THE MUMMERS' DANCE - LOREENA McKENNITT

The Mummers' Dance - Loreena McKennitt

To celebrate Halloween, All Souls Day and Samhain.

When in the Springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the Springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

"A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
Here's a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's Hand"

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

Words and lyrics - Loreena McKennitt

Mummers' plays also known as (mumming) are seasonal folk plays of medieval origins performed by troupes of actors known as 'mummers' or guisers ( or by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteeters, galoshins, guysers and so on ), originally from the British Isles. They are sometimes performed in the street but more usually as house to house visits and in public houses.

Samhain: The term derives itself from the name of the month in the ancient Celtic calendar, in particular the first three nights of November, with the festival marking the end of the Summer season and the end of the harvest. The Gaelic festival became associated with the Catholic 'All Souls Day', and appears to have influenced the secular customs now connected with 'Halloween'. Samhain is also the name of a festival in various currents of neopaganism inspired by Gaelic tradition.
Samhain and an t-Samhain are also the Irish and Scottish Gaelic names of November, respectively.

Reference material : Wikipedia.