By Vickie Rhodehamel
Arcanum News
The rush has started for a season of festive good cheer! The holidays are always so rushed and eventful that comes and goes far too quickly. Be sure to enjoy your family and make some new memories this year. The season is upon us and all the lights and decorations make the town look so festive! Thank you to the Arcanum Garden Club for decorating the flower pots on each corner uptown as well as the lights decorations at Generation Square.
Christmas Caroling at the Arcanum Opera House will begin this weekend on Saturdays in December from 7 to 9 p.m. Organizers invite you to join them as they ring in the Holiday Season with these popular local groups: December 10th – Community of Faith Worship Team; and December 17th – Donovan Brown and The Faithful Sons Quartet. Tickets are limited. Light refreshments will be served. For tickets contact www.eventcreate.com/e/caroling-at-the-operahouse. Tickets are going fast! Don’t miss this new holiday event!
Arcanum Butler Local Schools is now open to the public for indoor walking Monday through Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. Walking is restricted to the first-floor tiled hallways.
Please let me know if your church or organization has special holiday events in the community that you would like highlighted and I will be glad to share them in this column. As I do every year, I look forward to sharing especially any church services on Christmas Eve. Please contact me via email at [email protected] or by phone 937/423-3763.
During this time, I often reflect on some of my favorite Christmas music, specifically carols and find it interesting where they come from, who authored them, when they were written. As a church musician, there are some that are very old and sometimes not the most popular secular carols that we hear on the radio. One in particular that I want to share with you, I found just the other night while practicing and going through my collection of Christmas music. The carol is an Austrian carol entitled, “Still, Still, Still”. In German, it is a carol and a lullaby – the first line is “Still, still, still, weil’s Kindlein schlafen will!” (“Hush, hush, hush, for the little child wants to sleep!”). The melody is a folk tune (authorship unknown) from the State of Salzburg. The tune appeared for the first time in 1865 in a folksong collection of Maria Vinzenz Süß (1802–1868), founder of the Salzburg Museum. The words, which run to six verses in German, describe the peace of the infant Jesus and his mother as the baby is sung to sleep. They have changed slightly over the years but the modern Standard German version remains attributed to Georg Götsch (1895–1956). There are various English translations; here are the words to this beautiful piece of music:
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
For all is hushed,
The world is sleeping,
Holy Star its vigil keeping.
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.
The night is peaceful all around you,
Close your eyes,
Let sleep surround you.
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.
Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.
While guardian angels without number,
Watch you as you sweetly slumber.
Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.
If you get a chance and have never heard this wonderful piece, there are many recordings of it available on the internet/web either performed by vocalists/choirs and or orchestras/instrumentalists; check one of them out to enjoy and remember the joy and peacefulness all around you during this holiday season as we celebrate the Saviour’s birth.
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” ~Norman Vincent Peale
“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.” ~W.T. Ellis
“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.” ~Dale Evans Rogers
