Did you like learning a little Latin yesterday? Here comes some more with today’s Carol of Comfort and Joy.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, when it was first found written down in Germany in 1710, came from Latin: “Veni, Veni Emmanuel”. Its tune and meter of the song come from a type of song called an “O Antiphon”, which are sung seven days before Christmas in anticipation. We might not know any of the others, but “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” has certainly stood the test of time! 

The tune we know best in this day and age comes from France almost two centuries before it was found in Germany. But the hymn’s origins – and the “O Antiphons” go back to the 8th century. The most prominent translation was into English in 1851 by John Mason Neale, but it’s also fairly common in German, too. 

This song is an invitation for Christ to come among us – and an invitation for us to enter Advent close to Jesus’ heart as well. So let us invite Christ into our hearts today and listen to Embers Academy sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”: