How do YOU welcome in the new year?
In the Netherlands, everyone sets off fireworks... In Brazil everyone wears white and jumps over 7 waves —making a wish on each one... In Great Britain churches often ring bells around midnight, muffling the sound before 12:00AM — then removing mufflers and ringing them loudly to welcome the year!
On Deccmber 31, 1850, Alfred Lord Tennyson was staying near Waltham Abbey. When he heard the joyous ringing at midnight he was moved to compose his famous poem “Ring Out, Wild Bells, “ reflecting on what should be rung OUT and also rung IN.
Ring out: grief, strife, want, wars, false pride, civic slander, spite, sin.
Ring in: love of truth, nobler modes of life, sweeter manners, purer laws, peace. Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
He wrote the words 170 years ago — but they honestly sound as if they were intended for RIGHT NOW — as we begin the year 2021 ..... Read them below in hymn form — or better still, Click this link and take a few moments to listen to a different musical arrangement of the text! Wishing you, and all you love, a year that rings in:
“ the larger heart, the kindler hand, the Christ that is to be.“
