Howdy all, may your Christmas have been a merry one.

Susan, above pointed out a good version of the song in question. Yup, I should have known it would be in the DT. As it turns out, I had a version myself and found it buried in papers. I got it from a forgotten newsgroup and as it's a bit different from the DT version and the above, I'll just toss in what I found:

The following song appeared in Faith Petric's excellent column, "The Folk Process," in the Nov/Dec issue of Sing Out! (what year I don't know). It was found under a collection of carols dated 1642. Since it can't possibly be under copyright, I thought I'd post it. (who it was that posted this is not known to me either)

Happy New Year

Tune: Greensleeves

Words: anonymous

The old year now does pass away;
The New Year comes awhile to stay.
So let us merry be this day
And sing with joyful cheer.

Let joy be confined;
Put grief and sorrow far behind.
Farewell to a troubled mind,
And send us a happy New Year.

Our joyous greetings now we send
With heart and hand to every friend,
And pray we may our lives amend,
And good deeds soon appear.

Now let us welcome in
The goodly days soon to begin.
Cast off all thoughts of sin
And send us a happy New Year.

So there you go, yet another version. May you all enjoy a fine New Year.

Rex

(line breaks fixed by a Joe clone)