Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake, at the sight, glories streaming from Heaven above, heavenly hosts sing allelulia, Christ the Savior is born, Christ the savior is born.
I've been singing this song for well over sixty years now. Taught to me by my mom who made my two other sisters and I sing it in harmony. We never really got very good at it which is a shame because we all three have beautiful voices and do well singing together. But our generation was not one of singing fests and group sings and that is sad. So many people in the last couple generations have missed out on singing together. We do more listening to other famous people sing, because we think we have to be famous or professional to sing. Nothing could be further from the truth. All of God's people were meant to sing. It doesn't matter how good your voice is or if you can carry a tune. The act of singing together is something special.
Each year at our parish's Midnight Mass, our adult choir sings carols. For thirty minutes before Mass they lead and we join in all the traditional carols I remember as a child and Silent Night is my favorite and it makes me cry every time they begin and sing along.
My family has begun a tradition of singing together. We started a couple of years ago when our parish picnic was looking for entertainment and trying to find groups to sing. We didn't want to pay a professional to sing for us, we wanted down home parish people to sing and so the Simmons Family Band was formed. We sing lots of covers for songs we know but we've also begun to write some songs of our own. And I have to admit, we song pretty okay!! I love that music is getting passed down in my family, even our granddaughters join us on stage now. How beautiful it is to share that with them.
I recorded a video and cover of a song by Larkin Poe. They are two sisters who sing beautifully together. The song, Blood Harmony, is about daughters who learned singing from their momma and they hear her voice with them whenever they sing. Just like me, I hear my mom and her sisters and brothers singing at every family reunion we had. Maybe we were all just too inhibited to sing in front of them because they were so good. I wish my cousins and I would have had the courage to form our own group to sing too. But for whatever the reason, music is still part of my family and I hope it continues.
