The carol of Ukrainian origin that NATO has chosen for its Christmas greeting

@DefAviation ES 12·14·2022 · 18:11 0

We are ten days away from Christmas Eve and Christmas greetings are already beginning to circulate. Today the Atlantic Alliance released theirs with a video.

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The video has been released in the early afternoon on the official NATO YouTube channel, and in it we see soldiers from Denmark, Latvia, Spain and the United States singing a Christmas carol in a snow-covered Latvian forest. The theme chosen is a Christmas carol that has been very popular in the United States for many years: "Carol of the Bells":

The choice of this Christmas carol is not accidental. As the description of the video recalls, it was composed by Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921), a Ukrainian composer murdered by the Soviet Cheka. Its original title was "Schédryk" (Abundant Night) and the music was composed in 1916. The original Ukrainian lyrics were dedicated to the New Year, although today it is sung in Ukraine on the occasion of Christmas. It was performed by the National Choir of Ukraine at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 5, 1921 under the direction of Alexander Koshetz.

The English lyrics were published in 1936 by Peter J. Wilhousky, an American of Ukrainian origin, becoming a very popular song in North America to this day. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused this beautiful Christmas carol to become a link between Ukraine and the West, which is why NATO has chosen it to congratulate this Christmas. The paradox is that the title of the video congratulates the "holidays" and, after the interpretation of the Christmas carol, there is talk of "Seaason's Greetings", despite the fact that the lyrics in English, as heard in the video, congratulate Christmas repeatedly.

You can read here the lyrics of "Carol of the Bells":

Hark! how the bells,
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say
Throw cares away,
Christmas is here,
Bringing good cheer
To young and old,
Meek and the bold.

Ding, dong, ding, dong,
That is their song,
With joyful ring,
All caroling,
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere,
Filling the air.

Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring,
While people sing
Songs of good cheer.
Christmas is here,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas.