Coventry Carol

If you think that song is called “Loo Lay,” you are not a true Christmashead.

The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors.

A leather mask thought to be a surviving example of those worn by some performers in the Coventry Plays is held in the collections of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.

(Thanks Wikipedia user Geni)

Although the Coventry mystery play cycle was traditionally performed in summer, the lullaby has, in modern times, been regarded as a Christmas carol. It was brought to a wider audience after being featured in the BBC’s Empire Broadcast at Christmas 1940, shortly after the Bombing of Coventry in World War II, when the broadcast concluded with the singing of the carol in the bombed-out ruins of the Cathedral.

Here’s a recording (apparently) of that broadcast.

Christmas at its best is a little spooky, really.