pretend that he's a circus clown
We'll have lots of fun
With mister snowman
Until the other kids
Come knock him down
Later on we'll conspire
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The plans that we've made
Walking in a winter wonderland
Walking in a winter wonderland
We'll be walking in a winter,
Winter wonderland
by John Larrysson
A native English speaker who has been teaching practical English in Hong Kong for over two decades.
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NOTE:Starting in 2016, this column has been published once every two weeks, on every other Tuesday.
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