Sing-A-Long
CAROL SING
WELCOME - ANNOUNCEMENTS
For today’s Worship Service we are going to join in a bit of caroling. We will be using the caroling books that many of us have used in the past when we have gone around to various nursing homes, or visited friends or shut-ins and would sing carols.
The word "carol" comes from the Old French "carole," meaning a circle dance with singing, common in pagan winter solstice celebrations.
The history of caroling is a blend of ancient pagan winter solstice dances (caroles) with Christian traditions, evolving from circle dances.
In the Middle Ages St. Francis of Assisi (1223) introduced nativity plays with songs (canticles) in the local language, making them accessible and popular, moving carols from pagan to Christian settings.
Four hundred years later, in 1647, Oliver Cromwell's Puritan rule in England suppressed Christmas and caroling, forcing it underground.
The tradition was revived and popularized in the 19th century, during the Victorian era, with new carols written and printed in hymnals, establishing the modern form we know today. The printing of music and promotion by newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries made caroling a widespread public activity in the US and beyond. Today, caroling blends religious hymns with festive secular songs, continuing a centuries-old tradition of combining the secular with the sacred utilizing community, music, and celebration.
We begin our carol sing with “The Wassail Song.” Its history stems from ancient English "was-haeal" (be well) toasts, evolving from Saxon greetings to door-to-door caroling with a spiced drink bowl, especially around Christmas and Twelfth Night, blessing homes and orchards for good fortune, with popular carols. The toast began as a simple greeting, "Waes hael!" (Be well!) followed by "Drinc hael!" (Drink and be healthy!).
By medieval times, groups (often poor or needy) would go house-to-house, offering good cheer and songs in exchange for drink, money, or food.
The Wassail Bowl was a large, decorated bowl which held a hot, spiced ale or cider mixture, sometimes with apples, spices, and cream (called "Lamb's Wool").
Over time, the more rowdy or demanding aspects faded, leading to the milder, modern form of Christmas caroling, as seen in the popularity of songs like "Here We Come A-Wassailing".
Sing “Wassail Song” p.15
CHILDREN’S MOMENT - Christmas Song Trivia
My list of carols in our bulletin progresses through the years. The tune for our next carol, “Good King Wenceslas” is a medieval dance melody from the 1200s. The lyrics were added in 1853 by an English hymnwriter John Mason Neale along with his music editor Thomas Helmore. "Good King Wencesla(u)s" tells the story of a tenth-century king of Bohemia (a former kingdom now within the modern day Czech Republic) who goes on a journey, braving harsh winter weather,
to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow.
May we follow our King’s footprints, step for step, through our deep snows.
Sing “Good King Wenceslas,” insert
MEET & GREET
Our next carol, “GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN” was found in an anonymous manuscript dating from the 1650s. The earliest known printed edition of the carol is dated 1760.
The historic meaning of the phrase "God rest you merry" is
'may God grant you peace and happiness';
the Oxford English Dictionary records uses of this phrase from 1534 onwards.
It appears in Shakespeare's play As You Like It and the phrase "rest you merry" appears in Romeo and Juliet; both plays date from the 1590s.
The ditransitive use of the verb rest at that time meant,
"to keep, cause to continue, to remain"
and was typical of 16th- to 17th-century language.
At that time the word
“merry”
was defining the word “rest,”
not gentlemen, as it does in our present day rendition.
Sing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” p.4
PRAYER FOR THE OFFERING/DOXOLOGY
Our next carol, "Deck the Halls" is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan." The English lyrics were written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862. The title was originally singular, titled 'Deck the Hall' until about 1892. The original lyrics contained references to drinking.
A variation of the lyrics appears in the December 1877 issue of the Pennsylvania School Journal, in which there is no longer any reference to drinking. This is the version we currently sing.
SING “DECK THE HALLS” p. 14
CONGREGATIONAL JOYS AND CONCERNS/PRAYER/LORD’S PRAYER/ GLORIA PATRI
"While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night, “ one of England's oldest surviving carols, combining 16th-century music and 17th-century words, was brought together in the 19th century.
The exact date of Tate's composition is not known, but the words appeared in Tate and Nicholas Brady's 1700 supplement to their
New Version of the Psalms of David of 1696.
It was the only Christmas hymn authorised to be sung by the Anglican Church; before 1700 only the Psalms of David were permitted to be sung.
It is written in common metre and based on the Gospel of Luke 2:8–14.
It is the only one of the sixteen works in the 1700 supplement to still be sung today.
SING "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" p.9
SCRIPTURE READING: Isaiah 43:18-19
“Forget the former things;
Do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
And streams in the wasteland.”
We are getting ready to start a New Year.
The old things are gone, the new is here!
What are you looking forward to this new year?
What are you dreading?
Maybe it’s just too much to think about right now.
According to Isaiah, God is busy doing new things and He wants us to be a part or to at least perceive them.
Look at the hope presented in this verse,
“God is making a way in the wilderness”
Generations may look different on the outside,
but when you strip away the periphery,
humans continually end up making a mess of things.
We have an uncanny ability to create a wilderness and wasteland.
God, the way maker says He is creating a stream, water of life, in the midst of our chaos.
May we keep our eyes open and our heart in tune to what God is doing - in our lives, in our church, in our community - in our country - in our world as we enter a new year. Then once we recognize God’s plan, may we have the courage to join Him.
Our closing carol originated in Austria. Joseph Mohr, a priest, wrote the lyrics in 1816 and asked schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber to compose a melody for it. He had to do so on guitar because the church organ was broken. Its debut was at Christmas Eve Mass in Oberndorf. Its message of hope, born from post-war hardship, spread globally via traveling folk singers and missionaries, becoming one of the world's most famous carols, translated into over 100 languages and sung even during World War I truces. This simple song from a difficult time has become a universal symbol of Christmas peace.
SING “Silent Night” p.5
BENEDICTION:
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light...
Therefore, go out into the world with great joy,
and the grace of Bethlehem's matchless Child,
the love of the God who never ceases to amaze,
and the fellowship of the Spirit who never wearies,
will be with you this new year and evermore."
Amen.
CHRISTMAS CAROL QUIZ
THIS SONG TITLE IS:
- A boulder of the tinkling metal spheres
“Jingle Bell Rock”
- A small Israel urban center
“Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”
- A duodecimal enumeration of the passage of the yuletide season
“Twelve Days of Christmas”
- Has you running off and yelling from an elevation
“Go Tell It on the Mountain”
- Is about decorating entryways.
“Deck the Halls”
- Is far off in a haybin
“Away in a Manger”
- Includes Kong, Lear and Nat Cole
“We Three Kings”
- Describes cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element
“Silver Bells”
- Is about a lad who is a diminutive percussionist
“The Little Drummer Boy”
- Is Sir Lancelot with laryngitis
“Silent Night