Who owns sunken treasure?

Mitch Stacy for Associated Press (AP) has reported that 17-tons of silver and gold coins salvaged from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish galleon sunk by British warships in the Atlantic, off Portugal, while sailing back from South America in 1804, has been returned to Spain.

Legal action in the United States denied ownership of the find to both the Peruvian government which argued the material was sourced from Peru and the salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration. See also Newsday and El País (in Spanish - with excellent photographic and video coverage).

Stacy reported that "Peruvian cultural authorities say their country's legal case would have been stronger if it had signed the 2001 U.N. Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, which states that countries of origin have priority in deciding the fate of cultural artifacts found in shipwrecks". However, the text of the convention does not appear to regulate the ownership of wrecks or sovereignty rights.

While Spain has asserted its legal right to the find, surely Peru would also have some moral rights.

When it comes to sunken treasure, it is not a case of finders keepers.

50 Jahre Mauerbau

On 13 August 1961, East Germany closed its border between East and West Berlin, dividing Berlin for the next 28 years until the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.

The 50th anniversary is a sobering commemoration.

The Wall was a 1962 short documentary film directed by Walter de Hoog for the US Government


See BBC News and France24/AFP for reporting on the commemorations (in English).

More in-depth coverage in Deutsche Welle (in English), Die Welt, Berliner Morgenpost (2) and Der Spiegel.

Birth of a nation: Republic of South Sudan

At the stroke of one minute past midnight on 9 July 2011 (local time), the new Republic of South Sudan came into existence. See video news reports

UK Daily Telegraph


AFP


Reuters


Al-Jazeera


See also reporting by France24.

Flag of the Republic of South Sudan

It is a great day for the South Sudanese people who have struggled through five decades of civil wars. In Australia, which has one of the largest South Sudanese populations outside of Africa (some 30,000), community celebrations are being held across country.

See websites of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan and the  Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan in Washington DC.

A good primer from PBS

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Apples - British to the core

Horticulturalist Chris Beardshaw presented a one hour program on BBC Four about the apple in British history. He also wrote for BBC News Magazine. Excerpt

Some of the world's best-loved apples, like the Braeburn and the Bramley, were discovered growing as chance seedlings, gifts from nature that just happened to taste good. The Granny Smith was discovered growing out of a rubbish heap in Australia.

So while the apple seeks only to multiply rather than reproduce the same delicious fruits, man had to fathom how to clone it with an ancient process known as grafting, which remains the same to this day. With the discovery of grafting we could clone our favourite apple trees again and again.

The Bramley, one of Britain's most prosperous and time-honoured apples, was planted 200 years ago in Nottinghamshire. That first tree was grown from a pip by a young woman, Mary Ann Brailsford, between 1809 and 1815. Since then every single Bramley apple ever eaten and tree planted has originated from it. That's a lot, with the Bramley apple industry is worth £50m today.

The pip most probably came from an apple on a tree at the bottom of her garden. The seedling produced such fine apples that in 1837 a local nurseryman asked the next occupier of the house, Matthew Bramley, for his permission to graft scions from the tree. Bramley agreed as long as the apples bore his name. Ms Brailsford never knew the fame her apples achieved.

Read more.

The Granny Smith can be a rather tart apple but is still very popular in Australia. Other varieties such as Gala and Pink Lady are becoming more popular ahead of Red Delicious.

As much as apples are "British to the core", even the United States has its own Johnny Appleseed legend and apples in the form of apple pie are American as.

What you didn't know about Yemen

From BBC News, excerpt

The territory now known as Yemen has loomed large in British consciousness since Victorian times when Britain ran the area around the port of Aden.

The UK-Yemeni relationship dates back to 1839, when the strategically crucial southern port was conquered by the British East India Company.

It was ruled as part of British India, until it was made a Crown colony in 1937.

Pressure for the British to leave South Yemen grew in the early 1960s and following a bloody few years of protests, attacks and civil war between royalists and republicans they were driven from Aden in 1967.

The North Yemen Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) were then formed, but years of fighting ensued before unification in 1990. However division, conflict and corruption remained and still does.

The early links with Britain had led to Yemeni immigrants forming some of the oldest Muslim communities in the UK - particularly in the port areas of Liverpool, South Shields and Cardiff.

With Aden being the main refuelling stop for ships between Britain and the Far East, many of the seamen went to the UK to work and then settled.

The capital is Sanaa.

Surely intelligence agencies would have been paying attention to Yemen following the attack of the USS Cole (navy destroyer) in the port of Aden on 12 October 2000.

40 years of Sesame Street

Sesame Street Google with the ensemble. Where is Mr Snuffleupagus?


People all over the world between the ages of 20 and 50 are probably reminiscing about their childhoods with Sesame Street. I don't know when I stopped watching, but with younger siblings, I was still watching well into my teens.


Richard Termine/Sesame Workshop

I remember the opening sequences below (first two) from when I was a kid.

episode 1575 opening


episode 2178 opening


Having stopped watching, as most grown ups without young children do, I am not familiar with the new sequence from 1998-2001, but do understand that something as important as the opening sequence theme music must evolve with the times.

episode 3940


Promotion for the new series


Elmo's new best friend is Jake Gyllenhall (from New York Post) photo by Jesse Grant

20 Jahre Mauerfall - 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall

Some great photographs from AFP of 20 years ago via ABC.





Official celebrations in Berlin are being held as Fest der Freiheit (Festival of Freedom) and tonight focuses around the Brandenburg Gate.

Some other great sites
- www.mauerfall-berlin.de
- Goethe Institut
- Berlin.de

brought to you by the Swiss, Turkish and Armenian governments

When the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey all issue the same media release, it has to be historical and important.

Berne, Yerevan, Ankara, 31 August 2009

The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey have agreed to start their internal political consultations on the two protocols – the “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and the “Protocol on the development of bilateral relations” – which have been initiated in the course of their efforts under Swiss mediation.

The two Protocols provide for a framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations within a reasonable timeframe. The political consultations will be completed within six weeks, following which the two Protocols will be signed and submitted to the respective Parliaments for the ratification on each side. Both sides will make their best efforts for the timely progression of the ratification in line with their constitutional and legal procedures.

The normalization of bilateral relations will contribute to the regional peace and stability. The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey are committed are pursuing their joint efforts with the assistance of Switzerland.

Considering the animosity between the two countries, and their respective diaspora around the world in relation to historical events of 1915-17, this is a momentous development.

There is hope for Cyprus after all.

the fall of the iron curtain started with a picnic

1989 was a momentous year in Eastern Europe.

Today marked the 20th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, when Hungary momentarily opened its border with Austria and allowed hundreds of East Germans to cross over to the west. From Wikipedia (factual)

In a symbolic gesture agreed to by both countries, a border gate on the road from Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland (Austria) to Sopronkőhida (Hungary) was to be opened for three hours. About 6 km away from this spot on 27 June 1989, Austria's then foreign minister Alois Mock and his Hungarian counterpart Gyula Horn had together cut through the border fence, in a move highlighting Hungary's decision to dismantle its surveillance installations along the border, a process started on 2 May 1989.

More than 600 East Germans seized the opportunity presented by this brief lifting of the Iron Curtain, and fled into the west. In the run-up to August 19th, the organisers of the Pan-European Picnic had distributed pamphlets advertising the event. The Hungarian border guards, however, reacted judiciously to the growing number of people fleeing, and, despite their orders to shoot anyone who attempted to cross the border, did not intervene.

In Budapest and around the Lake Balaton, thousands of more East Germans were waiting for their chance to cross to border, not believing that the border would be opened, and not trusting the procedures in place. The number of people who crossed the border into the west on the day of this event was therefore limited to no more than a few hundred. Over the next few days, the Hungarian government increased in the number of guards patrolling its western border, so that only a relatively small number actually reached the west successfully. On 11 September 1989, Hungary finally opened its borders for citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for good.

The Pan-European Picnic is considered a highly significant milestone in the efforts that led to the end of the GDR and to the German reunification. Commemorative ceremonies are held each year on 19th of August at the place where the border was opened.

The picnic was organised by members of four Hungarian opposition parties, the Hungarian Democratic Forum the Alliance of Free Democrats, the FIDESZ and FkgP. The event's patrons were, CSU MEP Otto von Habsburg, and the Hungarian Minister of State and reformer Imre Pozsgay.

See also www.1989-2009.at (in German).

The world has changed a lot in 20 years. The events of 1989 are as significant, if not more so, as those of 1969.

Abbey Road 40

One of the great things about the old long play (LP) vinyl record was the artwork. One of the best was The Beatles' Abbey Road. The photo by the late Iain Macmillan was taken on 8 August 1969.





It is probably the most copied or parodied album cover.



Lawrence Pollard wrote a great article for BBC World Service

The idea for the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album was initially to call it Everest, after the favourite brand of cigarettes smoked by their engineer Geoff Emerik.

Then the thought of doing a Himalayan cover helped kill the idea, and instead they considered doing shoot closer to home.

"There's a sketch Paul McCartney did with four little stick men crossing the Zebra," says Brian Southall, author of the history of Abbey Road Studios.

"It gave a pretty good idea of what they wanted."

On the 8 August 1969 that the Fab Four walked out of No 3 Abbey Road, having finished basic work on what would be - and they subsequently said they knew would be - their last album.

The photographer who took the famous cover shot was the late Iain Macmillan, a close friend of Brian Southall's, who knew the Beatles through working with Yoko Ono.

"He was given about 15 minutes," says Mr Southall.

"He stood up a stepladder while a policeman held up the traffic, the band walked back and forth a few times and that was that."

He only took seven or eight pictures, now in the Apple archive, but they're fascinating for their difference to the end product we all know.

Conspiracy theories

Most striking is the one of the band walking in the opposite direction (right to left), caught mid-stride in different poses.

It looks all wrong of course, and draws attention to the accidental symmetry - despite Paul being out of step - of the final cover shot with its pattern of four firm inverted V shapes.

In one of the alternative takes Paul McCartney is wearing sandals he kicked off during the shoot.

This matters if you remember how the album cover was taken as evidence for the conspiracy theories that "Paul is Dead."

Barefooted, out of step, the car number plate behind him referring to his age - 28 if he'd lived - the Beatles forming a funeral procession for him.

George was cast as the gravedigger, Ringo the undertaker, and John the priest.

Years later in 1993, the very much alive Paul McCartney would spoof the cover and the rumours for his "Paul is Live" concert album.

A lesser noted curiosity is that the album cover has no writing on it and is just the picture.

That is thanks to John Kosh, who at the time, was creative director at Apple.

"I insisted we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover," he says.

"They were the most famous band in the world after all - EMI said they'd never sell any albums if we didn't say who the band was, but I got my way, and got away with it."

Zebra stripes

And it is hard to think of an album cover that has been so thoroughly repeated.

Dozens of bands have put stripes on their cover, like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but of course the biggest tribute comes from the thousands of fans and tourists who go to leafy north London every year.

If you want to check the crossing now, there's a webcam.

Watch it for a while and you will see scampering fans snatching at a gap in the traffic to recreate the shoot - much to the annoyance of local drivers.

One black taxi cabbie, Ron, who also used to drive a bus down Abbey Road, told the BBC World Service: "I come here all the time and its always been the same - it really does annoy you."

"All they're doing is posing on the crossing. Someone's going to get mown down one of these days there's no doubt about it."

Here's hoping Ron avoids the crossing on Saturday morning when Beatles fans will stage a mass crossing in honour of the photo shoot.

It is not known how many of those fans are injured on the crossing every year.

But the council have to repaint the wall next to the crossing every three months to cover over fans' graffiti.

And the Abbey Road street sign has now been mounted out of reach up a wall, so often has it been defaced or stolen.

If there was a way to steal the stripes off the zebra you can bet Beatle's fans would have taken them too.

Or maybe they haven't thanks to the rumour that the famous crossing you now see isn't actually the original and has been moved for safety reasons.

And who would want to steal the wrong zebra crossing?

Let it be.

righting historical wrongs

My friend Liz who lives in Los Angeles alerted me to an article in the Los Angeles Times by Corina Knoll

California issues formal apology for past discrimination against Chinese

Email Picture

Chinese Historical Society of America
An 1850 photograph shows one of the many Chinese who came to California as part of the Gold Rush.

The wave of immigrants who worked dangerous jobs building railroads and early California infrastructure faced decades of discrimination, marriage restrictions and private injustices.

By Corina Knoll
July 23, 2009

The documents Chan Share clutched as he left China were forged. It was 1939 and Asians were not allowed to immigrate to the United States. So, like many others, Share claimed he was a "paper son" and had a California-born relative whose records were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

After two months of interrogation at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, Share was allowed into a country where Chinese laborers decades before him had toiled in the merciless sun to lay miles of railroad track that would connect the dots of America. Despite their hard work, he was told he could not vote, own property or even marry the person of his choice.

A group of Chinese and Japanese women and children wait to be processed at Angel Island near San Francisco in the 1920s.

Seventy years later, the state of California has formally apologized to the thousands of Chinese immigrants who helped build the state. Many, including Share, are no longer alive, but their children and grandchildren had pushed for such an apology.

The state Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution expressing profound regret for the persecution of Chinese immigrants, who in the 1880s and 1890s performed the dangerous work of cobbling together California's nascent infrastructure. The Senate has adopted the same resolution.

The bill does not seek any financial compensation for Chinese who were mistreated or denied basic civil liberties, but its authors said they intend to ask Congress to adopt the same resolution.

The legislation was co-sponsored by Assemblymen Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) and Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles). For Fong it was personal; Chan Share was his grandfather.

"Racism still reverberates today and a lot of the discrimination laws -- those wounds are still open," Fong said Wednesday. "By apologizing, we'll hopefully close those wounds and close a sad chapter in our history."

That history included Chinese men recruited to work on the first transcontinental railroad being paid pitiful wages and treated as inferiors. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended immigration and the men living here had little hope of bringing over the family members they had left behind. As they spread out to the agricultural and mining industries, their willingness to work cheaply was resented.

They were often forced to live impoverished lives in squalid Chinatowns, including the large community where L.A.'s Union Station now sits.

After racial barriers to immigration were amended, a new wave of Chinese immigrants arrived only to encounter discrimination from banks, landlords and retail establishments.

Raymond Fong, a 64-year-old wine merchant in San Francisco whose father was a "paper son," says recognizing racism in the country's history helps people understand the roots of an ethnic community.

"It's a catalyst for getting more of the story and opens the door so people can explain," said Raymond Fong, who is not related to the assemblyman.

"You can't believe the psychological impact it had on ABCs -- American Born Chinese. We're the generation whose parents learned to turn the other cheek because they didn't want to draw attention. We're the ones raised under the scars and seen as the good Asian Americans because we feared getting into trouble," said Raymond Fong.

The apology is part of a wave of formal regret offered by the government in recent years. In 1988, Congress apologized to Japanese Americans who during World War II were thrown into prison camps such as Manzanar. In 2008 the House passed a resolution apologizing for slavery, and the Senate followed suit last month.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

There are a lot of things that governments have done in the past that were morally wrong, but at the time, prevailing and unenlightened attitudes rendered them acceptable. The New Zealand government apologised to its Chinese community in 2001 over an historical and discriminatory poll tax.

The Australian Government finally apologised to the Stolen Generations last year. Oddly, there is no acknowledgment in this manner over the old White Australia policy. Even this propaganda is whitewashed.

one small step

Neil Armstrong's photograph of Buzz Aldrin on 20 July 1969

They're a weird mob

They're a weird mob was a classic Australian film from 1966 about an Italian migrant adapting to life in Australia.

going to the hotel


shouting at the bar

see also teachers' notes from National Film and Sound Archive

The film's depiction of Sydney in the 1960s (not recreated) is fascinating. Thankfully, the Australia of today is more accepting of and sensitive to cultural and ethnic differences.

The FILTH in Hong-kers

British expatriates living abroad write in to the (UK) Daily Telegraph about their lives "as an expat". There was a great piece by Tim Pile about what happened to the Britons who stayed behind in Hong Kong after the colony reverted to Chinese control.

What's the first word that comes to mind when you hear the term "Hong Kong expatriate?"

Thought so. Everyone says banker.

Twelve years ago this week, Hong Kong ceased to be a British colony. Just after midnight on July 1st 1997 Chris Patten boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia and sailed away to the strains of Land of Hope and Glory.

His departure coincided with rumours of an accompanying exodus of British expatriates. Traditional red post boxes had been painted green and purple and bank notes no longer carried a picture of the Queen – for some, there seemed little point in staying.

As it turned out, not everyone left when the last governor did. The British Consulate in Hong Kong estimates that there are currently between 25,000 and 30,000 UK expats based in the city. And contrary to popular belief, we're from a diverse range of professions and backgrounds – from former civil servants to clergymen; wheeler-dealers to washed-up backpackers.

Car mechanic Derek Brooks followed his girlfriend out to Hong Kong in 1994, found work maintaining a fleet of buses and decided not to return to Britain. When contracts started going to Chinese firms after 1997, the native of Harrow, Middlesex, took a job installing state of the art desks on the dealing floors of international banks.

In a form of economic irony, the recent wave of layoffs in the finance industry mean Brooks has never been busier. "I'm taking back out all the desks I put in," he jokes.

Mark Knight joined the Hong Kong Civil Service in the late Eighties and was impressed with the perks. "We had a huge apartment, a maid, gratuities and generous travel allowances," he says.

When the privileges ended in 1997, Knight qualified as an English language examiner and now specialises in corporate benchmarking across Asia.

"The opportunity to reinvent yourself is far greater here than back home. Switching careers in the UK would be much more difficult," he says.

David Tait would agree. Colonial Hong Kong was a sought-after posting for British military personnel and the Scottish Royal Navy officer liked what he saw during two tours of duty in the Eighties. He quit the Submarine Service and settled here permanently in 1993.

"I had no fixed career plans when I returned but the place was awash with money," the former lieutenant remembers. After a stint selling advertising space, Tait set up his own publishing company which has been in business for a decade this year.

At a time when the transfer of sovereignty was causing anxiety for some long-term expats, others saw the chance of a lifetime. Large numbers of young Britons poured into the colony for a last hurrah, attracted by preferential immigration and employment status and the chance to witness history being made.

Clutching CVs of varying pedigree, they slept on friends' sofas and hustled for job openings. These eleventh-hour arrivals became known as FILTH (Failed In London, Try Hong Kong). Many are still here.

British backpackers also arrived in droves. In need of a cash injection after extended jaunts around south-east Asia, they could turn up in Hong Kong in the afternoon and be serving drinks in a bar by evening.

Paul Docherty landed a job at Joe Bananas, a popular city nightspot. Realising he was never going to get rich pulling pints for homesick tourists, he decided to set up his own pub on rural Lantau Island.

The timing and location were perfect – construction of the new Hong Kong International Airport had started nearby and thirsty workers crowded into Papa Doc's from the day it opened. "The airport project definitely affected my decision to look for a place on Lantau," Docherty admits.

For another group of transplanted Brits, the Chinese passion for education is a blessing. No one has ever counted but there are probably more UK born teachers than bankers in Hong Kong.

From tutoring in language clubs to lecturing at universities, anyone with (and sometimes without) a qualification can usually find a teaching position.

Dominic Abbott arrived in 1993 and in another "it could only happen in Hong Kong" tale; he combined teaching English with work as a bouncer at a bar in Kowloon. The primary school teacher from Bradford says his nocturnal employment was infinitely more interesting than his day job.

"Triads would come in and offer money to spend the night with the barmaids. I had to tactfully explain that it wasn't that kind of place without upsetting the gang members. Then after a couple of hours' sleep I had to go and teach grammar to a class of Chinese housewives."

A different kind of violence was about to erupt as one visitor was deciding whether to put down roots in the city. Reverend John Chynchen first ventured to the Far East in the Sixties, arriving in Hong Kong for the first time in 1966.

The Communist-inspired riots a year later didn't dampen the former marine surveyor's enthusiasm however and he moved to the colony permanently not long after. Ordained as a deacon in 1989, he has no plans to abandon his flock.

"I was all set to leave in 1997," he recalls "but I realised that I wasn't ready to retire." Like most "old China hands" Chynchen, originally from Enfield, deals with bouts of homesickness by returning to the UK at regular intervals.

"I would definitely describe myself as an expatriate," he says "but I still retain membership of my London club."

Under the "one country, two systems" policy, Hong Kong is rapidly integrating with mainland China. Colonial privilege and residual goodwill are waning and resourceful British expats are discovering that adaptability and cultural awareness are more useful than membership of the cricket club.

This morning I asked my four-year-old son to sing me a song he'd learned at kindergarten. I recognised the tune immediately but not the words. He was singing in Mandarin.

I always wondered what happened to them. Even those born in Hong Kong were not entitled to Chinese citizenship unless they were of Chinese descent. I wonder if these British permanent residents in Hong Kong learnt to speak Cantonese.

Acropolis Museum (Μουσείο της Ακρόπολης)

Greece's new Acropolis Museum (Μουσείο της Ακρόπολης) was officially opened today (20 June 2009) and open to the public from tomorrow.


(more pictures from BBC News)

Now that there is a possible new home to house the Parthenon marbles (Elgin marbles), the British Museum may return them.

See BBC News, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times

4 June 1989

Any information about the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989 is highly censored in the People's Republic of China. See for example, BBC News.

Guernica has an interesting interview with Wuer Kaixi.

The government/regime then can hardly take a high moral stance when it comes to raising concerns about Japanese school textbooks whitewashing history about Japanese military aggression during World War Two, particularly the Nanking massacre.

when looks seem to matter - Shakespeare

Now that William Shakespeare appears to be better looking than first thought (see for example, The Guardian, New York Times), some historians are revising their opinions of his personal life.


the recently discovered Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare



Looks seem to matter.

procrastinating like Leonardo da Vinci

A great article from Assoc Prof Pannapacker

If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.

Right on!

dispelling 'ancient Greece' myths

Charlotte Higgins wrote a brilliant article in The Guardian dispelling a few myths about 'ancient Greece', courtesy of Paul Cartledge.

First, that there was any such thing as "ancient Greece". (I am certainly innocent of peddling this one.) Cartledge has been at the forefront of classicists' growing understanding of the cultural diversity of the poleis (city states) of the ancient Greek world, which numbered over 1000, and were dotted over a wide area from Marseille in the west to modern Turkey in the east. Though united (according to Herodotus), by religion and language, they had different customs, political systems and even calendars – and only a handful of them united against the Persian empire in the 480s BC.

Second, that the Greeks were technologically backward (I also plead innocent, but only because I made no claim either way). They may not, according to Cartledge, have had a word for wheelbarrow - but they certainly invented the amazing Antikythera Mechanism, object of much recent research and excitement from classicists and scientists alike.

Third, that the ancient Greeks resemble their Hollywood impersonators (not guilty, or not entirely - I do point out that the Spartans didn't wear leather knickers like they do in 300). Cartledge was fairly uncompromising on this one. Such movies, he said (despite his own involvement in 300) "can be dangerous as well as enjoyable and provocative. They can pander to or influence cultural contempt or hatred." He thought the Iranians were right to see 300's depiction of the Persians as "an example of cultural denigration".

Fourth (probably a bit guilty), that the Greeks invented democracy in anything like the way that we recognise it now. Radical democracy was government by, for, and crucially of, the people, unlike our modern representative democracies. Ancient Athenians would probably have regarded the British and American political systems as oligarchic.

Brilliant. There was no uniform Greek identity then.

Stille Nacht

Christmas celebrations are not yet over, as Ephinany falls on the last day of the twelve days of Christmas on 6 January. Furthermore Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate 6 January as the nativity.

One of my favourite carols is Silent Night, which is best heard in the original German (Stille Nacht).



The words in German also have a slightly different meaning.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute heilige Paar.
Holder Knab' im lockigten Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn! O wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’.
Jesus in deiner Geburt!
Jesus in deiner Geburt!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn
Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt seh'n
Jesum in Menschengestalt.
Jesum in Menschengestalt.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Wo sich heut alle Macht
Väterlicher Liebe ergoß
Und als Bruder huldvoll umschloß
Jesus die Völker der Welt.
Jesus die Völker der Welt.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit,
In der Väter urgrauer Zeit
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß.
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Alleluja,
Tönt es laut bei Ferne und Nah:
Jesus der Retter ist da!
Jesus der Retter ist da!

Stille Nacht was written by Josef Mohr in 1816 and put to music by Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818 for guitar. It was first performed on 24 December 1818 at the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria.

I think it should only be sung in German.

************
Back to work tomorrow. Poor me.