History Meme Tuesday #2

For our new hours of operation and more information on the Backus-Page House Museum visit our website at www.backuspagehouse.ca

Fun Fact Friday #4 - O Canada! 🍁

Calixa Lavallee

      Did you know that the man who wrote the Canadian national anthem fought in the American Civil War?

      Calixa Lavallee was a French-Canadian musician and Union Army band musician during the Civil War. He is best known for writing "O Canada" in 1880, which eventually became the Canadian national anthem in 1980. 

      He was a world wide singer and performer that played shows in multiple countries including Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. He returned to the U.S after touring around and enlisted in the 4th Rhode Island Volunteers of the Union Army as a cornet (a brass instrument similar to the trumpet) player. He attained the rank lieutenant, but was wounded in the Battle of Antietam. He then made his way home and spent most of his life playing music in Canada and the U.S. 

      Come on out to Tyrconnell Heritage Society's Civil War reenactment this weekend (July 28 & 29 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM) to learn more about Canadians and the American Civil War! There will be music, food, artifacts, and even a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg! It is $8.00 per person and free for children 12 and under. 29424 Lakeview Line, Wallacetown, Ontario. Call (519) 762-3072 or visit www.backuspagehouse.ca for more information!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This is one of my personal favourite Christmas songs.  My Grandmother, Marion (Davy) Foreman taught me all the Christmas carols and we would start practicing them in November.  She played the piano and we both sang.  When I could read music, I was in charge of turning the pages.  With The Twelve Days of Christmas I would sing the numbers as fast as I could to see if I could sing them all before she could play them all on the piano.  I always won the race and we would laugh and laugh.  These are some of the best Christmas memories.  

The twelve days of Christmas lie between December 25 and Epiphany, January 6.  it was on January 6 that the Three Magi brought gifts to the Christ Child in the manger - the first Christmas gifts!  It was a common folk belief that on the even of January 6 animals were given the power of speech.  

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each day.  The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin.  The tunes of collected versions vary. The standard tune now associated with it is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who first introduced the now familiar prolongation of the verse "five gold rings".