When I was a kid, I was deeply confused by the lyrics of some of the Christmas carols that I heard or even sang. For example, in the chorus of “What Child Is This?”, this line got me stuck:
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
Laud? What the heck is laud? I remember wondering if it was a long-ago time, and since food wasn’t as abundant as it is now, maybe what Baby Jesus needed to have brought to him was lard. Not that tasty, but it would keep him and his family alive for a while. Also, I reasoned, perhaps people were just singing the word with some kind of weird affected accent.
Another song that caused me confusion was “The First Noel.” This line in particular:
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
For the longest time, I thought that the word certain here was a verb, and this was some as-yet-unknown-to-me usage that meant “to make more certain.” So the angel appeared to the shepherds, who were in doubt and fear, and the angel reassured them to make them certain that all would be well. I admit that I’m still kind of disappointed at its actual meaning, where it feels like a filler word. Like, was it really important at all which shepherds heard the news of Jesus’s birth? Not really. It could have been any old shepherds. Or people of any occupation, really. The important point is just that the birth was announced. It’s not like they were the certain Wise Men who came from the east or anything. So it wasn’t really certain poor shepherds. It would work just as well to say random poor shepherds. I still like my childhood interpretation better. I imagine that we all like shepherds have need of being made more certain, and an angel comes down and provides that certainty.
I was also confused by the chorus of “Angels We Have Heard on High”:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
As a kid, I figured that Excelsis must have been a ruler of the time, maybe another name for Herod or perhaps Caesar Augustus, and deo was just a dragged-out way of saying day. So the song was just singing about glory in the day of some ruler who happened to be in office when Jesus was born. I seriously had no clue that part of the song was actually in another language altogether.
And speaking of other languages, my family owned a record that included the song “Adeste Fideles,” and it took me a long time to work out that no, it wasn’t English that they were singing in, and so it shouldn’t be surprising that I couldn’t make out any the words, even if I totally knew the tune. (I think this record also had a dramatization of A Christmas Carol on the other side. I remember listening over and over to Scrooge’s nephew saying brightly, “Come! Dine with us tomorrow!”)
So how about you? Were you confused by any Christmas carols when you were a kid?
I had the same misunderstanding about certaining poor shepherds. In fact, that was what I have always thought until, oh, about 5 minutes ago. I think I like our interpretation better than the true one as well.
Good ones! I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who didn’t understand certain lyrics.
As for me, I was confused as a kid about the carol “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” Not knowing the word “herald” as a youngster, I heard instead “Harold,” like the name. I was just so confused why all the angels were named “Harold.”
Jenzi, solidarity! It seems so much better, doesn’t it?
Hunter, that’s awesome! I’m imagining a bunch of “Harold” angels who are like Harold of Purple Crayon fame, drawing their notes out!
All I remember from that Christmas Carol record you mention was what I heard as the “ghost of Christmas presents.” I was baffled. Why would Christmas presents involve a ghost?
Maybe it’s just me, but…
I’ve always been confused at the sudden shift that the lyrics of Away In A Manger take in verse 2. The first four lines in verse 1 and the first two in verse 2 are telling us about the manger scene and baby Jesus; with a manger, cattle, the night sky with stars that “look”, and a tear-less infant. Then, suddenly, the author/narrator takes center stage. Jesus (apparently) is now resurrected, up in heaven. The narrator calls out to Lord Jesus, asks Him to look down, then come down and stay by his/her cradle (?) until morning. Is the narrator in the cradle, or is the “my cradle” some type of metaphor connecting it with baby Jesus’ manger? I’m lost. Finally, the request comes in verse 3 for Jesus to stay close forever and love the narrator, and to take all of the little children to heaven (hopefully after a long and happy life).
I took another direction with The First Noel:
“The first Noel [as the angels clarified at some indeterminate time] was for a couple shepherds…” instead of “The first ‘Noel’ that the angels said was to shepherds…”!
Can we talk about basically every line of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman? Especially the part where “The witch’s mother, Mary, did nothing take in scorn”: was Jesus a WITCH? And is “nothing take in scorn” a thing witches do? Baffling.
Ha! Lynnette, that’s awesome!
larryco_, great point. It is a bit of a jump in what’s being sung about. A few years ago, I started a project (that I never finished) where I was looking at who’s speaking and who’s being addressed in our hymns. Many are, of course, people addressing God. Some have God addressing people. Others are just random narrators describing something. Occasionally, there’s a jump between these within a hymn. Sorry I can’t think of another example offhand, but it’s my memory that there are other hymns that have these strange jumps too.
MH, oh, good point. The song doesn’t make that timing very clear.
Melyngoch, ha! That’s hilarious!