“And to all a good night...and a reminder I’ll be back in four weeks’ time” (Pixabay)
Everyone has a favourite Christmas song. Silent Night. Deck the Halls. Reet Petite. But if Jingle Bells is your Christmas carol of choice then you might want to reconsider your vote—because back when it was written in 1851, Jingle Bells was originally intended to celebrate Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
Legend has it that it was on a cold November night at a boarding house in Medford, Massachusetts, that James Lord Pierpont sat down at a barroom piano and tapped out a simple tune he had been mulling over that evening. The song he had written was meant to celebrate a local Thanksgiving sled race, and Pierpont had intended to be sung at his Sunday school meeting back in Boston the following weekend.
The song proved so catchy, however, that it quickly caught on—and, albeit with slightly rejigged lyrics, eventually became more attached to Christmas than to Thanksgiving several weeks before.