What song did the "Mother of Folk" say her grandmother would often sing on Twelfth Night?
Jean Ritchie Jean Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk music singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player. Her career formed a kind of bridge between the traditional and modern forms of folk music: in her youth she learned folksongs in the traditional way (orally, from her family and members of her community); and in adulthood she became a successful modern folksinger, promulgating songs in public through concerts and recordings. She was called by some the "Mother of Folk".
Mōdraniht Mōdraniht (Old English "Night of the Mothers" or "Mothers' Night") was an event held at what is now Christmas Eve by the Anglo-Saxon Pagans when a sacrifice may have been made. The event is attested by the medieval English historian Bede in his 8th-century Latin work "De temporum ratione ". Scholars have proposed connections between the Anglo-Saxon "Mōdraniht " and events attested among other Germanic peoples (specifically those involving the "dísir ", collective female beings, and Yule) and the Germanic Matres and Matronae , female beings attested by way of altar and votive inscriptions, nearly always appearing in trios.