I wrote this short little carol today as I delivered mail. I heard the melody in the wind-chimes hanging at one of the first houses on my route and the song developed throughout the course of the day.
The fires of winter keep the cold away. Long is the night, short is the day. We will bless the Lord because he came to save and because the fires of winter keep the cold away.
The fires of winter keep the wolves at bay. All through the night we can hear them say, "You should bless the Lord because he came to save and because the fires of winter keep the wolves at bay."
The star of Christmas came to guide the way. Shining at night for magi on the way. We will bless the Lord because he came to save and because the star of Christmas came to guide the way.
I know that I can be critical
(maybe overly so) of the songs and carols played during the extended Advent /
Christmas season. I usually refuse to sing “Away in the manger” because of line
“no crying he makes” is absolutely ridiculous. I realize that my (overly) critical spirit is probably
due, in part, to my general dislike of the Christmas season - still, there are
aspects of the holiday I do like, and there are songs and carols I like despite
their accuracy problems.
Take for instance the Christmas Spiritual, Rise
Up, Shepherd and Follow. It’s difficult to find any information about the
history of this particular song. One book I have says that “practically nothing
is known of the source of this spiritual” (Evans 327). Another points back, without further detail
to the 1909 book, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro as Sung on the
Plantations.Online sources say that it likely originated with the slaves
on plantations on the islands off the coast of Georgia and North Carolina.
There's a star in the East on Christmas morn,
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
It'll lead to the place where the Savior's born,
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
Leave your sheep and leave your lambs
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
Leave your ewes and leave your rams
Rise up, shepherd, and follow.
Follow, follow
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
Follow the star of Bethlehem
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
If you take good heed of the
angel's words
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
You'll forget your flocks, you'll forget your herds
Rise up, shepherd, and follow
Encouraging the shepherd to “rise up and follow” the star conflates the two separate,
and very distinct infancy narratives in Luke and Matthew. In Luke the shepherds
are visited by an angel and given instructions to go to nearby Bethlehem. In
Matthew, it is the Magi who follow the star (and later instructions from an
angel seen in a dream). In neither one do shepherds follow “the star of
Bethlehem.”
Still, angels are frequently equated with stars in the scriptures of the Hebrew
and Christian bibles (see Job 38:7 and Revelation 12:4 for example.) So… we could say that the shepherds followed a
star to Bethlehem. But that would be just convenient retconning to make the
song fit the stories.
Despite all that, I still like the song.
Evans, George K. The International Book of Christmas
Carols. Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press. 1963. Print.
Fenner, Thomas P. Religious Folk Songs of the Negro as Sung on the
Plantations. Hampton, Virginia: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.
1909. Print.
"Throughout the expanse of the sky which encircles us there are figures, signs by which we may know the secrets and most profound mysteries of the universe. These signs are formed by the constellations... But I have yet to read their secrets for I cannot break the code... Still, I must keep trying. I must persist!"
Recently I was asked to reveal the identity of the secretive Dr. Tarrec, but I cannot. I am bound by honour to keep his secret.
