What on earth is going on with the mournfulness and killing of children in “Coventry Carol”? While I do love this carol, it certainly can't be said that it fits the stereotypical cheery Christmas carol template. The haunting lullaby leads us to a horrible scenario: Herod the King commanding all young children to be killed. This story occurs in only one of the Gospels, the book of Matthew. The Magi, or Wise Men, have come from the East, led by the star that shows them the way to where a new King has been born. But they don't know exactly where to go once they reach Judea, so they visit Jerusalem to inquire of Herod, who has been put in charge of the area by the Romans. “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” and calls in the scribes and priests to demand where the Messiah is to be born. They quote Micah 5:2 which names Bethlehem as the place of the birth. Herod, thinking he's being crafty, asks the Magi to come back and tell him where the new king is, “so that I may come and worship him also,” but they are warned in a dream and don't go back to Jerusalem after their visit to Bethlehem. Enraged, Herod commands that all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem be killed so that he can be sure to eliminate the royal child. But Joseph and Mary have taken the Christ child to Egypt and so escape Herod's wrath. (Those manger scenes that include the Wise Men there are just wrong. The Magi don't show up until much later, when Jesus is a “young child” and living in a house, not a stable. But they're a colorful addition to the scene, so perhaps I shouldn't be such a killjoy.) When Herod hears that some new king has been born he is troubled, we are told, It's called the Coventry carol because it was part of a medieval mystery play written in Coventry, England. If you're puzzled by some of the wording, it's because we don't have a good source for it. (“Oh sisters too how may we do/For to preserve this day”--not too sure about that one. Sometimes one line is spelled “and ever mourn and day,” sometimes “and ever morn a day.’ Which one is correct? No way to know.) The only surviving manuscript was burnt in 1875, and so all we have are some poor-quality transcriptions. Wikipedia says that the carol is a mother's lament for her doomed child, and that may be true, but since this is the only carol to survive from the play we don't have the context. I've always thought of it as a lullaby that Mary might have sung to the Christ child as they traveled to Egypt. “Then woe is me, poor child, for thee!” might refer to Mary's fears for her child as they set out on their long journey, and indeed the word “child” is often capitalized, thus making the association to a divine person more clear. Whatever way one chooses to take the lyrics, or what version one prefers, the carol's haunting words and melody make a striking contrast to the jollity that we usually associate with Christmas. © 2017 Debi Simons www.behind-the-music.com.