Christmas Carols
Relatively few well-known carols depict the adoration of the shepherds (as opposed to the annunciation to the shepherds). Most of these do so along the lines of urging the listener to come to Bethlehem. For example, the modern Calypso Carol has the lines "Shepherds swiftly from your stupor rise / to see the Saviour of the world," and the chorus "O now carry me to Bethlehem." Angels We Have Heard on High says, "Come to Bethlehem and see / Him Whose birth the angels sing."
Adeste Fideles also has a verse which runs:
See how the shepherds,
Summoned to His cradle,
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither
Bend our joyful footsteps.
The Czech carol Nesem Vám Noviny is a rare example of a carol which is mostly about the adoration of the shepherds. The middle verse of Mari Ruef Hofer's English version runs:
Hasten then, hasten to Bethlehem’s stall,
There to see heaven descend to us all.
With holy feeling, there humbly kneeling,
We will adore Him, bow down before Him,
Worship the King.
Read more about this topic: Adoration Of The Shepherds
Famous quotes containing the words christmas and/or carols:
“A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever!... What at such a time are histories, chronologies, traditions, and all written revelations? The brooks sing carols and glees to the spring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)