Here are the Lincoln Chamber Singers performing my arrangement of the Norwegian Christmas carol “Jeg er so glad” – with the first verse in Norwegian. (Thanks to goddaughter, Anneka Barrow, for some much needed tutoring on some of the finer points of the pronunciation.) After the first verse, the words are actually my own.
I am half Norwegian – and I spent most of my childhood in the very Norwegian community of Decorah, Iowa- so this hymn is incredibly familiar to me. In fact, I feel like my dad chose it to be sung on almost every year on Christmas Eve. I even remember that it was #45 in the old Service Book and Hymnal, which has not been “my”/”our” hymnal since 1978. That tells you how often we sang this hymn in my childhood.
Unfortunately, many of the lyrics are perhaps a bit saccharine for modern congregations, with lines like “when mother trims the Christmas Tree,” so it hardly ever gets sung anymore. That’s the main reason why I chose to write new verses for it- and I also tried to craft those words to align with this year’s Christmas Festival theme, “Great Light.”
I wish the recording weren’t quite so distant- but it gives you a pretty good idea of how joyously and beautifully they sang.
- I am so glad each Christmas Eve, the night of Jesus’s birth-
when like the sun, the stars shown forth and angels sang on earth.
2) This is the night when darkness flees before the Bethlehem Star.
It guides us to that holy place where light and beauty are.
3) When angels sang on that Christmas Eve, they sang a wondrous song-
a song of light and love and peace, then bade us join us.
4) Let young and old, let rich and poor lift up your voice and sing
a song to welcome the Holy Child who sweet salvation brings.
5) So light your lamps on this Christmas Eve. Set every candle ablaze
and welcome Jesus, the Lord of Light, with songs of glory and praise!
I am so glad …. I am so glad … I am so glad …. this Christmas Eve.