more colonial

Here's another cluster of kids at the colonial demonstration--these from maybe Smoketown.

In ten years this house will be 300 years old. Into the sole trunk allowed per family on the ship, some immigrants tucked a zither along with the essentials

in a day's work

This morning was a day for Harmonies. The oldest house in these parts is the 1719 Herr House and it was Frolic Day for droves of school children. I put the camera on a tripod and used the remote. They knew I was snapping a photo, but the apparatus at a distance caught something impromptu. I demonstrated colonial music with the zither and the penny whistle. Here are girls from St. Ann's, complete in non-colonial uniforms and post-colonial shades.

Candlelight and zither

The first days of December the 1719 Herr House candlelight tours asked me to present one of the demos, on the Ausbund and early music

So, grim to survive the 40-degree upstairs temperature, I got the costume from the attic and the zither from the Harmonies office.

A healthy dose of the gift of gab, and a repetoire of one song (Silent Night), some research on the 1804 Mennonite hymnal's Christmas section and I was good to go for four hours--8-minute demo, 8-minute break while another person talked about the Martyr's Mirror, and on again.

Then people really sang with gusto one verse of Joy to the World, which was first published the year the Herr House was built.