Tag: Christmas

And in his name all oppression shall cease

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
Holy Night (verse 3)
Take a moment to read Thomas’ thoughts on Christmas.
I’m glad to be able to count people like Thomas as a friend.
Merry Christmas to you all! Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we.

Christmas bonus

I got an unexpected Christmas bonus this year.
I think its the first one I’ve gotten since I graduated from college.
What do you do with your Christmas bonus? Splurge on yourself, buy Christmas gifts, pay bills?
Just add it in to your regualar budget?
Half of mine went towards buying new tires for my truck – but what about you? What do you spend yours on?

Replace those bulbs with LEDs

I remember as a kid my dad showed me how to make a small cardboard Christmas tree with lights that used LEDs. It wasn’t a bright enough light to light up much at all, but now developers are predicting household lighting uses for LEDs will be practical within the next few years. From CNet:

Light-emitting diodes will become economically attractive as replacements for conventional lightbulbs in about two years, a shift that could pave the way for massive electricity conservation, according to a researcher.
Right now, consumers and businesses can buy a light-emitting diode, or LED, that provides about the same level of illumination as an energy-hogging conventional 60-watt lightbulb, Steven DenBaars, a professor of material science at the University of California Santa Barbara, said at the SEMI NanoForum, taking place here this week. A principal advantage of the LED: It lasts about 100,000 hours, far longer than the conventional filament bulb.

Changing conventional light bulbs to LED would save everyone money. Experts predict that within two years the cost of the bulbs will be $20 a piece, but would pay for themselves within a year with reduced energy costs. But on top of reduced costs, consider the reduced energy usuage worldwide:

If 25 percent of the lightbulbs in the U.S. were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the commercial standard now), the U.S. as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025, said DenBaars, and it would alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations.
In turn, carbon emissions in the atmosphere would go down by 258 million metric tons.

I’m picturing a house with solar energy running LED light bulbs. I can see the meter run backwards faster and faster everyday.

This week’s column: An unlikely source

Adolphe Charles Adam was born July 24, 1803. He was born in France, the son of a Jewish music professor at the Conservatoire.

His mother was the daughter of a notable physician.

Adam began to study music but preferred improvising as he went, rather than studying specific pieces or composers.

By the time he was 20 he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses.

By 1830 he had completed 28 works for the theater.

Adam is probably best known for his work in authoring the ballet Giselle. He wrote a number of other ballets and nearly 40 operas before his death.

In 1847 he opened the third opera house in Paris, The Theatre National, after feuding with the owner of The Opera, another opera house in the city.

The Revolution of 1848 closed The Theatre National and left Adam with overwhelming debt.

He briefly turned to journalism but settled on teaching composition at the Paris Conservatoire from 1849 till his death in 1856.

Placide Cappeaua was born in Roquemaure, France, north of Avignon in 1808.

Cappeaua was a wine seller and an occasional writer.

Although Cappeaua was not a regular at church, yet a parish priest knew of his writing abilities and asked him to pen a poem about Christmas in 1847.

On his way to Paris, Cappeaua, inspired by the Gospel of Luke, wrote “Minuit, Chretiens.”

Once in Paris, Cappeaua met Adam and asked him to pen music for the Christmas poem.

Three days later, Adam wrote the tune and “Cantique de Noël” was premiered at midnight mass on Christmas Eve, 1847 in Roquremaure.

Not long after its debut, the song began to receive attacks from church leaders in France.

Cappeaua later left the church to join the socialist movement and adopted the more “extreme” political and social ideas of his day – such as opposition to slavery, inequality, injustice and other kinds of oppression.

It was also discovered that Adam was in fact Jewish and his reputation of composing ballets and operas was deemed incompatible with the composition of Christian songs.

The song was attacked not for the nature or subject of the song, but because of who wrote the song.

One French bishop denounced the song for its “lack of musical taste and total absence of the spirit of religion.”

But despite being shunned from the church, the song lived on in the homes and hearts of the French.

And in 1855, American Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight published an English translation to the song, “O Holy Night.”

Dwights’ strong anti-slavery views shown through in his translation with the lyrics: “Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

And so today, we sing — a Christmas song, shunned by the church, written by a French Socialist and a Jewish composer, translated by a Unitarian minister and written about a holy night when God became man to save us all from the oppression of sin.

—

Not only was “O Holy Night” composed by a Jewish composer, but a number of other Christmas songs were written or composed by Jews.

“White Christmas” was written by Irving Berlin.
“You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was written by Albert Hague.
“We Need a Little Christmas” was written by Jerry Herman.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas” were written by Johhny Marks.
“The Christmas Walz” and “Let it Snow, Let is Snow, Let it Snow” was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne.
“Silver Bells” was written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston.
“I’m Getting’ Nuttin’ for Christmas” was written by Barry Gordo