God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Christmas Carols Explained, #6

Much like your favorite edgy bois on the Internet, the composer of this Christmas banger is anonymous. Its origins trace back to the 1500s in England, and for that reason we need to talk a little bit about the change in meaning for certain words.

In this instance we’re focusing on “rest,” which shares its definition with the word “arrest,” as in to hold or to keep. In the past I have erroniously put the comma after “ye” when it belongs after “merry.” The title is a petition to God to keep you (the royal you, aka the Gentlemen) merry or happy.

Yeah, in the last 490 years, our usage of the word ‘rest’ has tweaked a little, but that’s why we keep track of etymology. As for the subject of the song, it’s actually about the shepherds in the Nativity story; we’ve got plenty of songs about the Holy Family, and a few about the Wise Men/Three Kings, but this one is about the shepherds who also recognized the signs of Christ’s birth.

Ultimately it’s a reminder that the birth of Christ is a sign of joy, forgiveness, comfort, all of the things that we associate with the Gospel if we live it. If you could boil it down to one line, it’d be “Hey guys, chillax, that thing you’ve been waiting for has finally happened and now everything is goooooooood.”

As for my favorite version, well, it’s hard to top Mannheim Steamroller, as I’ve been rocking out to this one for a solid three decades. Hell, this is one of the first songs I played on repeat when I was nine or ten, imagining it as the background music of an epic superhero movie that just happened to take place at Christmas, probably starring me and whatever girl I was crushing on at the time, because that’s just the sappy kid I was. I regret nothing. God has rested me merry these many years. Enjoy.