Have your children ever wondered what some of those words mean in the Christmas carols that we sing? When we were at church a few weeks ago, we were singing “Angels We Have Heard on High” and we got to the chorus part of “Gloria, In Excelsis Deo”. I was singing it not thinking anything of it when my oldest son leans over and asks, “What does that mean?” I had to stop and think about it and I wasn’t completely sure or even what language it was. Then when we were putting up our Christmas decorations he was putting up a sign that says, “Noel” and he asked what that meant. It was at that time that I decided to look up these words and sayings, along with a few others, and make some vocabulary cards to help understand what we are singing about.
Here are the words and phrases that I looked up:
* gloria in exclesis deo
* noel
* manger
* feliz navidad (this isn’t usually one that is sung in church, but we hear it all the time)
* Emmanuel
* quake
I think it’s important to know what these mean and what we are saying/singing. Let’s help our kids to understand as well.