DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic, in VOA Special English.
This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas show this week:Church music written by a friend of Special English…And a questionabout how and why Americans celebrate Christmas.
Why Americans Celebrate Christmas
DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes fromEthiopia. Hailu Kassa asks how and why Americans celebrateChristmas.
Christmas Day is December twenty-fifth. But Americans whocelebrate the holiday begin preparing long before. They buy giftsfor their families and friends. Many make their homes look special.They put colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of theirhouses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors.
Almost every home where Americanscelebrate Christmas has a Christmas tree. They buy a real evergreentree, or a man-made one. They cover it with lights and small objectsmade of glass, metal, paper or wood.
Tradition says that a kind old man called Santa Claus travels toevery house the night before Christmas. He leaves gifts of toys forthe children. Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paperfor each other under the Christmas tree.
Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas.Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go to church or visitfriends or family members. They may eat a special holiday meal. Orthey may take part in holiday activities for sick or homelesspeople.
Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Theybelieve he was the son of God. Americans of other religionsgenerally do not celebrate Christmas. However, many send holidaycards or gifts to their Christian friends. Some Americans do notobserve Christmas as a religious holiday, but they decorate theirhomes with lights and a tree.
Some people think that the religious meaning of Christmas hasbeen lost. They say people spend too much time buying gifts for theholiday instead of attending church and thinking about the religiousmeaning of Christmas.
These Americans want to put more religion back in Christmas. Thisoften involves holiday observances in public places. Some peopleobject, however. They point out that the Constitution establishes aseparation of religion and government.
A similar problem takes place in American public schools. Itconcerns singing Christmas songs. This year, the New York Timesnewspaper reported about a religious music ban declared by a schooldistrict in the state of New Jersey. Many community groupscriticized the decision. Christians said the schools were trying totake Christmas music away from children.
Other people supported the ban. They said that singing Christmassongs would exclude or offend people of other religions in thecommunity. Still others suggested that the schools include holidaysongs from all the different religions. This way students would belearning about other cultures as well as their own.
One school district in the western state of Washington haspublished rules for holiday time. The schools in the town of LakeWashington say they include the beliefs and music of all groups inthe community. Teachers say they are teaching about all religiousholidays, not celebrating them. Still, many Americans like to listento Christmas music. They may listen to songs about Santa Claus orthe Christmas tree. Many people also attend church during theChristmas holiday and listen to songs sung by a choir.
This year, Willis Kirk released a new album of Christian churchmusic. He is a jazz musician and an educator. He has played withfamous musicians such as Wes Montgomery, Lionel Hampton, DukeEllington, and Charlie Parker. He is also the father of VOA SpecialEnglish writer, Cynthia Kirk. Here is Cynthia to tell us about herfather’s music.
Rejoice, Rejoice!
CYNTHIA KIRK: Willis Kirk’s new recording is called, “Rejoice,Rejoice – A Modern Oratorio.” It is a musical story about the eventsleading to the day that Christians believe was the return to life ofJesus Christ.
Willis Kirk wrote all the songs onthe album. He calls it a collection of spiritual, gospel, jazz, rapand western classical songs. It includes a large choir, astoryteller and an orchestra. My father calls the Oratorio, “acreation of the spiritual soul in music.”
The creation of this work dates from nineteen sixty-eight. Myfather was asked to perform a jazz religious service for auniversity in Indiana. But not everyone at the university liked theresult. They thought the songs were not traditional enough for areligious service. So he stopped work for a while, but finallyfinished. Here is one of my father’s favorite songs on the album,called “My Jesus Lives.”
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Another song on the album is called “Hallelujah.” The storytellerspeaks in rap when the Christian Bible says Jesus was crucified androse from the dead. My father said he wrote “Hallelujah” to showthat rap music is universal and can even be used to tell a story inChristian music.
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This next song is an example of the individual performances onthe album. Everett Greene sings “I’m Going to Wash my Soul.”
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We leave you now with the title song on the album. It is called”Rejoice, Rejoice.”
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DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed ourspecial Christmas AMERICAN MOSAIC program. All of us in SpecialEnglish want to wish you a good holiday and a Happy New Year, too!
Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. PaulThompson was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICANMOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.