“A merry Christmas, and a very good year to you;
Luck and health to the whole household,
Life, pleasantness and sprightliness to you together,
Peace and love between men and women;
Goods and riches, stock and store.
Plenty of potatoes and herring enough;
Bread and cheese, butter and beef.
Sleeping safely when you are in bed,
Undisturbed by the flea’s tooth, sleeping well.”
In the 19th Century on the Isle of Man, on New Year’s Day, groups of young men visited neighbors singing this rhyme.
A.W. Moore, Folk-lore of the Isle of Man, 1891.
