Oddly enough, understanding the original meaning behind God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – one of the most misunderstood carols of Christmas – also helps explain one of the most misused words describing Christmas itself.
What Americans hear when they listen to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is not anything like what the English peasants meant when they first sang this song more than five hundred years ago. Because of how wonderfully it tells the Christmas story, the song earned a prominent spot in Dicken’s classic novel, A Christmas Carol. If people today fully understood its unique lyrics, most would probably designate “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as one of the most profound and meaningful hymns in the world.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: Written Many Years Ago
Like so many early Christmas songs, this carol was written as a direct reaction to the music of the fifteenth-century church. During this period, songs used by organized religion for worship were usually written in Latin and had dark, somber melodies, offering singers and listeners little inspiration or joy.
In fact, though few admitted it in public, most church members secretly disliked the accepted religious songs of the day. Yet the laymen of the time had no power over the way they worshiped and had to accept things as they were.
So, while they continued to go to worship, commoners created their own church music outside the walls of the cathedrals and chapels. In this way, the peasant class led a quiet rebellion against the tone of current religious music by writing religious folk songs that were light, lively, and penned in common language. These Christmas folk songs became the foundation of what are now known as Christmas carols.
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was the most famous and most loved of all the early carols. Written with an upbeat melody and speaking of the birth of Jesus in joyful terms, the song may have shocked early church leaders, but it charmed their flocks. Not only did they sing to this carol, they danced to it.
The lyrics of the song reveal that the unknown writer knew the story of Jesus’ birth well. He included the high points of the gospel throughout the carol’s verses. The writer also fully understood the power of Christ and what his arrival meant to all who embraced it. In the case of the writer, comprehending the full and personal meaning of the birth of the Son of God the full and personal meaning of the birth of the Son of God brought forth enthusiasm and joy simply not found in any other church songs of the period.
Though it might have been rejected by the church leaders, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” better presented the message of the first Christmas and the life of Jesus presented the message of the first Christmas and the life of Jesus than did many of the songs used in formal worship of the day.
The carol was sung for hundreds of years before it was finally published in the nineteenth century. By that time – thanks in part to Queen Victoria’s love of such songs – it found favor in the Anglican church. Soon even the protestant English clergy of the Victorian era were enthusiastically teaching “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” to their parishioners.
Crossing the ocean to both Europe and America, the carol became popular throughout the Christian world. It is still sung in much the same way as it was five hundred years ago. The only problem is that, as a result of the evolution of the English language, few of today’s singers fully understand the beginning of each of the carol’s many verses.
When peopel today say “Merry Christmas!” the word merry means “happy.” When “God REst Ye Merry Gentlemen” was written merry had a very different meaning. Robin Hood’s Merry Men might have been happy, but the merry that described them meant “great” and “mighty.” Thus in the Middle Ages, a strong army was a merrry army, a great singer was a merry singer, and a mighty ruler was a merry ruler.
So when the English carolers of the Victorian era sang the words “merry gentlemen,” they meant great or might men. Ye means “you,” but even when translated to “God rest you mighty gentlemen,” the song still makes very little sense. This is due to one last word that has a much different meaning in today’s world, as well as a lost punctuation mark.
The word rest in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” simply means “keep” or “make” And to completely uncover the final key to solving this mystery of meaning a comma needs to be placed after the word merry. Therefore, in modern English, the first line of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” should read, “God make you mighty, gentlemen.” Using this translation, the old carol suddenly makes perfect sense, as does the most common saying of the holidays, “Merry Christmas!”
You might wonder why, when most don’t fully understand the real meaning of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” the old carol has remained popular. The world’s love for this song is probably due to its upbeat melody paired with the telling of the most upbeat story the world has ever known. Those who sing it naturally get caught up in the celebratory mood of the message, embracing the same emotions that those first to visit the baby Jesus must have felt.
As the angel told the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy.” That joy and the power of faith can be felt and experienced in every note and word of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” You just have to know how to translate the words into the language of the day in order to have a very “Mighty Christmas!”
