Every holiday season we all sing along with our favorite Christmas songs. We know most of the words and singers. But we seldom know the story behind the song or the writer and more importantly.....the WHY. I'm thinking that there's no real story behind Jingle Bells, or Sleigh Ride, but there is a great story behind a classic Christmas song that you hear every year or at least know the tune.
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day is my favorite Christmas song. It became such three years ago when I really listened to the words when I played it on the air and had to know more. So I googled it. As I read the lyrics on the screen it became my favorite right then and there.
It was a poem written by one of the greatest writers and poets of any time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day 1864. He had lost his wife two years earlier during the holidays in a fire and his son had just been terribly wounded in the civil war which was ravaging the nation still. He was weary too of the war between the states and prayed daily for it's speedy end. He was alone on Christmas for the first time in his life and as he drank his coffee he heard beautiful church bells ringing proudly announcing it was indeed Christmas morning. You know that sound. I do too. Sometimes that sound really can move you in magical ways and give you hope. I've been there. You too I'm betting.
He was so moved by the beauty of the bells, Longfellow took out his journal and wrote the poem in 30 minutes the legend says. How on earth was he to know that he was writing his most famous piece that morning of all mornings. It was put to music many times in many different tunes. But the tune you know today was given the gift of Longfellow's words in the 1950's. When you hear the song it always sounds so melancholy but the words are anything but.
Amazing people do amazing things under the most extreme conditions sometimes. I can not sit here and tell you I am a huge Longfellow fan. But I will tell you that amazingly 143 years later we still are moved by words written by a legend a century and half ago at the lowest part of a mans life. The poem is worth googling, printing even. Isn't it a miracle of the season that the best in a man, can be brought out by the holiday even when that man is near the bottom.
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day, is not Winter Wonderland or Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Both of those songs I love too, along with Holly Jolly Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman. But it does capture the true spirit of the season in a way that moves me more every time I hear it. And after you know the story, you may be in awe that a simple man dug deep and found the means to be great when it would have been easier not to. Plus the tune that holds Longfellow's words is a perfect musical marriage.
If you have a minute share the words with someone who needs comfort this holiday season. They'll thank you for it. If you know someone separated my miles or life's circumstances this Christmas, Longfellow's moving words can give them hope or maybe you too if it's a tough holiday for you this year. Might be a great gift.
Merry Christmas to you my friend, and thank you Mr.Longfellow. "The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will to men." Footnote... the Civil War ended that Spring.
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1 comment:
Scott: I always enjoy your stories and this one is no exception. I had no idea it was tied into the Civil War. Merry Christmas and keep safe this Christmas season.
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