Feast of the Ass Module

Read about a unique holiday with a catchy tune to go with it. This unit is best suited for late Latin 2 or Latin 3 classes.

Source:  "The tune is said to have been part of the Fete de l’Ane (The Donkey’s Festival), which celebrated the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt and was a regular Christmas observance in Beauvais and Sens, France in the 13th Century. During the mass, it was common for a donkey to be led or ridden into the church ... The words and tune were designed to give thanks for the ass on which Mary rode. ...

The song emigrated to England in the 12th century, where it began to take on a new character. It is for this reason that some sources will give the origin of this song as England. Orientis Partibus was harmonized in 4/4 time for Church Hymn Tunes, ancient & modern (1853) by Richard Redhead (1820-1901) and given triple time by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) in English Hymnal (1906)."

Each of the audio recordings I have linked use a different set of the verses. There are many other versions out there.

Song #1 is a pretty "classic" version. It also has all the below verses, excepting Eia frater asine. 

Song #2

The second linked song plays around with the song a bit and adds some extra French verses to it (as well as a hilarious little twist at the end). This is a pretty common trend in Medieval music, with Latin verses and vernacular refrains (see: Phoebi Claro).

Song #3 The third one is quieter and cuter, with the fewest number of verses. It's probably the easiest to understand the lyrics because of its thinner instrumentation, however.

If you're looking for a way to keep this #fresh and #hip with the #youth, this presentation has a fun and easy dance to do with the song. I love these songs with refrains because there's so much you can do with audience engagement. This is definitely one of those where you can have students lead each verse (if they'd like).

I think my last little warning is that there's a number of pretty deep-cut Biblical references (at least to lay audiences). I try my best to explain them in the power point explanations.