Merry Christmas!
By Greg L | 21 December 2010 | Manassas City | 14 Comments
Courtesy of the fine folks at Historic Manassas, a Christmas movie featuring people many of you may know…
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14 Comments
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Amazing! I had no idea all this happened in Manassas. This was that tree lighting thing they did earlier this month, right?
Very nice. Reminds me that lots of good regular people live ere.
Manassas is still the best city in NOVA, in spite of some issues, this city still rocks, thanks Greg for the reminder!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of the St. Pat’s Parade. Great folks, and music and community!
Beautiful! My monitor got blurry for a second.
Wonderful voices. Who are the singers?
The lead is Jason Paul Curtis who also sang at the Manassas Arts & Wine festival. He’s absolutely tremendous, and I think you can get CDs of him at jasonpaulcurtis.com. If not, you can most likely catch him at the next festival in Manassas where they have live music and he usually has CDs with him. He also is going to be the vocalist at a Manassas Ballet Theater production in March. That’s going to be quite a show. I’ll be doing some work with Jason in the future.
The other singer is Joshua Alfred, another local talent who I haven’t seen before but I’ll bet everyone in his church knows him rather well.
That was really nice. Thank you for sharing.
Very nice. You have a very cool town. Most of my Christmas were more like this http://vimeo.com/17985665
Not gonna cry, not gonna cry…..simply rejoicing. Many thanks due.
The REAL meaning of MERRY … It isn’t about happiness, gaiety, etc. It meant ‘strong’, ‘mighty’…so now, A Very Merry Christmas to ALL.
“When modern people say “Merry” Christmas, the word merry means happy. When “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was written, merry had a very different meaning. Robin Hood’s “Merry Men” might have been happy, but the merry that described them meant great and mighty. Thus, in the Middle Ages, a strong army was a merry army, a great singer was a merry singer, and a mighty ruler was a merry ruler.
So when the English carolers of the Victorian era sang, “merry gentlemen,” they meant great or mighty men. Ye means you, but even when translated to “God rest you mighty gentlemen,” the song still makes very little sense. This is due to another word that has a much different meaning in today’s world and a lost punctuation mark.
The word rest in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” simply means keep or make. Yet to completely uncover the final key to solving this mystery of meaning, a comma needs to be placed after the word “merry.” Therefore, in modern English, the first line of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” should read “God make you mighty, gentlemen.” Using this translation, the old carol suddenly makes perfect sense, as does the most common saying of the holidays, “Merry Christmas.”
You might wonder why, when most didn’t fully understand the real meaning of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” the old carol remained popular. The world’s love for this song is probably due to its upbeat musical piece paired with the telling of the most upbeat story the world has ever known. Those who sing it naturally get caught up in the celebratory mood of the message and embrace the same kind of emotions that those first to visit the baby Jesus must have felt. As the angel told the shepherds, “I bring you news of great joy.” That joy and the power of faith can be felt and experienced in every note and word of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” You just have to know how to translate the words into the language of the day to have a very Mighty Christmas!”
http://www.acecollins.com/Books/storiesbehindchr.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlsJD8RlhbI
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
In Bethlehem, in Israel,
This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scorn
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
“Fear not then,” said the Angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan’s power and might.”
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind:
And went to Bethlehem straightway
The Son of God to find.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
And when they came to Bethlehem
Where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down,
Unto the Lord did pray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Great job of video production Greg (JTC Media, and JTC, inc)
Readers might like this one as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA&feature=player_embedded
“The Digital Story of the Nativity”
Thank you Greg.
Even though I don’t celebrate it, I wish a Merry Christmas to all of you who do.
Greg,
Merry Christmas to you and your familyab