PDF's of the card I sent this year

The front cover
The inside text

About the holiday

Traditions arrive on the Archipelago along with shipwrecked sailors and misdirected merchants, but they never find their way back out. The Merechi heard "I Saw Three Ships" and liked the tune, but preferred to sing about the revels of their Festival of Dancing or Chembel Pepicumno, held for five intercalary days between their 141-day ceremonial calendar years, and last having taken place November 22nd through 26th 2011 according to the calendar of the outside world.

They wrote their own words to it.

Listen to the song

Download the MP3 file of me singing in merechi.

Translation of the text

verlériac várnetno t'èln'a tòr
sénesi, altýadi
tevérn'te várnet sénesi,
a háliridi alitáno.
I saw the sailing of the ships three,
empty, in the morning,
the ships went empty,
the last day of the year.
mirvériac várnetno t'èln'a tòr
ánesi, altýadi
tecílvep'te várnet ánesi,
a sèschedi chèmbel pepícumno.
I saw the return of the ships three,
full, in the morning,
the ships came full,
the first day of the Festival of Dancing.
peámat tecílvep'te várneticum,
lemètafi, altýadi,
peámat tecílvep'te lískesi,
dipáripi chèmbelno pícuia'c.
People came on the ships,
costumed, in the morning,
many people came,
wanting the festival's dancing.
a pícuiavin yt'leháhlccop'fa,
altýadi, alómadi,
pepícum yirí yt'leháhlccop'fa,
lohómadi chèmbelno yírno.
For dancing let us party,
in the morning, in the evening,
all dancing let us party,
in the wee hours of the whole festival.