What a wonderful time of year it is: no matter where you go, you can hear gorgeous songs about goodwill to men and peace on earth and shining stars and singing angels and saviors who arrive on silent and holy nights.
No matter what this time of year means to you, you can find comfort and joy in the music that tells you not to get caught up in the holiday spin, but to simply and quietly look within.
“Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.”
“Silent Night” (1818)
It’s actually not surprising that Christmas carols would implore us to be silent — for much of history, the celebrations that took place at the winter solstice, and later at Christmastime, were anything but holy and tender and mild, and they certainly weren’t virginal. In the Middle Ages, these festivals often consisted of wild and crazy parties, more like Mardi Gras than the Mass for the Messiah.
Carolers paraded their lewd behavior through the streets, much to the distress of the church. Witches in the early modern era were sometimes accused of “caroling” — clear evidence of their carnal depravity. The Puritans were horrified by the excesses of riotous yuletide merrymakers and actually banned the celebration of Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1659 to 1681. Ours is not the first generation to decry midwinter mischief and exuberance.
Though early efforts were made by Francis of Assisi (in the 13th century) and Martin Luther (in the 16th century) to create wholesome Christmas music for nativity celebrations, most of the songs we know today as traditional Christmas carols are quite recent, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. The composers of these newer carols sought to create peaceful and “traditional” Christmas rituals in place of pagan revelry.
In many of these soul-stirring, goose-bump inducing, heart-opening, crescendoing ballads, the message is to call us not to boisterous revelry, but to silence. And it’s not just a request to be quiet — we are being asked to listen.
“Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!”
“O Holy Night” (1847)
When we find ourselves getting caught up in the buzzing, booming confusion of shopping and wrapping and all of the trappings, we can pause. We can breathe. We can listen. Certainly a holiday melody is playing somewhere on the airwaves. What is it saying to YOU?
The “Little Drummer Boy,” for example, tells us he has no fine gifts to bring to the newborn king, so he keeps it simple:
“I played my best for Him…
Then He smiled at me.”
“The Little Drummer Boy” (1941)
The soothing drumbeat, the familiar maternal heartbeat, rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum… Peace on Earth, can it be? Perhaps we’ll see…
Perhaps the wisdom we seek is all around us:
“Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,
do you hear what I hear
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,
do you hear what I hear
A song, a song, high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea
With a voice as big as the sea.”
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” (1962)
As this carol continues, the shepherd boy passes the message on to the king, who yells it “to the people everywhere.” But the song had been in the wind and the stars all along. We just needed to be silent long enough to hear it. (Fun fact: this song was written as a call to peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis).
“Soon the bells will start
And the thing that will make them ring
Is the Carol that you sing
Right within your heart.”
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” (1951)
Ultimately, the gifts and the bells and the singing and the ringing are inside us — not in the toys and the noise. The present is inside us. The light of the stars is inside us.
If we spend some time in silence, we’ll know. If we make space for stillness, our hearts will grow {up to three sizes, you know!}
“Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God…”
“Mary, Did You Know?” (1984)
Did you know? You and your little baby — and the friends you know and everyone you meet — are luminous and radiant universe stuff.
That’s the meaning of these songs for me. Perhaps these are the tidings that will bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.
“‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices…
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.”
“O Holy Night”
Indeed, our weary world needs love and joy and peace — so chains may break and oppression may cease.
The 10th-century Bohemian martyr celebrated in “Good King Wenceslas” heard this message of care and love as he looked out on a crisp and quiet night:
“Good King Wenceslas looked out
on the feast of Stephen,
when the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night,
though the frost was cruel,
when a poor man came in sight,
gathering winter fuel….
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
wealth or rank possessing,
ye who now will bless the poor
shall yourselves find blessing.”
“Good King Wenceslas” (1853)
To feel our soul’s worth, to know that we are all made of the same sparkly star stuff, and to love and help one another is pretty much what we’re here to do. We feel this when we make space for silence. And then we take inspired action to bring joy to the world.
I think the powerful message of these soul-stirring hymns is best expressed in “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Unitarian minister Edmund Hamilton Sears, who wrote his carol not about the ancient world, but our own:
“The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.
Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world…
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing…”
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” (1849)
Indeed, we need to hush the noise. Our two thousand years of fighting and yelling, Sears warns us, has drowned out the love-songs of the angels.
So let the heavenly music float o’er our weary world. If we lie in solemn stillness, we’ll hear the angels sing.
Sleigh bells ring.
And angels sing.
Are you listening?
angel ornament photo (above) credit: **Mary** via photopin cc
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