On The Seventh Day

   When I was younger I really didn't understand some of the words  to the carols very well. For example, in "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," I thought that in the first verse, the angels were talking to the shepherds. "well," I consoled myself, "I can only hand it to the men of the middle ages to call shepherds merry gentlemen."
   Of course this is not actually the case. The first verse is understood as a greeting, a salutation on Christmas day. Traditionally the song is believed to have been sung to the Gentry by the town watchmen on Christmas day; probably the first verse was meant as an apology to the nerves of 'growly' gentry who hadn't been woken up properly. As for who penned this ingenious piece of poetry, being that the first records of it come around the fifteenth century, it is rather hard to trace its author. The lyrics are considered to be the oldest of all "Olde" English carols and I like to think it was written by a clever night guard who had too much time on his hands in the wee hours of yuletide.
   Song artfully tells the story of the angels announcing Jesus' birth to the shepherds, and of their subsequent haste into Bethlehem to find this wond'rous child. At the end is an exhortation to rejoice and worship the Christ childe whom "all others doth deface."

  Simple, but sound in its message. However, startled the Shepherds might have been, or, in later centuries, the sleepy town Gentry, the singers in both cases brought tidings of comfort and joy to all who heard. A babe has been born who will redeem mankind from his curse of sin and darkness.

  Take a moment to enjoy this sprightly olde carol.