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School changes beloved Christmas carol to 'Cold in the Night' with all new lyrics...

Link: http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47784

WND HOLIDAY BLUES
'Silent Night' secularized
School changes beloved Christmas carol to 'Cold in the Night' with all new lyrics
Posted: December 7, 2005
2:47 p.m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

For a performance in its "winter program," a Wisconsin elementary school has changed the beloved Christmas carol "Silent Night," calling the song "Cold in the Night" and secularizing the lyrics.

According to Liberty Counsel, a religious-liberty law firm representing a student's parent, kids who attend Ridgeway Elementary School in Dodgeville, Wis., will sing the following lyrics to the tune of "Silent Night":

Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.

Also found here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/Beliefs/story?id=1387602

Dec. 9, 2005 â€â€

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way...[/Singing Voice which Resembles Microsoft Sam]

And I agree 'tis dreadful behaviour to change the lyrics of a song to that extent...

Of course... the "holiday trees" is also stupid, very freaking stupid. Basically, a Christmas Tree is a Christmas Tree is a Christmas Tree, it is only ever used to celebrate Christmas (and provide oxygen if it's natural), and therefore it is a Christmas Tree.

Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg; the Batmobile lost a wheel and the Joker took ballet, oh! Jingle bells ...

Wow, heh funny thing no one at stores or anything like that ever wishes me "merry Christmas" any more which i dont rase a big deal over it even though I would be happy if they did. However, i was out with my girlfriend the other day and a store clerk told her "merry Christmass" and we bouth had to laugh bout it because she actually is jewish, but she didn't mind the minor error.

on topic however Have to say this changing lyrics, holiday tree secualizaton bit is getting a little out of hand.

Tolerance is not removing anything you don't like, it's learning to live with (even if you dislike) other people.

Christmas began as a secular holiday prior to it becoming known as Christmas. When the Roman Empire began it's expansion into Europe, "Pagan" villages celebrated the Winter Solstice with various festivals, calling the time of year Yule.

In order to more easily convert the local pagans to the "proper path of the Lord God", Christianity subsumed many of these local religions, converting thier Gods into Angels and Demons, and various other entities found throughout Catholic Dogma today, and thier feast days also became part of the Catholic calender. While most of these days have eventually faded (the celebration of May Day, and the Summer Solstice being prime examples) and some of those days became completely secular (All Hallows Eve/Halloween, in example), one remained ingrained in the new religion, the Yule Celebrations, becoming known as Christmas, the celebration of Jesus Christ, Son of God, product of the Immaculate Conception (which means he was conceived without Original Sin, by Catholic dogma, Mary is the only one who can lay claim to this, and Jesus her only offspring to be born without original sin).

Now, I stated all that as preface to this:

Dakarne wrote:Of course... the "holiday trees" is also stupid, very freaking stupid. Basically, a Christmas Tree is a Christmas Tree is a Christmas Tree, it is only ever used to celebrate Christmas (and provide oxygen if it's natural), and therefore it is a Christmas Tree.

Correction, the Christmas Tree, while perhaps having it's meaning changed through time, was originally known as the Yule Tree, in accordance with it being used in Yule celebration.

So it wasn't only ever used as a Christmas Tree, it was part of the earlier Pagan celebrations.


Secularization of Christmas:
No one is telling Christians to not celebrate Christmas, but to actually realieze thier not the only ones with holidays out there. Those of Jewish persuassion still celebrate Chanuka(correct spelling if I'm wrong), some of African descent now celebrate Kawanza (as far as I can tell some do, I personally, have not been introduced to any who admit to celebrating the holiday) and those of Pagan beleifs have readopted the celebration of Yule. Plus you also have the celebration of the Julian Calender's New Year (January 1st) just seven days away. That's minimum of four (4) holidays within a relatively short span of time.

The phrase "Happy Holidays" then, is all inclusive and the correct term to use, no one should be offended by this, it's not a attack on your beleif structure.

What do I say? I say Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy Holidays, whichever springs to my mind first.

Secularization of "Silent Night"
They changed the lyrics to a song, simply reusing it's melody. I do not see a problem with this. It's been done enough times with popular, secular music, even in recent years.

The fact that this has also apparently gone on for several decades, and no one has ever felt threatened or has taken into offense, leads me to beleive this is one of the few who beleive there is a War going on to eliminate thier faith, when it can be further from the truth, especially in a public school. The fact we have (idealy) a seperation of Church and State, is so this sort of thing should not happen.

If you beleive your religion should be preached and spoken, then you should allow the freedom of others.

It is somewhat hilarious, that I've only witnessed U.S. Catholic's decrying this "secularization of the holiday" in the news, of politicians (oddly enough, conservative Republicans (show me a true Conservative in the Republican Party today and I'll be surprised as hell) speaking out against this. Anyone else find this somewhat funny?


-----
Eh, perhaps not. Man that got long winded.....

*ponders a while and re reads various posts*

ok. Now. First off. No where in the world does it say there's anything wrong with using an old song. I mean...some of the songs we know best, are sung to tunes to old "bawdy" songs, or compositions done without lyrics.

My Uncle, re-writes secular songs to use them in church services, doe sthat make it wrong? NO. why? Well for one thing the whole idea of using a tune that many people can recognize is that it makes it easrier to learn. Whereas a song that someone newly write, take a while for other people to learn unless it is very basic, or very very catchy. You don't see very many people still listening or singing very many of the songs out of hymnals when they go caroling. You see them singing (most of the time) secular songs that everyone remembers and can sing along to. WHy is this? Becaus ethey're fun. They're familiar, and they're simple and repeated so many times throughout our lives(generally speaking, par example i've lost count of how many times i have listened to the song "white christmas" in various forms) so that we know them and have fun goofing around.

This Lady changing the words to Silent Night, she did what she felt was right. Of course, i see it as a wee bit bizarre that a witch would take this upon herself. Most the times they're rather accepting of others, as others should be of them.

Church and State are not education. Churchs are an institution. the State is also an institution. People learn by being institutionalized. They learn how to behave, they learn the law, they learn social graces and, god knows what else they learn. What they sing in either place, doesn't really matter. There are outside sources which might bring them in contact with "ZOMG you can't listen to-sing that you're a _________!!!!"

But what is this really about? Is it petty jealousy? not really. I can understand why someone would want their beliefs included. I for one remember celebrating "christmas time" holidays from around the world when i was in school. we celebrated all through December and through most of January.

Hell! even here at college we celebrated so many holidays this past wendsday i lost count. we even celebrated "Festivus" in which one pays homage to an aluminum pole (don't ask me i have no idea what it's about). We had holidays from india, and Africa, plus the holidays that we "see" around usually. I was amazed with the variety and i loved the vibrant colors and ways of life that they represent. A holiday isn't about what you sing. It's not about the way you dress, it's not what you say, or where you go, it's not what you do, it's how you feel.

Church or State... they don't dictate how you feel (sure they try, but guess what... you're not a puppet) does it really matter if they don't approve of each other? NO because they are two seperate entities.

*acks* ok i think am done... i could keep going but i think you're tired of me now.

Lord Stormbringer wrote:Tolerance is not removing anything you don't like, it's learning to live with (even if you dislike) other people.

Agreed

Bah. To me, this particlar secularizing of Silent Night smacks of PC garbage.

I like holiday music as it is, religious references and all. Some songs more than others. Some parodies/rewrites, of course, are great because they are funny (I wish I had a recording of Mark Hamil singing the Batman permutation of Jingle Bells), but this? Just rubs me the wrong way, and it gives Bill O'Reilly more ammo in his lunatic ravings.

All that said, my favorite holiday song is Silver Bells, with my favorite rendition done by the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Correction, the Christmas Tree, while perhaps having it's meaning changed through time, was originally known as the Yule Tree, in accordance with it being used in Yule celebration.

So it wasn't only ever used as a Christmas Tree, it was part of the earlier Pagan celebrations.

Ah, my mistake then...

One complaint I have towards the changing of the lyrics though, is that they have added about one or two extra syllables per line... which itself is extremely stupid because it can no longer fit in with the whole melody, and thus, is no longer the same song by any stretch of the imagination.

Dark Silver wrote:Christmas began as a secular holiday prior to it becoming known as Christmas. When the Roman Empire began it's expansion into Europe, "Pagan" villages celebrated the Winter Solstice with various festivals, calling the time of year Yule.

In order to more easily convert the local pagans to the "proper path of the Lord God", Christianity subsumed many of these local religions, converting thier Gods into Angels and Demons, and various other entities found throughout Catholic Dogma today, and thier feast days also became part of the Catholic calender. While most of these days have eventually faded (the celebration of May Day, and the Summer Solstice being prime examples) and some of those days became completely secular (All Hallows Eve/Halloween, in example), one remained ingrained in the new religion, the Yule Celebrations, becoming known as Christmas, the celebration of Jesus Christ, Son of God, product of the Immaculate Conception (which means he was conceived without Original Sin, by Catholic dogma, Mary is the only one who can lay claim to this, and Jesus her only offspring to be born without original sin).

Another not very well known or accepted study has gone to state that "The Messiah" Jesus Christ may have been born in the early spring months. But to

convert the local pagans to the "proper path of the Lord God"

they moved his birthday a few months before hand. The hoiliday celebrated by Pagans was to celebrate the "Birth of the New Sun" Meaning the Celestial Entity. So now the Christain Faith Celebrates the "Birth of the Son." Jesus Christ. Notice the play on words? Clever.

Also on this topic "Easter" (or many elements of it) are highly Pagan. Sure Christians my celebrate "The Resrection" of Jesus, but the name Easter comes from the goddess Estar the goddess of fertility. The hiding of the eggs comes from this pagan celebration as well. The parents would hide eggs for the children while the perfomed the ceremony and then proceded to "fronicate". This is just another example of how the Christain Faith has intergrated itself.

What I was trying to prove is that this whole nonsense of being Politically Correct is getting completely out of control.

And the Catholic League launched a boycott against Wal-Mart for replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays," and yesterday resolved a dispute it had with the Lands' End clothing catalog for using the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas." Similarly, the group Concerned Women for America has issued a "naughty or nice" list of retailers "showing which businesses are honoring the reason for the season (the birth of Jesus), which ones are not and which have mixed records."

Wait, wait...so, the religious right is getting mad a giant corporatons for not including the birth of their Lord in advertising? The Catholic League wants Wal-Mart to use their religions most important and sacred holiday to sell more crap to people? This upholds the sanctity of Christmas? I'd imagine it to be the other way around: "Stop using Jesus to peddle your crap!", but what do I know?

Also, about the 'extra syllables' the new lyrics add, it still works out to the same melody, since the original lyrics add syllables to shorter words. 'Silent' is sung with 3, as is 'holy,' 'virgin' etc.

All that said, Christmas music makes me want to take a drill to my temple, and on an unrelated note, I'm half Jewish

When it comes right down to it, people need to be a lot less uptight about Christmas. Songs, advertising, or whatever. It happens to be a semi-holy, mostly-fun holiday for several billion Christians. I don't at all understand or approve of the absurd lengths that some groups have felt are necessary to excise that fact from the public conciousness.

And I'm an atheist for pete's sake!

There people (or in most cases special interest butt-puppet race-/religion baiters) are missing entirely the point of tolerance. Rather than living with differences with civility, they've taken it on themselves to reduce everything to bland indifference. I think that they, and those that egg them on, do nothing for any worthwhile cause and just wind up poisoning the well.

WTF!? Idiocy like this horseshit only gives dipshits like Bill o'LIElly ammunition for their culture wars. Is that school on crack!?

Another note on the 'war on Christmas'. Saying Happy Hollidays is, in fact proper since IIRC, it's a slurred imitation of Holly-Day.