god rest ye merry gentlemen meaning

“Merry”—in the 1500’s and 1600’s, when this song was written—means “Mighty.”. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. [5] God rest ye merry, gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Savior 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. O tidings of comfort and joy. For Jesus Christ our Saviour This carol also is featured in the second movement of the 1927 Carol Symphony by Victor Hely-Hutchinson. With the changing of word meanings and difference in cultures, it is hard for Americans today to understand what the English peasants were singing about 500 years ago — unless you know the story behind the song. It had been traditional and associated with the carol since at least the mid-18th century, when it was recorded by James Nares under the title "The old Christmas Carol". free ale on the house.) But “might” and “dismay” are words completely unrelated in either origin or meaning, and thus offering them as contrasting states makes no logical sense. Was born on Christmas day Examples would be Robin Hood’s merry (mighty) men. The merry men were not some happy go lucky bunch but were men that King Richards fear. God rest ye merry, gentlemen o The phrase “eat, drink, and be merry” derives from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes (8:15) and the New Testament book of Luke (12:19), not from an exhortation to soldiers heading off to war, and it is clear from the contexts in which the phrase appears (regardless of which English translation of the Bible one chooses) that the word “merry” is intended to convey a sense of joyfulness, not might: Ecclesiastes 8:15: “Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.”, Luke 12:19: “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”. '” “Merry” is not, and never has been, related to the word “mighty” either in origin or usage. Examples commonly proffered to document the use of “merry” as meaning “mighty” are spurious: The word “rest” is used in “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” in a sense meaning “to keep,” “to continue to be” or “to remain as specified” (as in the phrase “rest assured”), not specifically in the sense of “to make.” Thus “God rest you merry, gentlemen” is not an importuning for God to make the titular gentlemen mighty, but rather a prayer for God to keep joy in the hearts of men. Imagine! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase "God rest you merry" means "may God grant you peace and happiness. Thus every Christmas season also brings the circulation of apocryphal tales about how candy canes were created to symbolize Jesus, and how persecuted Catholics secretly encoded tenets of their faith into the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”. Soon, the waites, the night watchmen of that time, would be singing God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen as they walked the streets of London. The 15th century church sang only dark, somber songs usually written in Latin. Some variants give the pronoun in the first line as ye instead of you,[2] in a pseudo-archaism. Thus knowing the origin of the words would make our Christmas different. ', Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.". Stories promoting xenophobic, fearmongering claims about Chinese troops in Canada are unfounded. GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN The Joy of Christmas. The word “rest” is used in “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” in a sense meaning “to keep,” “to continue to be” or “to remain as specified” (as … It’s so old, in fact, that it pre-dates the modern system of harmony. The transitive use of the verb rest in the sense "to keep, cause to continue, to remain" is typical of 16th- to 17th-century language (the phrase rest you merry is recorded[citation needed] in the 1540s). Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. A variant text was printed in 1775 in The Beauties of the Magazines, and Other Periodical Works, Selected for a Series of Years. Let nothing you dismay, 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. There is at least one small element of truth to these otherwise inaccurate claims, though: The song’s titular phrase is often mispunctuated as “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” rather than “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” thereby mistakenly implying that the gentlemen of note have made so much merry that God need ease them to sleep: First of all, “God rest you merry, gentlemen” is correct, not “God rest you, merry gentlemen.” The verb “rest” is used here in the way now most familiar from the phrase “rest assured”. God rest ye merry, gentlemen let (Nothing you dismay) Remember Christ our savior was (Born on Christmas Day) To save us all from Satan's power … The comment prompted some to state that Jones had issued a veiled threat against Biden. William Sandys included it in his Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1833. It is a song that depicts the gospel — Christ came, destroy the works of the devil and now we can rest and have comfort and joy — thus we say MERRY CHRISTMAS, right? The venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED) includes not a single definition or example of the word “merry” ever having been used in English to convey the same sense as the word “mighty.” The word “merry” descends from words in other languages meaning “pleasant” and “short” — as stated in the OED, “The development of sense appears to have been ‘short; that shortens or whiles away time; entertaining, pleasant. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. This has led to some puzzlement with the text of the Authorized (or King James) Version of the Scriptures, published in 1611. The rest of the song supports this interpretation. The third verse of ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’ rhymes ‘wind’ – as in breeze – with ‘mind’. “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” one of the favorite Christmas carols in the English-speaking world, may also be one of the least understood. From God our heav’nly Father, God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing you dismay For Jesus Christ our Saviour Was born on Christmas Day To save us all from Satan's pow'r When we were gone astray O tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy. Exact origins of the carol are difficult to trace, as it has appeared in collections from many places in England including broadsides – large pieces of paper printed only on one side enabling a publisher to disseminate information quickly. 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. [4] Rumor has it the infamously named town has officially been bowdlerized. "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" is a traditional English Christmas carol. Merry is not Santa Clause and all things cute about Christmas. Thus, the true meaning of the song is “God make you mighty, gentlemen,” which is a message for back then and a message for today. Which long time had gone astray. We explain why. 1760. Robin Hood’s “Merry Men” might have been happy, but the merry that described them meant great and mighty. A music video for Lennox's version of the classic Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" premiered on 4 November 2010, which was released as the second digital single from the album. Like the McRib, these TikTok videos may only be available for a limited time. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional Christmas carol. 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