OT Advent Calendar Day 15: Gaudete!
Advent has always been my favorite time of year. Not only does it lead up to the festival of Christmas, but my birthday falls right around half way through. What’s more, I grew up in snowy Central New York—that’s the barren hinterlands of Upstate, for those in the city so nice they named it twice—and if I didn’t get a White Christmas, the Great Lakes were good for a storm around my birthday so there’d at least be a good beginning to the winter.
Advent is far from an untouched subject around these parts, so I’m clearly not alone.
Your OT Advent Calendar this year will be musical. We’ll talk about diamond-in-the-rough traditional tunes just waiting for renewed popularity, crimes against Christmas, the silly songs and the songs that have become modern traditions. We’ll also talk about the notion of true Christmas Carols, those which address the twelve days festival beginning on Christmas itself, including not just the one day-counting song but another.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
This week’s theme is traditional carols of the non-wassail variety.
Today’s tune is “Gaudete.”
In some traditions the third Sunday of Advent is marked out on an Advent wreath with a rose, instead of a violet candle. In other traditions all four candles are red. In the Catholic Church, and a number of other churches of Western Christianity, the third Sunday, with a rose candle and vestments, is Gaudete Sunday, Gaudete being Latin for “rejoice.” This week of Advent is the peak of anticipation, the following week often truncated and more filled with the immediacy of the coming festival.
I’ll post the Latin lyrics below, but the translation begins thus:
Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary
Rejoice!
I do adore this version, despite—or, perhaps, because of—the rustically accented Latin.
The time of grace has come
What we have wished for;
Songs of joy
Let us give back faithfully.
There are other versions, though as a monoglot the proper Latin is lost on me.
God has become man,
With nature marvelling,
The world has been renewed
By the reigning Christ.
The Latin lyric was first published in 1582, so is probably somewhat older and the tune now associated with it is likely older still.
The closed gate of Ezekiel
Is passed through,
Whence the light is risen;
Salvation has been found.
Therefore, let our assembly
Now sing in brightness
Let it bless the Lord:
Salvation to our King.
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine,
gaudete!
Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ
Devote reddamus.
Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.
Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde lux est orta
Salus invenitur.
Ergo nostra contio
Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.
I love Prima Luce’s version.
When the car radio gets tuned into the Christmas station every year, there’s always waaaaay too much stuff from the last 60 or 70 years (I want to say that the oldest song in regular rotation is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and that takes us back to 1942).
I wish that they played more stuff like this.Report