Where the Wattles Are Blooming (Holiday Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Sunshine is over the meadow, Sunshine is over the hill..." "Come with me, merry and free, Gay as a bird on the spray, Grief and care, come if you dare, We will be happy today." "Come where the wattles are blooming, Down in the flowery glade"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 182-183, "Where the Wattles are Blooming"; "Holiday Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [86 words]: Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 compares this to the William Blake poem "The Echoing Green."
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 266, say of the Wattle "Folk name of the native [Australian] plant species Acacia. Wattle is a popular Australian icon, and is also favoured in folksong and popular verse for romantic and sentimental death scenes. Possibly due to this association, some people believe it is unluck to have wattle in the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: MCB182

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