Archive for 2023

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Twelve Drummers Drumming

This post was supposed to happen last night, but circumstances intervened and I find that it is, perhaps, more fitting today. The carol I chose to close out this year's series is one that I have shared once before several years ago and which I have known from my earliest years. I only discovered that there were

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Eleven Pipers Piping

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

I love songs that tell stories. Even better when they tread the fine line between reality and metaphor. Today's carol is one that does so using a motif we don't usually think about for Christmas; a dark night. We really don't know whether Jesus was born in the morning, noon, evening, or in the middle of the

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Ten Lords a Leaping

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Yes, this is another re-run, something I posted a few years ago, which some of you may not have had the chance to hear, not to mention a good refresher for the rest of us. It's another John Rutter classic, based on a fifteenth century English Poem by John Audelay. In it, Christ is portrayed as a

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Nine Ladies Dancing

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

I don't think Kim Andre Arnesen has has written anything that isn't beautiful. That is, I have not yet discovered anything by him I don't like. His style is so ethereal and touching. Several of you may remember "His Light in Us" which I shared several years ago which remains one of my favourite Christmas choral works

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Eight Maids a Milking

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

I don't know about you, but I'd probably have gotten pretty bored rather quickly had I been a nightwatchman in an European town in the 1600s. Hence, it is no surprise to me that the watchmen of that time, as well as before and after, adopted the habit, often, of carrying an instrument with them and singing

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Seven Swans A Swimming

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

I think I've mentioned before how much I love the medieval ability to pain pictures with their songs. Though sometimes a little more on the imaginative side when they talked about the Christmas story, their songs somehow managed to capture the essence, the spirit of the celebration and event. Today's song, while relatively modern, written in the

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Six Geese a Laying

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Of all the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus' birth, those in Isaiah are my favourite. Perhaps the most well known and beloved is Isaiah 7:14. Most of us can quote it from memory: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel - God with us." Of all the names of

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Five Golden Rings

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Today's carol is rather late and rather rushed and I have friends to thank for bringing it to my attention only last night. When I started this series I only had eleven carols lined up. Yes, there was a twelfth I didn't know about yet. I was confident, however, that I would discover it, or it would

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Four Calling Birds

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

Have you ever seen the night sky in all of its glory without being washed out by all of our lights? I've only glimpsed it once out a car window while driving back to Santan Valley from The Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was a very small glimpse, and I know even then I didn't see half

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Three French Hens

By Christianna Hellwig with 0 Comments

Yes, I'm pretty sure there were probably more than three wisemen, they certainly weren't kings, the star was most likely a supernatural phenomenon rather than a natural conjunction, or whatever people like to say, and we really don't know if they came from Persia. Now that we've gotten all of that sorted, we are free to enjoy

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Two Turtledoves

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Have you ever wondered why bells are associated with Christmas? This is probably one of my favourite associations in the European Christmas tradition. Songs have been written, ballads have been performed, plays have been promoted, stories have been told, and bells have somehow wormed themselves into panoply of Christmas attendants. Why? Because around the time of the

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A Partrige in A Pear Tree

By Christianna Hellwig with 2 Comments

Yes, it is that time of year again. There is, at very least frost on the ground outside this morning and I migrated quickly downstairs as my room becomes an icebox in this season. I'm so grateful. There's something about the cold that makes me feel more alive and present, something that makes me want to move

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Demolishing The High Places

By Christianna Hellwig with 3 Comments

I'm currently reading through II Kings and am reminded again of just how confused I used to be about the mention of high places. I remember, even before I could read hearing about the kings of Israel and Judah and wondering what was the big deal with high places. For those of you who are not immediately

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Mother

By Christianna Hellwig with 1 Comments

Last year when nearly all the family was present for Christmas and my mother's birthday, my sister-in-law put together a trivia game for us, that tested how well we actually knew my mother. Some of the questions were things we'd never thought that much about before. Some we certainly should have gotten right, but didn't. (Though, for

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