Author: StgCoach

[Editor’s note: It’s a pleasure to feature a voice other than mine. Julie Tragon, today’s guest artist, takes over from here.]

Julie says:

I lived the first half of my life in Tampa, FL. Yep, that’s right: I’m what you call a “Florida cracker” born and raised!

Growing up, I used to sing alternative lyrics to the familiar song “White Christmas” – “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I never knew.”

When I consider the music that I love to listen to during these twelve days, I can’t help but admit that I resonate with the lyrics to this Christmas tune: “Mele Kalikimaka” (which is basically the English phrase “Merry Christmas” translated into Hawaiian) more than any other. When Bill asked me to join in this twelve days of Christmas sing-a-long, this song immediately came to mind.

Today is Epiphany, and a great song to continue the announcement theme is the African-American spiritual “Go, Tell It on the Mountain.”

Epiphany is January 6, right? Well, maybe. But in many western countries, Epiphany has been celebrated since 1970 on the Sunday after January 1, and in the Catholic calendar it’s the second Sunday after Christmas. Which means that today–Saturday, January 1–is (in at least one definition) Epiphany Eve.

So in addition to saying Happy New Year, “The First Nowell” seems appropriate today.

We associate this carol with Christmas, but if you go through the whole thing you’ll see that it takes us to Epiphany, hence my scheduling it today. ¹ That becomes especially clear if we sing (as we will) All! Six! Verses!