Episode 0179

Hello everyone and welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.

That's right. And today we're going to be taking a look at a very famous song, very relaxed, but very beautiful song, uh called Silent Night.

Yeah, this is one of those songs that you hear everywhere. But unlike Jingle Bells, which is like, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. Right. Not, you know, very cheery and uplifting and shopping music. This is more, as Marco said, calm, peaceful, almost church music.

Right.

So We're going to find out what the words mean in this very classic song.

Right, it's classic and very religious because it has a connotation towards uh the Catholic religion.

So why don't we listen to the song and then we'll be back to explain it?

Silent Night

Holy Night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

All right, we're back. So now let's take a look at this song line by line. So we're not going to do the standard format of picking out words, we're going to do it line by line to kind of get a good feel for this dialogue.

So first of all, some background. Okay, so the 24th, the evening. Mary and Joseph are looking for a place to stay. Mary, the virgin mother of God, is going to give birth to a baby.

Right.

And they need a place to stay. So finally they find a place. It's not a hotel, it's not a house. It's...

It's like an inn.

Yeah, well, it's actually the stables for the inn, right?

Oh, the stables for the inn, yeah.

And so what the song is celebrating is what happens afterwards, after the baby Jesus is born. So that's where we are.

All right. So the first line says Silent Night, Holy Night.

As you know, it's holy, that means it's religiously special. It's important.

Okay. All is calm, all is bright.

So we talk about bright light sometimes. Something is bright if it it gives a lot of light off.

Mhm. And well, the next line is very interesting because it says, round yon Virgin Mother and Child. Now, you see this first two words there, round yon. What is round yon?

So, round comes from around.

Okay.

Yon means over there. So, around over there, so over there we've got two people. Okay. Over there we've got the virgin mother and her child.

Okay, so the Virgin Mother is Mary, right?

That's right.

And the child would be Jesus. Exactly.

And this is Holy Infant so tender and mild. Okay, so what is an infant?

An infant is a baby. Some some some baby that's just been born. So we can say that infants are very, very delicate. You have to be very careful when you hold an infant.

Right.

Um, but in this case, a holy infant is Jesus. He's special for religious reasons.

Okay. And when they say that he's tender and mild, what does he mean by that?

Well, you talk about tender things when you're talking about things that are soft, okay, delicate, gentle or sweet.

Mhm. Okay.

And something that is mild, or someone that is mild, is very quiet and calm and gentle. So not making much noise.

So the baby was is very sweet, very tender and wasn't crying or making a big, you know, fuss. Exactly.

And then we have sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Well, the baby's quiet because the baby is sleeping.

So you're saying sleep in heavenly peace, that means, you know, may the peace of heaven, because heaven is a very peaceful place, the most peaceful place. May that peace be with you when you're sleeping. Okay, very good.

Right, and moving on, we have Silent Night, Holy Night again. But then they say shepherds quake at the sight.

So what is this? Shepherds, we know that these are people that take care of sheep.

That's right. They make the sheep move from one place to another.

And but it says they quake at the sight. So they quake at the sight of what?

Well, quake, we often say quiver in one's boots, or to quake means to shake when you're nervous, okay? So you know when you're going to make a speech in front of many, many, many people, your hands start to shake, that's called quaking.

Okay. So to quake.

All right. So shepherds quake, they're nervous at the sight. Well, the sight is the noun for seeing something.

The sight of Jesus.

Of the baby. Okay.

Uh Glory stream from heaven afar.

So glories stream from heaven afar.

Okay, the verb here, the action word is to stream. Okay. That means to come down. Okay. So to come down in kind of big amounts. So we have glory, glory, so um happiness and joy and glory and good things coming down from the heavens. So lots of um positive, good things coming down from heaven.

And where is heaven?

Afar.

Afar. So the key part of this is the word far. It's far away, right? Yeah. Afar is an old word we use to describe something that's far away. So the heavens afar are the the heavens that are far away are giving us all of this joy and happiness.

Okay. Glory.

And then the song says heavenly hosts sing Alleluia.

So heavenly hosts, those are bodies or people or spirits in the sky.

Angels.

So Alleluia is a word that we often use in the Christian religion that comes from Greek actually.

Oh, really?

And then they say, Christ, the Savior is born. Now we have this the Savior. What is, who, who is a savior or what is a savior?

It's a very good question. A savior is a word we only really, well, we don't hear that often, but you've heard the word to save before.

So for example, I fell into the water and Marco jumped in and saved me.

So I would be a savior?

Marco is my savior. He saved me. Um but in this case, savior refers to the Bible and the things that Jesus did later. So we say in Christianity, he saved people, the humankind. So um he is the savior.

All right.

Christ the Savior.

All right. And then our next verse, it says, uh Silent Night, Holy Night, Son of God loves pure light, radiant beams from thy holy face. So we have radiant beams. And then we have this word thy.

So these beams, it's like a beam of light, right?

It's like a line of light, but you know how how light is clear. So a beam of light is something that that comes down in a straight line.

You can see it.

You can see it. So for example, when I turn on a flashlight and there's a line of light, that's a beam.

Okay. And radiant mean it's very it means it's very bright, it's very clear.

Clear and it's strong and it's coming out from that one place. Mhm. Okay.

And what about this word thy? It's very popular uh like form old English, right? It's an old English form of saying

You.

You.

Right. So in the olden days in English, we had different ways of saying the word you. Okay. And so thy is one of those words and you hear this very often. And so in this sentence, we're saying radiant beams from thy holy face. We're now starting to talk to Jesus.

Because we're referring to him. You. Radiant beams, light is coming out of your face, your holy face.

Because you're such a holy.

Now, I think you can probably see this thy and thou uh in uh Shakespeare, for example, right?

Exactly. Shakespeare, the Bible, prayers, um and all sorts of old books and poetry.

Okay. And then we say with the dawn of redeeming grace. So what is to redeem?

To redeem is to find value in something that didn't have value before.

Okay.

Okay. So maybe I have a ticket for some, okay, I won a small lottery ticket, five dollars. I go to the store to redeem my money. The paper is worthless.

Right.

But it's worth something when I redeem it. Okay. So Christ the redeemer when he saves people, he redeems them. Okay. He gives them value again.

Very good. So it's a very profound uh song, right?

And it talks about, as we say, about Jesus, about um angels, and it's very, very religious.

Mhm. So it's a great song and it's, well, it's a very popular song and, well, even if you don't uh share the religious connotation that the song has, it still is very popular uh in North America, in many parts of the world. So, why don't we have a listen to this song one last time?

Silent Night

Holy Night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

So when I was a little girl at school, we had to sing this in German. So I know that there are some other countries that have the same song with different words.

Oh, really? Yeah. So it's the same rhythm and everything but just in German.

Exactly. And is it the it's pretty much the same idea, the same words? Yeah, almost exactly the same, just in in a translated form. I'm sure maybe it came from German, I don't know.

No, I don't know. Cuz it seems to be pretty old, right? And uh but but it is a very common song during Christmas and uh even many times Christmas carolers will go around in a neighborhood and and sing these songs in in different places, right?

Yeah, the the music is nice in the song. All right. So an interesting song and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of questions and comments about it. So we expect to see you guys on our website englishpod.com and we'll see you guys there.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Baby.

Infant.

Shake or tremble when see something.

Quake at the site.

From or to a great distance.

Afar.

A person who rescues people from harm or danger.

Savior.

An old-fashioned, poetic, or religious word for your.

Thy.

Let's try that faster.

From or to a great distance.

Afar.

An old-fashioned, poetic, or religious word for your.

Thy.

Baby.

Infant.

A person who rescues people from harm or danger.

Savior.

Shake or tremble when see something.

Quake at the site.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Infant.

The infants woke up when the dog started barking.

Infant.

I was only an infant when my parents died.

Infant.

She held the infant as if he was her own.

Quake at the site.

The farmers quaked at the site of the wolves.

Quake at the site.

The villagers quaked at the site of the advancing army.

Quake at the site.

The dogs quaked at the smell of the bear.

Afar.

The wise men traveled from afar to find the baby Jesus.

Afar.

I could see the boat coming in from afar.

Afar.

From afar, it seemed like it was only a hill, but up close, it was a huge mountain.

Savior.

Jesus Christ claimed to be the savior of the world.

Savior.

The Hebrew scriptures made prophecies about the coming savior.

Savior.

You saved me from drowning. You're my savior.

Thy.

Thy face is as beautiful as the star-lit sky.

Thy.

Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Thy.

May thy harvest always be plentiful.