Good grief, travelling can really put a kink in your posting schedule. =P
On the 6th Day of Christmas we sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of those songs whose past is wreathed in mystery. Nobody knows who wrote it or even what century it was written in. Some claim that it's a 15th Century French hymn written by Franciscan nuns. Others say that it's an 8th Century Gregorian chant. Either way, it's a powerful carol with a wonderful message of salvation.
The carol is based on Isaiah 7:14, which states: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (ESV). Immanuel (or Emmanuel with an "e") is a name that means "God with us," and the prophecy spoken by Isaiah was fulfilled by the birth of Jesus many generations later, a child who really was God with us.
The original text for this song is in Latin, but in the 1800s it was translated by John Mason Neale (an English Anglican priest) and Henry Sloane Coffin (the American president of the Union Theological Seminary).
And on the 6th Day of Christmas Sam Raimi gave to me an Oz: The Great and Powerful trailer.
True, The Wizard of Oz has never really been my most favorite story in the world, but I've always been intrigued with how the Wizard of Oz managed to trick all of the inhabitants of Oz into actually thinking he was an all-powerful wizard. And just from looking at the trailer for this Oz prequel, I think this film could be pretty good.
On the 5th Day of Christmas my song of the day is What Child is This?
Like Silent Night and Christmas Eve/Sarajevo, What Child is This? is a well-known Christmas carol that has a pretty cool story attached to it.
When he was twenty-nine years old, William Chatterton Dix, an English writer, contracted a near-fatal disease that kept him bedridden for quite a while. He became depressed, as most people probably would, but he used his time in bed rest, not knowing if he would survive the night, to write hymns and poems. The most famous one he wrote was What Child is This?, which he put to the tune Greensleeves (if you play any sort of instrument, you've probably had to learn Greensleeves as some point. I know I did).
The carol was written in 1865 and asks the listeners who Jesus was and why He came to earth as a human. But Dix doesn't just ask and leave his audience hanging. He answers his own question by explaining how Jesus died for our sins and, as our King and Savior, deserves our praise and adoration. It's a very poignant song with a beautifully contemplative tone.
And on the 5th Day of Christmas 20th Century Fox gave to me an Epic trailer.
Well, Epic is the title of the movie, but it's also epically beautiful looking as far as I'm concerned (and, yes, this is another pre-Hobbit trailer).
On the 4th Day of Christmas Charles Wesley gave to me Hark The Herald Angels Sing.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing is a very traditional Christmas carol, one that most church congregations sing more than once during the month of December. It's a very good song that discusses both our Savior's birth and how He was both God and Man at the same time in lines like, "Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see/Hail the incarnate Deity" (verse two).
The words to this carol were written by none other than Charles Wessley in his 1739 book, "Hymns and Sacred Poems." It later went through revisions by George Whitefield, Felix Mendelssohn, and William H. Cummings. Originally the song was very slow and somber (much like Wesley himself), but in 1855 Cummings adjusted it by using a tune similar to the hymn Christ the Lord is Risen Today, which is why our modern version sounds much more upbeat from the original.
And on the 4th Day of Christmas, Paramount gave to me a Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer.
Y'know how most of the time the previews before the movies really aren't that good? Well the trailers before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are all really good, so that's partically why I keep posting them. =P
On the 4th Day of Christmas we have the trailer for the new Star Trek sequel. It looks really dark, but really good at the same time. In fact when I saw The Hobbit literally everyone in the theater started cheering when this trailer started, so I'm thinking it's probably gonna be big.
One the 3rd Day of Christmas, my favorite song is Christmas Eve/Sarajevo.
So this particular Christmas song isn't a "real carol," but it is a very good song that really puts me in a decorate-the-whole-house-and-eat-ALL-the-cookies kind of mood. =)
Christmas Eve was written in 1995 for the Dead Winter Dead album as an instrumental mix of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells, but my favorite version of the song is the one done in 1996 by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The cool thing about this song (besides the way it sounds) is that it's almost like an instrumental ballad.
According to Christianity Today, Paul O'Neill (one of the composers) explained that the hidden story in the song is a true story about "this cello player born in Sarajevo many years ago who left when he was fairly young to go on to become a well-respected musician, playing with various symphonies throughout Europe. Many decades later, he returned to Sarajevo as an elderly man--at the height of the Bosnian War, only to find his city in complete ruins.
"I [O'Neill] think what most broke this man's heart was that the destruction was not done by some outside invader or natural disaster--it was done by his own people. At the time, Serbs were shelling Sarajevo every night. Rather than head for the bomb shelters like his family and neighbors, this man went to the town square, climbed onto a pile of rubble that had once been the fountain, took out his cello, and played Mozart and Beethoven as the city was bombed.
"He came every night and began playing Christmas carols from that same spot. It was such a powerful image--a white-haired man silhouetted against the cannon fire, playing timeless melodies to both sides of the conflict amid the rubble and devastation of the city he loves. Some time later, a reporter traced him down to ask why he did this insanely stupid thing. The old man said that it was his way of proving that despite all evidence to the contrary, the spirit of humanity was still alive in that place."
If that's not a cool story, then I don't know what is. And if you'd like to find out more about him, the cellist's name was Vedran Smailovic, and he's still alive today.
And on the 3rd Day of Christmas, Columbia gave to me an After Earth trailer.
This is another trailer that I saw at The Hobbit, and it's another father-son film with Will and Jayden Smith.
Anybody else think Hunger Games when you saw the trailer?
On the 2nd Day of Christmas, sing O, Come, All Ye Faithful.
O, Come, All Ye Faithful was one of the very first songs I taught myself to play on the piano. It was pretty easy to learn because it's quite slow and really not that complicated. Basically, it's perfect for someone who can only play the piano with one hand, like me. =)
But, more than that, it's a great song that clearly praises God for sending His Son to earth as a human baby on that wonderful Christmas night 2,000 years ago.
Historically, the tune of O, Come, All Ye Faithful was written sometime in the mid-18th century, but no one actually knows who composed it. Some people think that John Francis Wade did, while others think that John Reading or Handel may have composed the tune. The words themselves were penned in the 13th century in Latin, and it was originally called Adeste Fideles. Nobody knows who wrote the words to the carol, either. St. Bonaventure may have, or King John IV of Portugal, or even some monks in Germany may have. Originally Adeste Fideles only had four verses, but three extra verses were penned by a Frenchman by the name of Abbe Etienne Jean Francois Borderies (say that five times fast!) in the 18th century.
While there aren't any cool things that happened in conjunction with this hymn (like there was with Silent Night), I personally think it's really awesome that someone wrote a song in the 1200s that we still sing today. Historical preservation is such a fascinating thing, and O, Come, All Ye Faithful really is a wonderful praise song (even though it is quite slow).
For any of you Latin readers out there, Wikipedia has Latin version of the carol posted at this link, if you'd like to look at it.
And on the 2nd Day of Christmas, DC gave to me a Man of Steel trailer.
The new Superman reboot is hitting theaters in 2013, and even though Superman usually bothers me this movie does look pretty cool. What do you guys think? =D
Thank you all so much for your 12 Days of Christmas ideas! There were a lot of good ones, and I didn't know which one to pick, but I think I've got it figured out now.
For each day of HNED's 12 Days of Christmas, I'll post about one of my favorite Christmas songs as well as about a new film trailer (because, let's face it, there are a lot of pretty awesome movies coming out soon and many people like to celebrate holidays with movies). I would have posted about my favorite Christmas films, but I haven't seen very many because they tend to be so predictable and cliche. There are definitely a few that I like, but not enough to last twelve days. =)
So, without further ado, let the 12 Days of Christmas begin!
On the 1st Day of Christmas, I love to listen to Silent Night.
I think Silent Night is one of those few songs that I've loved as far back as I can remember. It's such a calm yet extremely poignant song that clearly points to the birth of Jesus, the world's Savior.
(In English...)
(...and in German.)
Silent Night is an Austrian Christmas carol that was written by a priest named Joseph Mohr in 1816 and composed by Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818. It "was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at the St. Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg" (thank you, Wikipedia!). The song has been translated into over 140 languages as of today. But probably the most amazing thing that happened with this carol was during World War I.
On the Western Front in the Christmas of 1914, German soldiers began decorating their trench line and singing Christmas carols, including Silent Night. The British and French soldiers on the other side of No-Man's Land heard the Germans singing, and responded by singing their own Christmas carols, and Silent Night was one of the only carols that all three nations jointly knew. The joint singing led some soldiers on both sides to venture out into No-Man's Land and exchange gifts, Christmas greetings, to bury their dead, and even to play football together. This time was known as the Christmas Truce, and in some places along the Western Front it lasted for a whole week.
Isn't it amazing that God used simple Christmas carols to bring two polar opposite sides together, to bring peace to a place where death and disease were constant for years on end? These carols aren't just songs that we sing for one month out of the year. They are praises to God, and He can do wonderful things with them. Sometimes I wish that I could have been standing there in No-Man's Land on that day in 1914, listening to millions of men's voices in three different languages singing praise to their Savior, Jesus Christ, for coming to earth that Christmas Day so long ago. Sometimes when I sing Silent Night, I wish I could hear the carol being sung simultaneously in English, German, and French as the soldiers put their guns down and went out past the barbed wire to meet each other face to face. I wonder what that must have felt like to be there, to hear and see the miracle of peace on that day.
It really was a silent night.
And on the 1st Day of Christmas, Warner Bros. gave to me a Pacific Rim trailer.
I saw this trailer last night at The Hobbit midnight showing, and it was pretty awesome! Not exactly "Christmas-y" in the traditional sense, but some people like to celebrate with sci-fi movies. =)
Pacific Rim has your generic aliens vs. humans plot where the aliens attack us first, but it also mixes elements of Avatar (humans "driving" other organisms, in this case huge robot mechs), Wrath of the Titans (the aliens are huge Titan-esque monsters), and Transformers.
Good grief, it's been so long since I've been on here! But I know myself very well. If I don't get back into the habit of blogging now, I honestly never will.
So, pooh-pooh to the upcoming finals week! I am blogging, and I'm doing it now! =D
Besides, I'm also thinking that it will be very therapeutic for me to be able to sit down and write for pleasure between forced labor in Finals World. =P
While I attempt to get back on top of everything (since everything else does not stop when you drop off of Blogger for a month or so), I would like everyone's opinion.
I'd like to post about something every day for the 12 Days of Christmas, but I have no idea what the themes/topics should be. So if you have any ideas for a series of HNED 12 Days of Christmas posts, please leave a comment and I will definitely consider your idea! If you have an idea for this that you'd like to share, please let me know ASAP since the 12 Days of Christmas starts very soon.
*cracks knuckles* Let's get back to normalcy, even during an abnormally crazy time. =D
