by Eutychus
It seemed to me like a good idea as to offer a short cross-cultural holiday closing intermingling both American Indian and Christian mythos for a proper benediction to the holiday season.
Happy Holidays, everyone. See you all next year ...
And there were in the same country, shepherds, watching over their flocks by night ...
A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people
of the world were living in darkness. A ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish
old chief. So the raven turned himself into a spruce needle and floated on the
river where the chief's daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy who was the raven in disguise. The
baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with.
As soon as he had the light, the raven turned back into himself. The raven carried
the light into the sky.
From then on, we no longer lived in darkness.
Gaudete, gaudete
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete
Mist takes the morning path to wreath the flowers
Rejoice, rejoice,
Small birds sing as the easy rising monk takes to his sandals
Christ is born of the Virgin Mary.
Cloistered, the Benedictine dawn threads timelessly the needles eye
Rejoice.
Gaudete, gaudete
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete
I think over again my small adventures
My fears
Those small ones that seemed so big
For all the vital things
I had to get and to reach.
And yet there is only one great thing
The only thing
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world.
Sources :
1 : Luke 2 : 8
2 : Inuit myth of the orgin of light as told in the episode of the television
show Northern Exposure "Seoul Mates"
3 : From liner notes to the album "Below the Salt"
by Steeleye Span
4 : Inuit song as featured at the end of the movie "Never
Cry Wolf."