The annual New Year's Eve caroling, featuring the traditional Swiss-German carols composed in this community, will start at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31, at Maple Crest Senior Living Village on Augsburger Road, Bluffton. 

Please note the earlier time this year. Music will be provided. Bring your friends and relatives to take part in this joyful tradition.

New Year's Eve this year will once again find the residents of Maple Crest Senior Living Village in Bluffton enjoying the long-standing tradition of New Year's serenading.

Background of this tradition
This musical tradition dates back to the mid-19th century, when David Rothen, a teacher in the Swiss settlement of rural Bluffton/Pandora, composed two New Year's songs, taught them to his students, and took these students to sing at the homes of their families on New Year's Day.

Rothen was born in 1805 in Canton Vaud, Switzerland, trained there to become a teacher, and taught school in southern Germany before emigrating to the United States with his wife Barbara in 1832.

He had composed several hymns while in Europe, and after settling in the local Swiss settlement continued to gain wide recognition as an excellent teacher and as a musician.

When Rothen died in the typhoid epidemic of 1853, the music and lyrics of his New Year's songs were lost until some of his students decided to recreate them from memory.

Their efforts resulted in the songs that have been used for more than a century in the Bluffton/Pandora area, formerly for outdoor house-to-house serenading by members of several local churches, and more recently as a service to the residents of Mennonite Memorial Home.

All singers invited to join
Singers are encouraged to meet early in the lobby for a brief rehearsal. All interested persons are invited. Music will be provided, and since the songs are sung in both German and English, pronunciation guides will be available to assist with the German text.