The Cherry-Tree Carol
The Cherry-Tree Carol is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (no. 54). The song itself is very old, reportedly being sung, in some form, at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century. The versions eventually collected by Francis James Child are thought to be a combination of up tp three separate carols that merged together through the centuries.
The ballad relates an apocraphal story of the Virgin Mary, presumably on her flight to Egypt with Joseph. In the most popular version, the two stop in a cherry orchard, and Mary, being weary and hungry, asks her husband to pick cherries for her.
- O then bespoke Mary
- So meek and so mild:
- "Pluck me one cherry, Joseph,
- For I am with child."
Joseph, in an uncharacteristic moment of spite, knowing the child is not his, tells Mary to let the child's father pick her cherries.
- O then bespoke Joseph,
- With words most unkind:
- "Let him pick the a cherry
- That brought you with child."
At this point in most versions, Jesus, from the womb, speaks to the tree and commands it to lower a branch down to Mary, which it does. Joseph, witnessing this miracle, immediately repents his harsh words. The more contemporary versions sometimes end here, while others often include an angel appearing to Joseph and telling him of the circumstances of Jesus's birth. Many versions then jump ahead several years, where the next verse picks up with Jesus on his mother's lap, telling her of his eventual death and resurrection.