Bells

My grandma sent us this book entitled "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", it's new out this year. I imagine you can find it at Deseret Book if you have one nearby. I liked this book.

It tells the back story of how the song came to be. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famous poet in the mid 1800's. He had five children with his beloved wife Fanny. Sadly, one day she was injured severely in a kitchen fire, and died the next day. Henry was so badly injured from trying to save her that he was unable to attend her funeral. This loss was devastating to the family. Not long after, his son joined the Union army and was badly injured while fighting in the Civil War. These events inspired the poem (published in 1866) that was later put to music (by someone else) around 1871. There are two verses of the poem omitted from the song, they directly mention the Civil War.

Included with the book is a dvd with an excerpt from a performance by the Tabernacle choir, it features actor Edward K. Herrmann doing a telling of this story with the choir singing the song. It's absolutely beautiful. I had a hard time not crying while watching it, it was very touching. Longfellow believed in the Savior and his Atonement.

The little white church in Sparty rings it's bells on the hour, they chime Christmas music. In honor of this carol and story, I want to drive down to Sparty (5 min from our house) and hear the bells on Christmas day.