Wales Online has an article today from Robin Turner of the Western Mail on a fascinating study on the origins of Christmas carols. From the article:"Dr Ian Bradley, a theologian at the University of St Andrews in Scotland claims the popular tune comes from Nos Galan (New Years Eve) which was played when groups of merrymakers danced around a harpist."The tune has been linked with Nantgarw it is also known as the Nantgarw Flower Dance and with North Wales."Dr Bradley said: 'Originally carols were dances and not songs"'The accompanying tune would have been used as a setting for any verses of appropriate metre.'"It is thought Deck the Halls was exported to North America by Welsh miners who emigrated to the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina the lyrics of the modern version are of American origin."Dr Bradley, who undertook the research for his Book of Carols, said: 'The tune was discovered in a musical manuscript by Welsh harpist John Parry Ddall who died in 1782. The tune however is almost certainly dated from the 16th century.'"The composition was published in the 1784 and 1794 editions of the harpist Edward Jones Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards."Poet John Ceiriog Hughes wrote the first published lyrics for the piece in Welsh, calling it Nos Galan."Dr Bradley said: 'Like decorating trees, some carols have more to do with paganism than Christianity."'Deck The Halls was originally a Welsh dance carol sung on New Years Eve and belongs to a very distinctive Welsh tradition where people would dance in a ring around a harpist."'It talks about:See the blazing yule before us, strike the harp and join the chorus.'In some sense, carols have their origin in pagan religions because they come out of dance it is the Greek chorus, the circling dance, accompanied by singing and associated with fertility rites.'So its very much pagan, and that of course is precisely the reason why the Church was so uneasy about singing carols for so long.'" More here .

David Western is blogging the creation of a lovespoon and I'm reproducing his blog posts here as I think they are absolutely fantastic and it's incredible to watch the progress of his creation and hear what he says about it:From http://davidwestern.blogspot.com Details, details -- and tools Now that the spoon bowls are nicely shaped, I am going to move on to the vines. These need to work over and under each other, but don't need the formality and regularity of Celtic knotwork. The idea is that they appear organic and natural, so I will round them over much more than a Celtic knot and try to get a more 'random' feel to their movement up the spoon handle. To achieve this look, I begin by gently ramping down the wood on either side of an 'over', thus creating the 'under'. I don't take too much off initially; I just take enough so that I can see the over under pattern clearly. By taking a shallow cut, I can rectify mistakes in the 'over/undering' or can change the pattern if I prefer a different order. If I commit to a deep cut and make an error, I can easily find myself in hot water. I use a simple straight knife for this process. The straight knives I use tend to have very short and pointy blades. These give me access to tight areas and keep me from getting carried away and cutting too much material at a pass.

I am a great believer in taking multiple shallow cuts rather than getting all excited and pulling off great heaving strips with big deep passes. Its easier on the hands, the spoon and the state of my mental health to take my time and not push things. When the over and unders are completed, I round over the edges quite heavily with the knife and with some small files. With the rounding over looking good, I finish the vines with some cloth backed abrasive paper which I tear into thin 6 inch strips and draw back and forth over the edges for a final rounding.

In response to questions I have received about the knives I use, I have included this slightly blurry shot of my straight knife collection. These knives are the ones I use for all my spoon carving. They are all inexpensive tools but they are the workhorses of my art. As long as the steel is of good quality and will hold a sharp edge, any one of these little knives is capable of helping me to carve a beautiful spoon. Nothing fancier or more technical is necessary!

I began my spoon carving career with the chip carving knife at the bottom of the photo. This economical knife will do everything a beginning carver requires and it won't break the bank when you visit the tool dealer!

The pointy Flex Cut brand knife above it was my second knife and has an ergonomically designed handle which makes long carving sessions a much more comfortable proposition. The skew bladed Japanese knife second from top is one that I use for getting into tight corners and for shaping edges. Its a lovely knife, but its skew shape has taken some getting used to and it might not be a good knife for a beginner.

But it is the top knife which currently has my heart! A Flex Cut brand knife endearingly known as a 'pelican', it is an absolutely sweet little knife. With a tiny blade and comfy handle, pelican and I spend many hours together and I would recommend this style of knife above all others for serious lovespoon carving.

Ok, if you are Welsh, this isn't anything at all to you, I'm sure, but it sure was to me!I started wanting to learn Welsh when I was about 13 and I couldn't find anyone who spoke it and no way to learn it back in them thar pre-Internet days. When I was 16, I was able to save my pennies (a LOT of them) and order a Welsh-English dictionary from a publisher called the Saphograph Company, now out of business and gone. During one of my many moves and changes of boyfriends, it disappeared and I mourned it deeply as I couldn't get another.So it's just absolutely WILD to me that I can go onto Amazon.com and find this:

So, if you want one, there it is and I think that's going to be my xmas present to me, just for the heck of it.

A few people had a bit of trouble with this and when I looked at the page, I realized it wasn't necessarily completely self explanatory. Below I've laid it out step by step with graphics, and I hope this will make it easier. If you're still not able to do this, I can do it for you but you'll have to temporarily give me access to your site or blog. You could create a temp password for me while I do this, then change it when I'm done. But, here's the tutorial:1. Go to the web ring at http://www.ringsurf.com/ring/nr2452/ .2. You will see this page, below, and click on the button which says "Add Your Link Below"

3. On the next page, fill in your site information in the spaces indicated (highlighted in yellow, below):

4. Go to the next section, below your site information and choose a link for your site by clicking in the white circle (highlighted here in yellow in the graphic below) next to the button image you prefer:

5. Below the section where you choose a button, there is a box with code in it. See graphic below, this section highlighted in blue. Click in the box to select the code, right click on the selected code to copy it. You will need to now put this copied code in the code for your web site or blog. Leave the sign up page open while you do this as you will need to go back to it when you are done.

6. If you have a website, choose where you want the code to go on your site. Open your site and insert the code and then you will need to publish your site to the web, however you do that with your site. If someone else does your site, send them the code and tell them where you want it.

7. If you're putting a button on a blogger blog, open your blog template and choose "Layout", then choose the option to "Add a Gadget" and choose HTML/JavaScript:

8. The Add a Gadget window will open and you drop in the Ring code and save:

9. Once you've added the code to your site or blog, go back to the Ring sign up page. Under the code, is a security code box, type in the numbers/characters you see in the box next to it and click "Submit", as in the example below:

You've now put in the code and submitted it and the next step is for me to approve your site to the Ring, which I'll do as soon as I see it, and I check it daily or you can email me and tell me you've done it and I'll approve you right away.If anyone still has trouble after trying the steps in this tutorial, let me know.

1. The voting deadline in the Hardest Welshman poll on the main page has been extended to December 31st in order to allow people more time to vote. At the moment Owain Glyndwr seems to be running away with it so now is a good time to vote for your favored candidate and make it a closer race.2. The Americymru Clown of the Month competition hasn't run for a while so we thought we'd give people the chance to submit jokes for our new Americymru Clown of the Year award. There are already several contestants and if you wish to be numbered amongst them submit your joke/jokes in the Welsh Humor Group between now and December 31st. The prize will be, as always, fame/infamy plus an extremely tacky photoshop job on your profile photo which will be posted on the site for all the world to see.Watch this space for announcements about further competitions soon!!ALSO...dont forget the Left Coast Eisteddfod competitions:-Short Stories Competition HERE Pirate Lookalike Competition HERE

David's really turning this into something gorgeous and it's getting a lot of notice. Read the comments and see another gentleman who's been inspired to try his own first spoon. I love reading these so much:

" Crafting the Bowls "

"I have been working on the spoon bowls and have roughed them out to almost their final look. The first pic shows the front view and the second shows the back.

I am a firm believer that a good lovespoon must have a really well carved bowl. My research through the museums of Wales has shown me that in the olden days, a great deal of effort was put into the bowls, no matter how adept or crude the carver. When you stop to consider the rather meager tools that many of these young men would have had access to, some of their work borders on miraculous.

Many of the spoons I see for sale on the 'gift shop' type lovespoon sites suffer from extremely poorly designed and carved bowls. In many it appears the bowl was just an afterthought which was only grudgingly included so that the piece of wood is recognizable as a spoon. I think this is a great shame as the bowl lends a quiet dignity to the proceedings. Lovespoons are busy and vibrant things with the handles often being a veritable riot of activity. An elegant bowl acts as a real visual anchor and can have a quieting effect on the overall design. It also is a real measure of a carver's skill to get it even and fair with the right 'look'. I spend a good deal of time fussing with the bowl and I honestly believe that the effort I put in on an easily overlooked detail pays big dividends at the end of the job.

But that is enough sermonizing (is that a word?...it is now) for one day. I just hope that you'll agree with me that so far this double bowl has a very romantic feel to it and that it is doing a good job symbolizing 'union'.

Thank you for dropping by to see how things are progressing! I hope that you will be inspired to join our efforts to initiate an Eisteddfod in Portland and I look forward to reading your comments.

Besides our pirate and short story competitions, I am announcing that the 10 Top Hardest Welshmen poll is extended until December 31.

Today, Ceri and I went to the Christmas Tea, held annually the Welsh Society of Portland (WSOP), this year at St. David's Episcopal Church in Portland.

Americymru members Ceri Shaw and Betty Pierce

We were late, for which we were heartily ashamed, but in time for food and music. They served a potluck buffet, which included lots of delicious things: berry tarts, welsh cakes shaped into stars and other wonderful treats. There were prose readings and choral singing accompanied by a pianist, including the Welsh national anthem and a selection of Welsh-themed items for purchase as Christmas presents. We got to see friends, Betty Pierce and Janet Figini, who are both members here and the other WSOP members.

Welsh Society of Portland President, Tom Owen

It was very relaxing and pleasant and I enjoyed it a lot, although I discovered I sang like a squashed frog, so I made myself sing like a very soft squashed frog, easily drowned out by Ceri, who sounded much better . Next year I intend to make it on time and bring my children, too.