NEW BOTHWELL, MB
The annual Christmas sing-along at the Falk gathering this evening became quite awkward after someone suggested they do ‘Silent Night’ in the original German.
“Oh, sure, they were gung ho at first, but it fizzled out pretty fast,” said Oncle Pieta. “Every knows ‘Stille nacht, helige nacht’, but after that good luck!”
Grandma Falk passed around a little booklet with all the lyrics, but that didn’t seem to help a thing.
“I see the words in front of me, but I have no idea how they’re pronounced,” said Cousin Darryl. “I’m pretty good up until ‘alles schläft einsam wacht‘ but then forget about it.”
The song quickly became a solo performance as members of the younger generation dropped out of the singing one by one.
“You know, it’s better this way,” said Grandma Falk. “They made a valiant attempt, but they were butchering the language anyway.”
Grandma and a few aunts soldiered on through all three verses and pronounced words like göttliche, hochheilige, and kundgemacht with ease.
“Ach, a bunch of show-offs,” said Cousin Darryl. “I should get some credit, too. After all, I hummed the melody the whole way through.”