Celtic New Year Lyrics
See you through the window
See you next time that we’re talking on the telephone
And if I don’t see you in that Indian summer
Then I want to see you further on up the road
I have to see you my dear
Want you come back in the Celtic New Year?
In the Celtic New Year
If I don’t see you when I’m down on Bourbon Street
If you don’t see me when I’m singing Jack of Diamonds
If you don’t see me when I’m on my lucky streak
I’ve made it very clear
I want you to come back home in the Celtic New Year
Celtic New Year
If I don’t see you when we’re singing the Gloriana tune
If I’ve got to see you when it’s raining deep inside the forest
I got to see you at the waning of the moon
Want you to be of good cheer
Come back home on the Celtic New Year
Celtic New Year
In the Celtic New Year
In the Celtic New Year
In the Celtic New Year
The Celtic New Year (Samhain) is celebrated November 1, to mark the "end of summer". By then, the crops have been harvested, and villages gather together for a final feast, celebrating Celtic notions of family and community, the bond among all people, and respect for the dead, often including bonfires and singing, before the cold weather and hard times set in. To me, this song represents a father who, while hoping his child's leaving home during spring and summer to find their own way and purpose in life will bring "good cheer", looks forward to the time the child will return to the family, in time for the feast and secure in the notion that when hard times come, the family will always welcome them back. (The live version of the song on YouTube, performed on Jools Holland's show, is outstanding and adds a strong "I MISS you!" to the lyrics)
If Ireland is ever reunited (and I hope that remains an if rather than a when) this would make a good new national anthem. The opening line is such an Ulsterism and so comical for a first line in any song. The version on Jools Holland show, Later, (as referenced by mikeb330) is something else helped immensely by a great strings section. The song is off Van's 'Magic Time' album where the late David 'Foggy' Lyttle, guested on guitar and the album was dedicated to him as he died within weeks of completion of the recording.
The references to the "Gloriana tune" and "bonfires burning" suggest a backdrop of Belfast yet other places are named checked taking us further afield. Van sings "bonefires" if that helps the reader to understand how it's said in Northern Ireland unless you come from a middle class background! On the album version Van changes his vocal expression about 4 times during the song which enhances the production and quality to what is essentially a folk ballad. I am writing this on 2 January at the start of a new calendar year, which, if you will indulge me, let's call it a Celtic New Year.