Dunster by Candlelight Songs of Praise

For the fourth Sunday in Advent,

we're processing back in time to the Middle Ages.

Welcome to Songs Of Praise where, tonight,

I'm in the Somerset village where, instead of electricity,

candles light the high street as thousands of visitors come to

experience Dunster by candlelight.

I hear how the Dunster carollers are inspiring the younger

generation to carry on this age-old tradition.

THEY SING

Singer Katie Melua explains how her Eastern European roots have

-inspired her music.

-Take Carol Of The Bells.

The original is in Ukrainian.

And I'm helping hand out Christmas presents with hundreds of

Santas on motorbikes!

Merry Christmas!

For our singing tonight, we have some seasonal favourites,

including O Holy Night, we have the latest Christmas song from

Russell Watson, plus some great carols that you can join in with.

So let's start with The First Nowell from Romsey Abbey.

Around 10,000 people have converged on this usually quiet

Somerset village to experience Dunster by candlelight,

and I tell you what - you can see why.

-It's great, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the festival,

which celebrates the medieval origins of the village.

There's been a castle here since the 11th century,

and it's one of the best examples of a settlement from the Middle Ages.

But back then, not all was as harmonious as it is today, as

I found out earlier on when I popped into Dunster's medieval church.

-Hello, Caroline.

-David, hello. Welcome to St George's.

It's lovely to be here.

This is an amazing place,

and particularly this beautiful partition. What exactly is it?

This is a rood screen.

It was put up many hundreds of years ago by the monks, who were

established here in the 12th century.

They were Benedictines,

so the people in the town resented the fact there were

a few monks who were rich and living on them and used to do

practical jokes to annoy them.

They tied the clappers of the bells together,

they came in and caused trouble.

And eventually, it got so bad that the bishop decided

he needed to do something formally about it,

so he came down in all his pomp and glory and decided to divide

the church, and this is the division.

So the monks were on one side and the parishioners were on the other?

And never the twain shall meet.

Lovely to see all the candles. What do the candles mean to you?

Candles are very important.

They're a focus for prayer and we use it in all sorts of ways

to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world and we are

called to be lights on a hilltop and show that we can be hopeful,

and that's helped by the meaning of Christmas and John's Gospel -

a light coming into the world, which is Jesus, to go out and

to make people understand what Christians can do and can be.

Round the corner from the church is the primary school,

where they're busy preparing for the procession.

-Hi, guys.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How you doing? Oh, this looks great!

-This is all for later, yeah? CHILDREN:

-Yeah.

-Fantastic!

What do you think of the procession?

I like seeing all the lanterns and lights in the dark sky.

-It always looks amazing.

-Yeah?

It feels like you're doing something really important.

At Christmas, what do you learn in school about Jesus?

In the Nativity Play, we found out that he was known as the Good

Shepherd, and they were sent out to look after everyone.

We learnt that he was born in a stable in Bethlehem and we

learnt that he was a very special boy, and that he was God's son.

-This one's for you.

-Oh, thank you! So, we've got our lanterns.

-Are we ready for the procession? CHILDREN:

-Yes!

And here we are to light up Dunster.

Our next hymn is dedicated to Pope Francis,

who celebrates his 80th birthday this weekend.

It's written by the Catholic composer Bernadette Farrell

and is appropriately called Christ, Be Our Light.

# This is the closest thing to crazy

I have ever been... #

Katie Melua's one of Britain's most successful recording artists

of the millennium,

selling more than 11 million albums and receiving 56 Platinum awards.

# If all your dreams were on fire.... #

For her latest album, she's gone back to her Eastern European

roots and has teamed up with a choir from her homeland of Georgia.

# Should I be afraid?

# Should I ... #

Katie, thank you for coming on Songs Of Praise.

What was it that prompted you to return to your birthplace

in Georgia?

The biggest thing that triggered it was discovering this choir,

the Gori Women's Choir, that I heard on Spotify,

and their sound was unlike anything I'd ever heard before.

# All your dreams were on fire

# Which one would you save? #

The choir unites 24 female voices into sounding like one

incredible creature.

They just want the music to be the best that it possibly can,

'and that's so inspiring.'

And did cultural and spiritual connections

-with your heritage mean a lot to you?

-Well, they mean a great deal.

The discovery that a lot of Christmas carols

-originate from Eastern Europe was phenomenal.

-Really?

-Yeah.

So, take Carol of the Bells, which is a great, you know,

joyous choral piece.

The original is in Ukrainian.

SHE SINGS IN UKRAINIAN

The first song I sang when I moved over to the UK,

I was nine years old and so that was the first time

I had my first Western Christmas

and I didn't speak a word of English,

but I got to be really welcomed into the society

and to learn to speak English by joining the choir

and so when we sang O Holy Night,

it was one of those incredible musical moments.

There was a moment where it goes into the refrain section,

where the chord changes, and it blew my mind and I was nine

and I was like, "How can something that you can't see

"and you can't touch affect you so much?"

And since doing it at the age of nine,

this is the first time I've covered it.

# O holy night

# The stars are brightly shining

# It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth

# Long lay the world

# In sin and error pining

# Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth

# A thrill of hope

# The weary world rejoices

# For yonder breaks

# A new and glorious morn

# Fall on your knees

# O hear the angel voices

# O night divine

# O night divine

# Led by the light

# Of faith serenely beaming

# With glowing hearts

# By His cradle, we stand

# So, led by a light

# Of a star sweetly gleaming

# Here come the men from the Orient land

# The king of kings

# Lay thus in lowly manger

# In all our trials

# Born to be our friend

# Fall on your knees

# O hear the angel voices

# O night divine

# O night

# Night divine

# Oooooh

# Ooooooh

# Ooooh-oooh-oooh-oooh

# O night divine. #

The beautiful voice of Katie Melua there.

Now, young or old,

we all like a gift or two at Christmas

and Kate Bottley joined an unusual team of Santas

on their delivery round, but it's not on a sleigh.

Morning! Morning, all right?

Every year, just before Christmas,

2,000 bikers descend on a car park on the outskirts of Reading.

This is the Reading Toy Run.

It delivers thousands of presents

to the children's charity Barnardos for those most in need.

Ben Spiller and Sean Stillman first organised this event 31 years ago

with only a handful of other Christian bikers.

So, this started with just a few bikes

in a pub car park and now it's 1,700 bikes and 2,000 people.

You could never have imagined it would go like this.

Well, you couldn't imagine it, but it's not me who's doing it.

-Who's doing it, then?

-God. You know, He's doing it.

They come every year - He's making them come.

It's to the glory of God, all the time.

Quick, cos Rudolph's coming, look.

Tell me about your parrot outfit.

-They said, "What's a parrot got to do with Christmas?"

-Well, exactly!

-And I said, "I'm a Christmas parrot!"

-A Christmas parrot!

This is an event organised by Christians, but everyone is welcome.

So, why not just hire a big van and deliver them like that?

-Wouldn't that be a lot easier?

-It'd be a lot warmer!

But we're bikers and this is the tribe gathering together

to celebrate Christmas and sharing gifts

with our friends in the community.

Some people taking part,

some of them may not have families or children in their families

that they buy gifts for so this is their big Christmas moment.

For the girls, I've brought some scarves

and some little bubbly things with a nice little presentation box

-and all of that sort of stuff.

-Oh, nice!

-What presents have you brought?

-Yeah, I've got a little police car.

Oh, fantastic!

Well, you might want to avoid those today!

You know, it's not unusual to see a guitar on the back of a motorbike.

Oh, fantastic!

Right, I've got my present and I've got my Santa so let's go!

Just because you wear a leather jacket don't mean

that you're an outcast or you're unruly.

I did come from a children's home myself when I was younger

and since I've been on the bike,

I've given something back to where I've come from.

In many ways, we might be the most unexpected bunch of hoodlums

to be doing what we do, but there's very much the spirit of Jesus

is at the heart of this particular event.

And the people that line the route watching, it's wonderful.

Yes, it's just a big community thing that we do.

The atmosphere, the noise, the bikes, it's just really amazing.

-And what does today mean to you?

-Erm, it means a lot.

If you ask any of this lot, it's all for the kids.

Any time of the year somebody talks about this, I get emotional.

-It obviously means so much to you.

-Yeah.

Bikers arrive at a Barnardos school six miles down the road.

From here, the presents will be distributed around the country.

Wow! Look at all these toys, it's amazing!

There's piles and piles of gifts.

There you go! Thank you so much, that was so much fun.

The school pupils help collect the presents.

That all of these people have come from nowhere,

not actually knowing us and bringing all the presents.

It's absolutely amazing! Best people in the world!

It seems to me you're using your passion for bikes

-for Jesus, aren't you?

-Yep.

-And to serve your community.

-Yep.

There's nothing better than helping people.

# Glory to the newborn king... #

Back in Dunster, the carollers are singing with gusto.

Later on, we're going to be discovering

a little bit more about the tradition of local carol singing.

First, with a Christmas classic, here's Russell Watson.

# Said the night wind to the little lamb

# Do you see what I see?

# Do you see what I see?

# Way up in the sky, little lamb

# Do you see what I see?

# Do you see what I see?

# A star, a star

# Dancing in the night

# With a tail as big as a kite

# With a tail as big as a kite

# Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy

# Do you hear what I hear?

# Do you hear what I hear?

# Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy

# Do you hear what I hear?

# Do you hear what I hear?

# A song, a song

# High above the trees

# With a voice as big as the sea

# With a voice as big as the sea!

# Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king

# Do you know what I know?

# Do you know what I know?

# In your palace warm, mighty king

# Do you know what I know?

# Do you know what I know?

# A child, a child

# Sleeping in the night

# He will bring us goodness and light

# He will bring us...

# goodness and light. #

# Oh, tidings of comfort and joy... #

'Carols are a big part of a traditional Christmas,

'dating back hundreds of years.

'We're all familiar with carollers singing in the streets,

'but the tradition is more likely to have begun in graveyards,

'as I discovered earlier.'

So, what was a carol?

It's a medieval song with dancing,

-and the dancing is just as important a part as the singing.

-Right!

-So anything like that, that's a carol?

-Pretty much.

Usually with a bit that comes round and round, a refrain.

What is this, and what does this have to do with carolling?

This is so exciting. This is a preaching stone,

and it's one of the few remaining preaching stones in the country,

and it's where people would come and do a sermon.

So they'd go to church in the church, and then, after the service

had finished, everyone would come out into the graveyard, and this

is where they would have a sermon, where they would preach to people.

But the churchyard is also the place where, after the service...

It's a nice, big, open space, wall round it, no livestock, so people

would have a song and a dance in the churchyard after church.

So then you've got the preacher on the preaching stone trying to

preach to everyone and the carollers all dancing round.

And we had these sermons where they talk about,

"You've got to stop the carolling!" because it's getting in the way.

OK, so where did the carollers go when they were thrown out of

-the churchyard?

-So, then we don't know exactly,

but they'd probably end up going down into the village,

onto the main streets

and continuing their carolling and their carousing down there.

# ..comfort and joy. #

Dunster has its own tradition of carol singing,

and Emma and I headed up to the Tenants Hall,

part of the castle, to catch up with the Dunster Carollers as

they practised with their new recruits.

# Let us by the fire, the fire... #

This is The Dunster Carol.

Would you describe this as being a medieval-style carol?

In some ways, it really is. They've got the refrain going on,

where they come round and round to the same bit each time.

# Sing until the night expires

# Sing until the night expires. #

They're setting it in a season, so it's clearly December.

# In December ring... #

And then, at the end, they bring in the God bit,

so they do the baby in the manger with the shepherds.

So in that sense, yeah, absolutely classic.

# Shepherds at the grange Where the babe was born... #

In the Middle Ages, most musical traditions were oral traditions,

taught by ear and learned by ear,

and there are these gentlemen of the village teaching the children

in exactly the way that people have learned carols for hundreds

-and hundreds of years.

-What's The Dunster Carol all about?

Well, I know it's very old and the children who went to our

school many years ago also learnt it.

Well, it, like, keeps a tradition going, and, like, it's really

special to us, because it's about the village where we go to school.

The words were written by the poet Longfellow in the middle of

the 19th century and were set to music. We don't know by whom.

Well, I learnt it orally from my dad.

So, that's my dad singing there in full gusto.

I'm down there, and behind is my brother.

-I've got here his old carol book, over 50 years old...

-Wow!

..which is the last they've got of these, actually. I love it.

And in it, it's got all the carols that we sing.

We hope that in future, it will carry on even after we're gone.

# Sing until the night expires. #

Throughout history, folk tunes have been added to sacred words

to popularise songs, and our next Christmas carol does just that.

I'm sure you're going to recognise the tune of Greensleeves.

Thank you to everyone here in Dunster,

and let me tell you that next week,

we join Aled at the Royal Albert Hall for

a Christmas Day celebration, where he'll be singing along with

Gareth Malone and his choir, Laura Mvula and many others.

Let me wish you a happy, joyous and peaceful Christmas,

and we end today's show with this festive favourite.