Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Probably not. The complete song is quite racy for its day.
Racy? Is this a pun? As in "dashing through the snow" suggests a sleigh race?
It was written by a pastor from Massachusetts after he moved to Savannah and got a winter without snow. In fact, my computer was eager to tell me about the song's origin's before I even typed in my password this morning.
Racy? Is this a pun? As in "dashing through the snow" suggests a sleigh race?
It was written by a pastor from Massachusetts after he moved to Savannah and got a winter without snow. In fact, my computer was eager to tell me about the song's origin's before I even typed in my password this morning.
Dashing thro' the snow,
In a one-horse open sleigh,
O'er the hills we go,
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bob tail ring,
Making spirits bright,
Oh what sport to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.
|: chorus :|
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what joy it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
A day or two ago
I tho't I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fannie Bright
Was seated by my side.
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And we—we got upsot.
A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away.
|: chorus :|
Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! you'll take the lead.
|: chorus :|
Do you know why bells were used on sleigh harness?
To let pedestrians know a horse and sleigh were approaching. They were a safety measure.
In the summer, a horse-drawn wagon makes a lot of noise on a roadway, especially back when the streets were not smoothly paved with asphalt as they are now.
But in the winter, a snowfall immediately turns to ice, and a seigh's runners are much more quiet. On country roads, they are even quieter. The sound of horse's hooves was so common and prevalent, it alone gave little indication of where a sleigh was coming from, and in a time when most people walked, having time to get out of the way was very important in slick, crowded streets.
And during the winter, when there is much less daylight, a warning sound gave people more time to get out of the way than a dim lantern would give. The bells can be heard a long ways off in the city or the countryside. In the country, while there was much less traffic, the speed of a passing sleigh was the greatest concern. A good horse pulling a light sleigh can travel at 25 mph, as fast as modern traffic on a ice covered road can do now. But a horse can cause a major calamity if it's stopped to fast on ice.
A draft horse weighs as much as a modern sub-compact, and when one goes down, it can easily kill people in all directions.
That they made a merry sound was incidental. Most horse bells have a penetrating jangle that's not melodic sounding. People came to make a pleasant association with the season and the sound of the bells, but only after horses disappeared from our streets. At the time when horses were common, the sound was more like our modern sirens to pedestrians and other horse-drawn vehicles.
Maybe we're all (myself included) having trouble with the distinction of something being "rooted in racism" as opposed to "racist." The knee-jerk reaction is to think "oh, so you're saying that if I sing this song, I'm being racist?!" but I'm not sure that's what she meant to convey. Maybe she is just pointing out that this particular, seemingly innocuous song, was used in a derisive, discriminatory way. Which brings to light that many parts of pop culture that we take for granted are likely to have that kind of history if they're old enough. I'm just not sure if it's a point worth making. I also might be influenced in a negative way by how the media is reporting this story.
That seems to be exactly what she's pointing out. To which I say "Interesting factoid" and move on. It's not as if the lyrics are inherently racist. Tons of good art have been made by people with unsavory backgrounds and ideas, the question is whether said art propagates those ideas. (Not that I necessarily consider Jingle Bells good art, but...)
What I found much more interesting is that two towns are competing for the distinction of being where the song was written. I mean - really?
Maybe we're all (myself included) having trouble with the distinction of something being "rooted in racism" as opposed to "racist." The knee-jerk reaction is to think "oh, so you're saying that if I sing this song, I'm being racist?!" but I'm not sure that's what she meant to convey. Maybe she is just pointing out that this particular, seemingly innocuous song, was used in a derisive, discriminatory way. Which brings to light that many parts of pop culture that we take for granted are likely to have that kind of history if they're old enough. I'm just not sure if it's a point worth making. I also might be influenced in a negative way by how the media is reporting this story.
This is kind of what I am thinking, too. I mean, if someone sings the song who knows nothing of its history to a person who also knows nothing of its history, is it still racist? Does learning this story of its history suddenly make it bad, for either singer or hearer?
Not so long ago, less than a century, in fact, pink was considered the "correct" color for baby boys, and blue was used for girls. It's interesting, but so little-known that it's really nothing more than a bit of trivia, if one is going to assign colors by sex at all.
This story seems kind of similar: interesting, historically, but not terribly important today. Unless, of course, we choose to make it so. Is that really worth doing? I'm not sure that it is.
Stuff like this is why lots of people, including me don't take leftists serious.
Maybe what you should take less seriously is the notion that this represents how most leftists think, or that most of what you see about universities on Fox have anything at all to do with how most students live their lives.
I have no clue what you’re talking about with 8 year old children calling people wh*re. A little context might help.
This happened at two different universities I attended. "Speakers" in the union brought their young children along to supposedly preach to the students. That was the sort of thing this "preaching" involved. My point is that maybe it's not a bad idea to question or even protest the kinds of "speakers" the university brings in.
And you didn't answer my question about whether you've taken a sociology class. I think what you're saying about these classes is baseless and absurd.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
