Happy Friday, dear friends. I hope that you are calmly and restfully moving through your holiday preparations list, be it one you have on paper, on your phone, or in your head.

Behind today’s calendar door, we have a trip back to Judith’s blog, Reader in the Wilderness, where she has some more seasonal reading suggestions.

See you tomorrow!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I was along the river as the sun set last Friday, allowing me to see a spectacular view over Rosslyn. My shots here give you an idea of the colors, but Flickr mutes reds terribly, so just know it was even more breathtaking in person.

2. I passed the Mexican Embassy while out walking today and noticed for the first time a sign informing me it was housed in part of what had once been known as “The Seven Buildings,” which had served as home, over time, to the Declaration of Independence, the Department of State, and President and First Lady Madison, as they waited for the White House to be rebuilt after the War of 1812. The sign has been there for the past 8 years, but today was the first time I saw it, which I love, because it means there’s always something new to be seen, even if it isn’t new.

3. While stopping by the library earlier this week, I saw a person on a bicycle laden down with packages and helium balloons, clearly en route to a celebration. There were at least a dozen balloons and maybe closer to two, and the cyclist was having a hard time maneuvering while keeping the balloons from floating back into her view. After futzing with them at the red light, though, she finally got all the strings tucked under her arms and was able to carry on her way. (This now tops my previous most interesting cycling sight of the month, which was when I saw a young woman using her bike as a dolly to carry a seven foot Christmas tree from the farmers market to home on her own.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

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Greetings, Virtual Advent Tourists! I hope today, the 12th day of the 12th month, finds you well.

I’m pleased to announce that today’s host is a special guest. You may recall that earlier in the month, I mentioned that my dad is a big fan of Christmas music. He is also a reader of this blog (as is my mom), commenting occasionally as DOD. He has been following this year’s Virtual Advent Tour and has written a pair of essays relating to Christmas music for our enjoyment. (This is not DOD’s first contribution to the Virtual Advent Tour; he also penned a piece in 2016.) Today, I’m pleased to publish the first one on his behalf.

Take it away, DOD!

If you search for the earliest of Christmas carols, you may be disappointed by what you find. The farther back you go, the less likely you will be able to sing along. Also, the actual author of a carol may be hard to pinpoint. The farther back, the harder it gets; no Wikipedia back then. While the majority of the most popular Christmas hymns will date back to the centuries 16 to 20, a few date back to times when monks seem to have held performance rights.

So you may always know the difference, hymns are religious songs and usually somber, carols are dance music people sing along to. There seems to be some agreement that the earliest carol was “Jesus Refulsit Omnium” (“Jesus, Light of All the Nations”) written by St. Hilary of Poitier back in the 4th Century. Hilary was big into the Psalms, and while definitive authorship of any specific is murky, he is given the nod as the first Latin Christian Hymn writer. Surprise, surprise, you can hear or purchase “Jesus Refulsit Omnium” on some Bach works via iTunes or Amazon. I wouldn’t look for it on a Michael Bublé or Katy Perry album. But I digress.

I’d like to call your attention to three if not oldest, then certainly among the elders of popular carols, all of which I (and probably you) have in a record (read tape, cd or digital download) collection. The first is recommended to us by Peter Tork of the Monkees. The song is “Riu Riu Chi” which the group sang on their tv show and later issued on disk. The song is a 15th century Spanish villancico, a medieval dance form. The carol was first published in 1556 in Venice. The song is a narrative sung by a kingfisher (hence the title) and describes how God protected the Virgin Mary from an evil villain (here characterized as a wolf.) Including angels and shepherds in a Christmas celebration is quite popular. The fifth verse is translated:

I saw a thousand Angels who were singing, flying around, chanting in a thousand voices, saying to the shepherds Glory in Heaven and peace on earth for Jesus is born.

Way to go kingfisher. Peter Tork has been quoted as saying it was his favorite Monkees song because it was the only one they performed a capella. It, too, is available on iTunes and Amazon Music, and is a bonus on this year’s Monkees’ Christmas Party album on some cds sold at Target (commercial not intended). Nice song and well performed by Peter and the boys.

The second is a rather upbeat carol, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” a very popular carol of the 16th century. At a time when hymns were straitlaced and religious, this one was relatively fast and easy to dance to. I’d give it an 8 on Rate this Record. Why people are sometimes confused by this song is the change in definition of some of the language, especially the title. The first bit of clarification is the word merry. While we all think of it as meaning people in good spirits, it originally meant mighty rather than happy. To further clarify the intent of the author, you should know that the word rest originally meant make. So the call to Christians was God make you Mighty. Save us all from Satan’s power (and get out there and dance).

Finally, the third carol I call to your attention is one we all know and again refers to angels and shepherds, “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Ace Collins is the author of a number of books on the genesis of songs, especially hymns and songs sung for Christmas and Easter. He points out in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, that while the carol was first published in 1855, parts of it can be found in religious services a hundred and fifty years earlier. Further, the line from the chorus: “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” translates to Glory to God in the highest and dates back to church worship in 130 A.D. Collins asks, “If the words in the chorus go back so far, might the author be someone who knew Jesus personally?” Was it someone whose strong belief in the unique birth of Christ and the heralding of shepherds by angels was easily put into a poem/song easy to write and easy to sing. We don’t have to accept this message, but it is certainly an interesting one.

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss the songs that many of us grew up singing. I hope that all of this season’s carols bring you joy. And a mighty Merry Christmas.

And thanks to you, DOD, for such a great background piece on some of the oldest carols still in rotation. I feel so much more informed after reading this piece!

See you all back here tomorrow for another mysterious door to open.

Two weeks until Christmas, folks! I hope everyone’s holiday prep is going well. I got a good chunk of my shopping taken care of over the weekend, but I need to get moving on sending out cards, particularly those heading to relatives overseas. I bought a pound of butter yesterday, so there’s some baking in my near future, too.

Behind today’s Virtual Advent door is a post from Kat at As Kat Knits. She’s written a post sharing some of the music memories of her childhood.

See you back here tomorrow.

I spent my weekend immersed in books, either buying them or reading them, and wanted to continue that into the week. So today, for Day 10 of the Virtual Advent Tour, I thought I’d offer you a few videos of folks reading holiday stories. Settle in with a warm cup of cocoa, a Christmas cookie, and your crafting project for a seasonal story hour:

First up, because Hanukkah doesn’t officially end until sundown, let’s start with a celebration of the Festival of Lights. Actress Molly Ephraim reads Hanukkah in Alaska, by Barbara Brown and illustrated by Stacey Schuett:

Next, do you know the story of “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,” the editorial from The Sun? Well, this is Virginia O. Hanlon, the author of the original letter to the editor, reading to a group of children in Albany, N.Y., in 1959 the paper’s response to her:

This is a long one, but well worth a listen. Actor Liam Neeson reads Chris Van Allsburg’s Polar Express:

Investigative journalist Keith Morrison of Dateline gives a dramatic reading of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas:

Finally, to end up on a high note, then-First Lady Michelle Obama reading “‘Twas the Night before Christmas” by Clement Moore at the Children’s National Medical Center back in 2012:

May you have a wonderful day. See you back here tomorrow!