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MERRY CHRISTMAS, JOHNHUANG2!!!!!
Posted on 12/24/2004 1:24:18 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Here is a Christmas tale that you might find hard to believe, reading about it in 2004. It is about Christmas time in the early 1950s, at the William B. Hanna public elementary school in Philadelphia.
Every year when December came around, we sang Christmas carols in our twice-weekly assemblies. We sang “Joy to the World,” and “Silent Night,” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and the other carols that were well known to every girl and boy, as well as to their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
But that’s not the part that’s hard to believe. Everyone knows that American children used to sing Christmas carols. Here’s the fantastic part of the tale: My mother, an atheist from a Lutheran background, and my father, an atheist from a Jewish background, never raised any objection to our singing these carols that celebrated the birth of Jesus. And as far as I know, neither did any of the Jewish teachers at that school, of whom there were several.
In fact, we sometimes sang those carols at home, with my mother playing them on the piano.
There’s more: The bible was read at those school assemblies all year long, usually a psalm. My parents did not object, though I believe my mother asked the teachers not to have me read. And more: We sang hymns. I remember the wonderful voice of the man who taught fifth grade booming out the Lord’s Prayer. I remember singing “Holy, holy, holy…blessed trinity.”
I asked my mother what Blessed Trinity meant. She told me it meant Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That’s what Christians believe in, she said. She didn’t believe it because she didn’t believe in God at all. But she didn’t mind my knowing about what Christians believed, or singing their songs. Since most people were Christian, it would be kind of odd not to know anything about them, like living among a tribe of Indians and never wondering what their rain dances meant.
But there was another reason for not objecting to the Christmas carols, and for singing them at home. They were wonderful music, and we liked music in our family. We never sang “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer” or “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” at home because we considered them inferior songs. They were fun to sing sometimes, but they couldn’t compare with the poetry and melodiousness of the real Christmas carols.
Those real carols were written by people who loved Christmas, who loved Jesus and the story of his birth. They were talented composers and talented writers and they put their feelings and their gifts into the songs, and that’s why the songs were still loved and sung decades or even centuries later.
They were sung by the mostly black students at my elementary school, even though every one of the songwriters was white. They were sung by the few Jews whose families had remained in the neighborhood. And they were sung by my sister and me, the children of Atheist communists. They were part of our common heritage.
My parents were communists before being left-wing meant that you had to be offended at everything. They appreciated good music and art and literature, and therefore did not hate the culture that had produced them, which was a Christian culture.
We’ve come a long way since then, haven’t we? Now there is a class of the offended and threatened who have shut down public expressions of Christmas. This has produced a divided culture, where non-Christians think – or profess to think – that Christians are some strange cult devoted to imposing their religion on others. They are easily made to believe this because knowledge about Christianity – one of the main wellsprings of western civilization – is confined to those who seek it privately, in their churches.
Now schoolchildren don’t learn to sing anything much, I don’t think. They are too busy with other things to have assemblies devoted to singing, the way we did decades ago. If they sing at Christmas, they sing things like “Frosty the Snowman.” And “Winter Wonderland.” And they might learn songs of Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, or maybe Native American chants. But nothing remotely connected with Christmas, or somebody will object.
They will probably hear Christmas carols around them, played in public in some places – though fewer and fewer public places as people fear objections and even lawsuits from the offended ones. But the carols will not become a part of them the way songs do that you sing over and over. They will grow up with advertising jingles their common musical culture from childhood, and little connection to the long, beautiful tradition of Christmas music.
Merry Christmas to all!
26And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=1&version=9
And a Very Merry Christmas to you and yours too!!
Merry Christmas, JH2! Thanks for all the great writing!
Merry Christmas, John!
Dittoes to you John. Have a great Christmas and to all a safe holiday time.
Merry Christmas John...
Merry Christmas JohnHuang2
L
I am sad for my children because Christmas is effectively banned in public schools these days. I went to my son's "Winter Concert" a couple weeks ago and not a single Christmas carol was performed. Not a hint of Christmas. In fact, I don't even get why it was a "Winter Concert." The music they played and sang could have just as well been done in July.
When I was going to public school in the late 1960s and 1970s, we would set up a Christmas tree in our classrooms right after Thanksgiving. We'd practice Christmas carols and sing them for our parents at a genuine "Christmas Pageant", complete with a nativity play.
Yes, we had lots of Jewish kids in our class. But they didn't seem to mind at all. They had a blast that time of year just like the rest of us. In fact, we worked Chanukah into things as well and nobody back then had a problem with it.
What we have today is the tail wagging the dog. We are letting a few cranks and malcontents ruin the fun for everybody. These miserable people thrive on taking the joy out of life for everybody else. And we are letting them do it.
Hi...JohnHuang2,
To ALL My Dear FReeper Friends...Mr. Robinson & Family,
Merry, Merry Christmass To ALL.
May Our RISEN MESSIAH, THE LORD JESUS Bless Each and Every One Of You With HIS: LOVE, GRACE AND SHALOM...HIS Perfect and Abiding Peace.
Amen ~ and ~ Amen.
HAPPY HOLY DAY !!
I remember singing Hannukah and Christmas songs at the school I went to, and my Catholic parents never batted an eye. I happen to be someone who enjoys learning about other cultures and religions, and it pains me that any of them would be taken out of the mainstream completely. They all have something to teach us.
Merry Christmas, JH2, and all the best to you and yours for the new year and beyond.
Merry Christmas John.
Prayers for a troops where ever they are this Christmas. Please Lord keep them safe.
Merry Christmas John.
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