This week it's time to say goodbye - kind of. We talk about end of year celebrations and how we have celebrated in the past. In previous years, we've celebrated by seeing a movie at the theatre, and going bowling or mini golfing.
This year was different, as we were restricted to a virtual meeting but we made the most of it by making up goodie bags for the girls in our unit filled with badges, crafts, and a pouch of mug cake mix! We also played charades using Skribbl.io, made tin can lanterns, and watched a slideshow of photos from the Guiding year.
Let us know how you celebrated your year of Guiding in the comments!
In SWAGGYK, we go back to the early days of Girl Guides in Canada and talk about the first Chief Commissioner, Lady Mary Pallett, and her home at Casa Loma.
When units had started forming in Canada in 1910, Lady Mary began the work of forming a Girl Guide Headquarters.There was push back from the larger society in the early days of Girl Guides, but Lady Pellatt pushed back saying:
“The girls will be mothers of our citizens by-and-by. We must train them for womanhood and for citizenship. That is the purpose of the Movement. Who said it meant unsexing? It is not an imitation of the Boy Scout Movement; for there is no militarism in it. It is purely a women’s scheme.”
Her hard work paid off when in July of 1912, Lady Mary was named the first Chief Commissioner of the Dominion of Canada Girl Guides. She used the grounds of Casa Loma, her home, to host Guides for meetings and events. As per photos from the National Archives, there were also rallies in the summer and skating in winter.
Finally, we talk about Tzena for our campfire. It's a song for dancing and celebrating, and one with some history!
Tzena was originally written in 1941, in Hebrew by Issachar Miron (a.k.a. Stefan Michrovsky) and Jehiel Hagges (Yechiel Chagiz). Miron, born in 1919, left Poland at the age of 19, thus avoiding the Holocaust. In 1941, while serving in the Jewish Brigade of the British forces, he composed the melody for lyrics written by Chagiz.
The lyrics refer to calling all of the girls out of the houses to greet the Hayalim ba'moshava - the British or Jewish soldiers in the village - who had liberated the village from the Turkish in 1917. It became popular in Palestine and was played on the Kol Yisrael radio service.
The version that many of us know, in english, was made popular with help from Pete Seeger. While living in New York when he was 19-20, he met young Jewish singers who were singing traditional Jewish songs. They were attracted to the banjo that Pete was playing, and Pete was intrigued by their songs. They played their songs together, and Pete ended up learning Tzena from one of the young men.
Pete taught it to the Weavers (not realizing what it meant), who sang it in a Greenwich Village nightclub where Gordan Jenkins heard it. Gordon made up the English words and arranged for them to record it. The song was released by Decca Records, on one side of a two-sided hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard magazine charts in 1950 while the flip side, "Goodnight Irene," reached #1.
Miron and Seegar actually didn’t meet until much later on, in the 1980s. Together, they worked in the 90s, trying to see how they can change the song slightly so that it would spread more widely like it did in the 50s. The video below gives us some explanation on their connection:
You can listen to Episode 16 now, and catch up on previous episodes, either right here on our website or on your favourite podcast app (Spotify, Apple, Google, Anchor, etc.).
We would love to know what your opening and closings you use in your units. Leave a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you'd like to contribute to an episode of Guides' Own, send us your ideas for topics, program, campfire songs, etc. send a message to guidesown@gmail.com.
Don’t worry, just because the guiding year is ending it doesn’t mean that we are going anywhere for the summer! We will be back next week with a special Canada Day episode.
Marissa & Taryn