#CC16: 10 Days to Christmas

Therefore, let our preaching now sing in brightness, let it give praise to the Lord: Greeting to our King. Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary – rejoice!

Many of you reading those words will probably not have recognised them. For many others (such as myself), they form the very basis of the faith and religion which guides their daily lives.

However, the second you start playing today’s Countdown to Christmas video, you will instantly recognise them in their original, latin, form.

Yes: Tuesday we had an English video, yesterday a Catalan video and today we are travelling back in time!

In 2013, Erasure released an electronic version of the centuries-old Christmas carol Gaudete, which has already seen many popular covers.

Although undecipherable to most now that Latin is not widely taught, it contains at its heart the very reason we celebrate Christmas.

Gaudete!