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Jared

Even though I'm an atheist and against the whole religion idea, one of my favorite things about the Christmas season are the carols.

There is nothing like singing some of the classic carols/hymns with your family in a church lit with candles - a very beautiful sight and sound (especially if it's one of those old churches that echos).

It's been a long time since I've done that, though.

Christine

Look up Night of Silence/Silent Night. Absolutely gorgeous to listen to, and includes the line: "Fire of hope is our only warmth/weary its flames will be dying soon." And a Happy New Year!

Tim Walters

The original lyrics of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" are quite miserabilist:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
It may be your last
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Pop that champagne cork
Next year we may all be living in New York
No good times like the olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us no more
But at least we all will be together
If the Lord allows
From now on, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

here's a YouTube video with a more conventional rendition, although for some reason it's lacking the verse about the vampire dog

Probably because the Picardy third is so gruesome that vampire dogs would seem anticlimactic.

vel

First thanks Greta for remindign me of Suzy Snowflake. Always found that little cartoon creepy as heck. And of course, its on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdYDdm3fZiM

some of these carols's lyrics remind me of the more interesting lyrics to "This Land Is Your Land" which always, not so strangely, get left out of patriotic song fests.
"As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me."

absent sway

From somewhere in the recesses of my childhood memories I now hear my cousin singing:

"This land's not your land,
This land is my land,
I've got a shotgun,
And you ain't got one,
If you don't get off,
I'll blow your head off,
This land is private property"

Thanks, Vel!

lunalelle

I'm also quite unashamedly excited about all things Christmas, religious and secular. And the music is what makes the season for me. :)

Cath the Canberra Cook

ooh, ooh, the Seven Joys of Mary.
The next good joy our Mary had,
It was the joy of six;
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
upon the crucifix.

There are so many. "I was born in a stall" - as baby Jesus asks "shall I mother?" about details of the Passion narrative. Verses like "With a spear both sharp and keen, they clave my heart in two; water and blood thereout ran". Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day is similarly bloody; and Remember O Thou Man has lots of threats of hell and damnation.

Tchaikovky's Legend is another good one... a story of a child Jesus, a group of bullies, and a crown of roses, all full of spooky prefiguring. "Then of the thorns they made a crown, and with rough fingers pressed it down, till on his forehead fair and young: red drops of blood like roses sprung"

And not so gruesome, but I really love Adam Lay Ybounden, for its subversive theology. To paraphrase: if Adam hadn't taken the apple, then Mary wouldn't have been Queen of Heaven. Hurray for the fall!

The Cherry tree Carol,in which Joseph doubts Mary's word on the whole angel thing, is rather fun.

And then there's the socialist "Masters in this Hall" with its rousing chorus of "God today hath poor folk rais-ed and cast a-down the proud".

Medieval peasant stuff is brilliant - it's all folk tales and pagan allusions, from the days back when the bible was not even allowed to be translated into the common language. The Sans Day carols is all about sacred trees, for instance, and the Boar's Head and several Wassails are about winter feasts. Carols were even occasionally banned as pagan.

Alyson Miers

I've always noticed that verse in "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and said to myself, "WTF? This is supposed to be a song of celebration?"

I have a slighty different love of Christmas carols, however. One of my favorite moments from last Christmas was standing in church with my family while singing "O Holy Night." It's a beautiful, moving song in its own right, but IMO the best part is where it says:

Chains shall we break for
the slave is our brother!

Jesus was a Commie, I tell you! Joy to the World!

Elin

"We Three Kings" has always been my favorite Christmas carols, for exactly that reason. Dude, Jesus was a Goth!

The older I get, the more I realize just how crazy weird Christianity is. The most important event in Christian mythology is a human sacrifice. And the Muslims have a holiday this month, too, celebrating that time God was feeling extra mean and got Abraham to almost sacrifice his own son to him. But then God sent in the ram, so everything was cool! I never understood that story...why did anyone have to die? It was like God didn't have a choice; once he decided to demand a sacrifice, he couldn't change his mind, or something.

Once you understand the weirdness of the mainstream religions, the Branch Davidians and all the rest totally make sense.

Glen

I also have a lot of Christmas music (and religious music, generally) on my shelves. I can appreciate the sincerity of the composers' intents, just not the object of them.

That said, I've reached the point that if I hear "Silent Night" one more time (especially the "contemporary" versions) I may run amuck.

Years ago, I began discovering Christmas music from the Renaissance and Medieval eras. Transcendent. "On Yoolis Night" is a good sampler. And right now, I'm listening to a CD of Celtic/Irish music. Lovely.

naath

Of course for Serious Christians Christmas is a lot less important than Easter - which I suspect is why a lot of the older Christmas songs are really About Easter, and how Christ's birth is an important prequel to Christ's Death And Resurrection.

I find them a nice alternative to the super cheery modern stuff... but maybe that's just me.

And if you haven't heard it you should totally get ahold of Scary Solstice by the HP Lovecraft History Society. It massively improves all Muzak experiences :-)

vel

Thumbs up for Naath mentioning a Very Scary Solstice.

It's beginning to look a lot like fishmen, everywhere I go!

Julie paradox

That knight one sounds very much as if it were one of the Adapted Pagan set. The Seven Joys, certainly.

We Three Kings: yes, and? Surely the whole point of celebrating this as a Christian festival is the reason for the incarnation in the first place.

Andy Wallace

I always liked the line in "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful":

"Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb".

I mean, c'mon - WTF?

Peaceable

Great creepy Christmas carol: "The Mistletoe Bough" - Edison Blue Amberol 23144. Though not often sung anymore, in the 19th century it was very well known and loved in the English speaking world, part of the sound of a true Victorian Christmas. It was recorded on cylinder by Edison's Carol Singers in 1913 as part of a set of well loved Christmas Carols (and can be heard online at the Cylinder Digitization project at UCSB). No baby Jesus, Santa, or Reindeer, just a bride who accidentally entombs herself on her wedding day, suffocates, and lies moldering for decades until discovered by her husband, now an old man... They don't write 'em like that anymore!

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