Happy, joyous, shhh

We’ve got a two-fer today; first in my decade of Advent posts. Because, in addition to being Christmas Day, at sundown Hanukkah starts. So just as the frenzy is winding down in Christian homes around the world, Jewish families are gearing up for kids literally spinning like dreidels.

As I consider the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem stable, it occurs to me that most of the excitement happened in the night: baby born, shepherds led to the manger by angels, possibly the Eastern kings bringing gifts for the baby. Christmas morning might well have been a recovery period. Quiet. Reflective, even.

There might have been some people peeking in—having heard about all the nighttime visitors, they’d want to have a look at the cause. No doubt they went away, disappointed, because just a man, woman and baby, so what’s up with that? “There’s nowt so queer as folk, eh?”

Anyway, here’s a lullaby, which started in Czechoslovakia; it’s from the perspective of the animals in the stable. They open with, “Little Jesus, sweetly sleep, do not stir, we will lend a coat of fur,” and they promise to rock him gently.

Technically, the animals in the stable—the oxen, the ass, the sheep brought in by the shepherds—they don’t have fur, really. But if there were stable cats—I can see them offering to snuggle up to the baby and purr him to sleep. Even a sheepdog—entirely possible that, with the sheep all corralled, the dog would be off duty and overjoyed to curl up with the infant. I love the image this conjures up in my mind.

Here's Chanticleer singing it.

And then…Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah, celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple at the time of the Maccabean revolt against the Persians. Hanukkah lasts for eight nights, which is the number of days the lamp oil stayed alight in the temple, when there was only enough for a single day. 

“Happy Joyous Hanukah” was written by Woody Guthrie, and why not? This is a holiday that lends itself to counting, and this song does a whole lot of it. Also, particularly in this year, we need all the light and all the happiness and all the joy we can get.

Here are the Klezmatics performing it. I happen to like folk music and klezmer, and this is a blend of both. (Well, heavier on the folk, but whatevs.)

©2024 Bas Bleu