NY School District Modifies The Lyrics to "Silent Night" for Kids Choir


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"A Long Island, N.Y., school district has apologized after it came under fire following a fifth grade choir?s removal of some key lyrics from the traditional Christmas song ?Silent Night.?

Many of the religious lines that point to the very heart of the Christmas season were simply axed from the students? Dec. 12 performance at Ralph J. Osgood Intermediate School.

?Christ the Savior is born,? ?Holy infant so, tender and mild,? ?round yon virgin, mother and child? and ?Jesus, Lord at thy birth? were strategically removed from the student rendition; the lyrics were simply deleted and nothing replaced them.

The Kings Park Central School District has since apologized to members of the community who were outraged over the changes, WNBC-TV reported.

?The Board of Education sincerely apologizes to our community members who were offended by the change of lyrics to the song Silent Night and we share in your sentiment,? read a statementpublished on the district?s website. ?This action was not approved by the Board of Education or district administration, nor is it their role to approve the songs chosen for our concerts.?

While officials said no disrespect was meant on the part of school staffers, they pledged to never allow such omissions to happen again, offering their ?sincerest apologies.?

Watch the performance below and hear the omissions for yourself:

Keven McDonald, a parent whose son was in the orchestra during the sanitized version of ?Silent Night,? spoke out against the changes at a recent school board meeting, Newsday reported.

?Silent Night? at its core is a religious song. It?s a sacred Christian hymn that tells the story about the birth of Jesus,? he said. ?What was performed was inappropriate and disrespectful to the Christian faith.?

In the end, it seems even the school district agreed with his sentiment."

 

 

 

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/20/which-key-christmas-lyrics-were-cut-from-student-choirs-rendition-of-silent-night/

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If you want to sing a song, don't butcher it, pick someone else if you're worried about offending people. Infact just sing the freaking song, put out in the flyer what songs will be sang, who would honestly turn up to a choir, knowing full well what songs would be sang, and then complain about them?

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"A Long Island, N.Y., school district has apologized after it came under fire following a fifth grade choir?s removal of some key lyrics from the traditional Christmas song ?Silent Night.?

Many of the religious lines that point to the very heart of the Christmas season were simply axed from the students? Dec. 12 performance at Ralph J. Osgood Intermediate School.

?Christ the Savior is born,? ?Holy infant so, tender and mild,? ?round yon virgin, mother and child? and ?Jesus, Lord at thy birth? were strategically removed from the student rendition; the lyrics were simply deleted and nothing replaced them.

The Kings Park Central School District has since apologized to members of the community who were outraged over the changes, WNBC-TV reported.

?The Board of Education sincerely apologizes to our community members who were offended by the change of lyrics to the song Silent Night and we share in your sentiment,? read a statementpublished on the district?s website. ?This action was not approved by the Board of Education or district administration, nor is it their role to approve the songs chosen for our concerts.?

While officials said no disrespect was meant on the part of school staffers, they pledged to never allow such omissions to happen again, offering their ?sincerest apologies.?

Watch the performance below and hear the omissions for yourself:

Keven McDonald, a parent whose son was in the orchestra during the sanitized version of ?Silent Night,? spoke out against the changes at a recent school board meeting, Newsday reported.

?Silent Night? at its core is a religious song. It?s a sacred Christian hymn that tells the story about the birth of Jesus,? he said. ?What was performed was inappropriate and disrespectful to the Christian faith.?

In the end, it seems even the school district agreed with his sentiment."

 

 

 

--------

 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/20/which-key-christmas-lyrics-were-cut-from-student-choirs-rendition-of-silent-night/

 

Political correctness gone wild.

 

"Christmas" is a Christian holiday.  I'm not Christian, and I acknowledge the existence of other holidays around this time such as Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Kwanzaa, etc., but if you're going to sing a song with religious roots, then accept the fact that it's a religious song.  If you want to keep it faith neutral, then pick a different song, don't butcher religious songs in an attempt to avoid being offensive.  With all the crap that seems to have come out of NYC lately (big soda bans, 5 round firearm magazine ban, salt ban), it seems to me like there isn't a complete spine in the entire city.

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I'd argue that Christmas isn't a Christian holiday but rather a pagan holiday for the God Yule. If it was a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it should be several months later ;) :p

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I'd argue that Christmas isn't a Christian holiday but rather a pagan holiday for the God Yule. If it was a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it should be several months later ;) :p

Which is probably true, even Christians know this as the shepards only tend to their flock outside at night when it is warmer out (summer). The significance is to celebrate the day and remember it.

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Still funny how Christians take in and set up "Christmas" trees(juletre as we call it) and decorate it though, with the whole don't idolize other gods thing :)

They basically absorbed all the pagan holidays in an effort to squash them out and make people forget about them.  They did the same thing with Easter.  Spring fertility and new life festivals observed by various cultures all over the world got combined and absorbed by the story of Jesus's resurrection.  I make the joke every year of, "Remember kids, Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave 3 days later, and that's why rabbits lay eggs!"  However, "Christmas" is the Christian holiday, and they have chosen to celebrate it annually on December 25th.

 

Edit: There are other holidays that occur on or near that date, but I don't think they would be referred to as "Christmas".

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If you want to sing a song, don't butcher it, pick someone else if you're worried about offending people. Infact just sing the freaking song, put out in the flyer what songs will be sang, who would honestly turn up to a choir, knowing full well what songs would be sang, and then complain about them?

 

My response to any idiot complaining about such a thing would be along the lines of.  "Oh shut up you cretin.  It's a Christian hymn singing about a Christian holiday. If you don't like it, don't listen to it."

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Who's offended by this kind of stuff? Or is it a case of people getting offended on other peoples' behalf? "We'd better not sing this because it might offend the Jews, Muslims, & Hindus.... Although none of those groups have made any request not to sing those songs."

 

 

The only thing this serves to do is convince already paranoid Christians that they are "under attack".

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Political correctness gone wild.

 

"Christmas" is a Christian holiday.  I'm not Christian, and I acknowledge the existence of other holidays around this time such as Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Kwanzaa, etc., but if you're going to sing a song with religious roots, then accept the fact that it's a religious song.  If you want to keep it faith neutral, then pick a different song, don't butcher religious songs in an attempt to avoid being offensive.  With all the crap that seems to have come out of NYC lately (big soda bans, 5 round firearm magazine ban, salt ban), it seems to me like there isn't a complete spine in the entire city.

 

More like political correctness gone TOTALLY absurd!

 

Totally stupid school! :(

 

I hope everyone got up and walked out.

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They basically absorbed all the pagan holidays in an effort to squash them out and make people forget about them.  They did the same thing with Easter.  Spring fertility and new life festivals observed by various cultures all over the world got combined and absorbed by the story of Jesus's resurrection.  I make the joke every year of, "Remember kids, Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave 3 days later, and that's why rabbits lay eggs!"  However, "Christmas" is the Christian holiday, and they have chosen to celebrate it annually on December 25th.

 

Edit: There are other holidays that occur on or near that date, but I don't think they would be referred to as "Christmas".

As far as I know Good Friday and Easter has always been Christian holidays, but has only recently has Easter been commercialized with the Easter bunny.

Look up Easter on Wikipedia

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Who's offended by this kind of stuff? Or is it a case of people getting offended on other peoples' behalf? "We'd better not sing this because it might offend the Jews, Muslims, & Hindus.... Although none of those groups have made any request not to sing those songs."

Exactly. No one is offended except the people pretending to be PC. Seriously, if you're "offended" by Christmas, you really have issues. :S

 

I got Muslim friends who say Merry Christmas when it's Christmas.

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I am not religious but I am english and these songs are apart of my heritage (through the fact this is/was a christian country) I am so glad someone used the offensive line on this...so happy...I am sick of stuff being changed for other religions....for both america and here .... we need the australlian mind set....fit in or ###### off

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I'm Buddhist, but I don't get offended by them.  They are beautiful songs, and they should be sung as the way they are.

People start to be so freaking annoying lately.   It likes someone moves in my house, and told me to change my way of living.  Get the fuk off !!!

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I am not religious but I am english and these songs are apart of my heritage (through the fact this is/was a christian country) I am so glad someone used the offensive line on this...so happy...I am sick of stuff being changed for other religions....for both america and here .... we need the australlian mind set....fit in or **** off

So do you sing it in the original, unadulterated German or do you modify it to suit your cultural needs?

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So do you sing it in the original, unadulterated German or do you modify it to suit your cultural needs?

 

Translating it into another language whilst keeping the meaning intact is not the same as deliberately dropping lines and changing the whole meaning of the song.

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As far as I know Good Friday and Easter has always been Christian holidays, but has only recently has Easter been commercialized with the Easter bunny.

Look up Easter on Wikipedia

 

I took your advice...

 

The name of the Easter holiday comes from the pagan Germanic goddess ?ostre or Ostara, the goddess of fertility.

 

The original name for Easter and Passover are the same word in many languages, Pascha, and Passover is closely linked with Easter symbolically. So, it was probably more specifically a Jewish holiday long before it ever became a Christian holiday, according to Wikipedia. 

 

The first mention of the Easter Bunny (Hare) and Easter Eggs was in 1682, when it was a German tradition. It is first known to be practiced as a custom in America in the 1700s.

 

It's certainly no coincidence that rabbits and eggs, symbols of fertility common with the pagan celebration of the life giving spring, are celebrated along with Easter. People have been celebrating fertility around the March Equinox for millennia.

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Translating it into another language whilst keeping the meaning intact is not the same as deliberately dropping lines and changing the whole meaning of the song.

I don't think they have changed the whole meaning. It's still a Xmas carol, but they've made it appropriate for their cultural needs. It's just a different type of translation.

To be honest, it's a pretty awful song anyway and could do with changing.

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I don't think they have changed the whole meaning. It's still a Xmas carol, but they've made it appropriate for their cultural needs. It's just a different type of translation.

 

Fairly sure their "cultural needs" are Christian. It just seems to be a case of some moron in the local gov office having his PC hat stuck on his head, and his head crammed up his backside...

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Nah, we need to "modify" religion into non-existence.

 

Because my views and opinions matter more than yours. Right?

 

Lets try this. Being a Christian has no affect on other people so why do you care if they are Christian? 

 

Do you recognize this argument? Yes it's bad to force beliefs onto other people but isn't that what you're trying to do here? Doesn't it go both ways?

 

I get tired of seeing these kinds of comments on neowin.

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