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Showing posts from December 14, 2020

Singing in a Different Language

Once again, we find ourselves in the joy of singing the beloved Christmas and Advent hymns during worship. I also find myself grinning in child-like humor as I chuckle as we sometimes struggle to properly pronounce some of the words in those hymns. We struggle because some of those words are either in French or Latin. One hymn is obvious as the French word is in the title of ā€œThe First Noel.ā€ The second hymn, the Latin words are not so obvious in the hymn as they are reserved for the ā€œrefrain.ā€ Letā€™s take a look at the ā€œeasyā€ one entitled ā€œThe First Noelā€ as the song tells the story of the announcement of the birth of Jesus through the Angelic announcement and the prominence of the brilliance of the Bethlehem star. The word ā€œNoelā€ is French and translates into the English word ā€œChristmas.ā€ The word can also mean ā€œgood newsā€ or used as our word ā€œbirthday.ā€ The beloved hymnā€™s ā€œrefrainā€ could literally be saying ā€œGood news! Itā€™s Christmas! Good news! Itā€™s the birthday of a King! Bor...