St. Francis Of Assisi's All About Christmas Music

Gabrielle Echevarria

ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS

Christmas time- a time where everyone breaks out their ugly Christmas sweaters, mistletoe, and eggnog, and you hear Christmas music everywhere. All day, every day. There are two major types of Christmas music: secular Christmas music, which does not talk about God or Jesus, and Christian Christmas music, which does just that. Many secular Christmas songs have not been around very long- the major growth of the music has been within the last century. It sings the joys of the objects of Christmas- presents, Santa, snowmen, the Christmas tree itself and even the weather. The secular Christmas music category is limited. Many times, on the radio, songs are repeated multiple times within the hour.

It's songs are about what happened on that fateful night, two thousand years ago, and the people involved. The lyrics talk about the power, glory, and sacrifice of God and Jesus. A Roman bishop suggester that, in A.D. 129, a carol called “Angel's Hymn” be sung in a Roman Christmas service. But it was in Latin, like many of the other songs written in the short age of carols to follow, and nobody could understand them. They were soon forgotten. Then, in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi started his Nativity Plays in Italy, with carols in languages that everyone could understand. Another carol, similar to this, was written in 1410 about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, but very little remains. People around the world celebrate Christmas on different days. In the Netherlands, people celebrate it on December 5th and 6th, and instead of the North Pole, they believe Santa Claus lives in Spain. The people of Holland celebrate more on December 5th. This is when the children receive presents from “Sinterklaas” (Santa Claus). They throw parties to celebrate, and eat special biscuits like banketletter, which is made form marzipan or pastry, and pepernoot, which has cinimmon and spices in the pastry mix, and

The Mexicans celebrate Christmas from December 12th through January 6th. From December 16th to Christmas Eve, the children preform Posadas, where they go to friends' and neighbor's houses and sing songs, about how Mary and Jospeh were looking for a place to stay. The children are turned down and they go to a new house. Eventually, they find a house that has room and celebrate with food, games, and fireworks. The people of the Philippines officially celebrate Christmas from December 16th all the way through the first Sunday of the new year, but the shops start playing Christmas carols as early as September. They have a midnight feast called “Noche Buena” after their Christmas Eve mass. Noche Buena is basically an open house for friends, family, and neighbors. They would have several dishes out like luchon (roasted pig), ham, fruit salad, rice cakes (bibingka and puto bumbong are also traditional Mexican Christmas foods), along with other sweets, steamed rice and many different types of