- Playing
- Breaking Up Christmas
- From
- With Good Reason
Folklorsit Jon Lohman shares the background of little-known tradition of "Breaking Up Christmas," a series of gatherings the week between Christmas and New Year's, where people get together in each other's homes and jam until the wee hours of the morning. Many generations participate, and it's a really wonderful way for the community to come together and wind down the holiday season.
More from With Good Reason
Acoustic Youth
(00:03:30)
From: With Good Reason
Many of the musicians who perform at fiddlers' conventions and music festivals throughout southern Appalachia are, in fact, young kids.
The Torchbearers of the Tidewater Gospel sound
(00:03:30)
From: With Good Reason
The Paschall Brothers of Chesapeake sing four-part harmony in a style with a storied tradition.
Flory Jagoda
(00:03:30)
From: With Good Reason
"Don't open your mouth. Just sit and play. Keep on playing."
Same Song, Same Chair: Fifty Years Later
(00:03:30)
From: With Good Reason
A masterful songster recorded by two folklorists, fifty years apart.
The legacy of Harry Crews
(00:02:26)
From: With Good Reason
Southern Gothic writer Harry Crews died in March of this year. Although many people have never heard of him, Crews’ stories about outcasts inspired an enormous cult ...
Butterfly in the Typewriter
(00:29:00)
From: With Good Reason
The stories behind two giants of Southern Gothic literature.
Saint Death
(00:02:28)
From: With Good Reason
For the past ten years, drug cartels in Mexico have been worshiping a sort of grim repress, a robed skeleton lady known as Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. Now, her popularity ...
The Rise of Santa Muerte
(00:29:00)
From: With Good Reason
Over the past decade, Mexican drug traffickers trying to get their products to the U.S. have had a spiritual “protector.” Her name is Santa Muerte—the Mexican folk saint of ...
Dead Zones
(00:02:39)
From: With Good Reason
A renowned marine biologist is studying a silent killer in oceans and bays. Allison Quantz has the story.
Dead Zones and Fly-Fishing
(00:28:59)
From: With Good Reason
You can’t see them on the surface. But at the bottom of some of the world’s largest bodies of water are areas called dead zones where fish and other life can’t survive.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Folklorsit Jon Lohman shares the background of little-known tradition of "Breaking Up Christmas," a series of gatherings the week between Christmas and New Year's, where people get together in each other's homes and jam until the wee hours of the morning. Many generations participate, and it's a really wonderful way for the community to come together and wind down the holiday season.
Broadcast History
aired on three stations in Virginia, December 22-31, 2009
Transcript
LEDE: WHEN CHRISTMAS IS OVER, THE FUN IS JUST GETTING STARTED FOR MANY IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIA. VIRGINIA STATE FOLKLORIST JON LOHMAN HAS THE STORY BEHIND “BREAKING UP CHRISTMAS,” A LITTLE-KNOWN TRADITION THAT TAKES PLACE THE WEEK BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S DAY.
SCRIPT:
(Thorton Spencer & Family cut)
The tradition of “Breaking Up Christmas” is a week-long series of gatherings, people getting together in each other’s homes and jamming in to the wee hours of the morning. These are multiple generations of folks and it’s a really wonderful way for the community to come together and wind down the holiday season.
(Kruger Jam cut 1)
That last piece you heard was from a great breaking Up Christmas party at Wayne Henderson’s home -- the great guitar maker and player living in Rugby, Virginia.
(Kruger Jam cut 2)
These celebrations are rooted in the old mumming traditions from Ireland,...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Feature is 3:30 long.
Intro and Outro
INTRO:LEDE: WHEN CHRISTMAS IS OVER, THE FUN IS JUST GETTING STARTED FOR MANY IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIA. VIRGINIA STATE FOLKLORIST JON LOHMAN HAS THE STORY BEHIND “BREAKING UP CHRISTMAS,” A LITTLE-KNOWN TRADITION THAT TAKES PLACE THE WEEK BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S DAY.
OUTRO:Suggested BackAnnounce: See video of this “Breaking up Christmas” jam session on the website folklifefieldnotes.org. Folklife FieldNotes is a monthly series about Virginia’s cultural traditions, produced by VFH Radio at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
Related Website
Of 3 purchasers of this piece...
- 2 also bought:
Jefferson & Science (00:02:46) - 2 also bought:
World War One and Armistice Day (00:03:45) - 2 also bought:
- 2 also bought:Women Making Music: Suzanne Vega (00:02:43)
- 2 also bought:
Women Making Music: Jolie Holland (00:02:45)
Bob Stepno
Posted on December 26, 2009 at 07:37 AM | Permalink
Piecing together 'breaking up...'
Your program set me off on a couple of Christmas-break mornings of poking around the Internet, leading to a couple of coincidences, some personal nostalgia, and a collection of Web links and online videos. You or other listeners might be interested:
http://boblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/breaking-up-christmas-before-its-begun.html
Best seasonal wishes...
Bob Stepno
Radford University
http://stepno.com