As I've mentioned before, a great advantage of being in a denomination that celebrates the Church Year is that Christmas is not just one day, but 12, and lasts until Epiphany comes, on January 6. So today you get a Christmas carol, and not just any Christmas carol. Coventry Carol was nothing special to me until the we lost our firstborn grandson at the end of November. Intellectually, I celebrated Christmas as usual, but emotionally I simply could not handle all the songs about the joyful birth of a baby boy.
Coventry Carol remembers that the birth of Jesus brought about the Massacre of the Innocents as King Herod sought to destroy the future king he had heard about. It was the perfect carol for that year.
Herod the king, in his raging,
Chargèd he hath this day
His men of might in his own sight
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor child, for thee
And ever mourn and may
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay.”
Which brings me to one of my latest YouTube channel finds, The Salisbury Organist, for a different look into this haunting carol.
