This profound carol, Oikans Ayns Bethlehem, (A Birth In Bethlehem) has become one of my very favorite Christmas songs. It is a religious poem set to traditional melodies and beautifully recounts the Nativity of Our Lord. The version below is sung in Manx, the Gaelic language of the Isle of Man – a Celtic Isle in the Irish Sea. The carol was composed for the late-night Christmas Eve celebrations on the Isle of Man. The lyrics are:
Now ought we this festival
To keep with pure hearts
In memory of Jesus Christ
An infant in Bethlehem
He left the bright Courts of His Father
Taking on our human form
Born of the pure Virgin
An infant in Bethlehem
Then the angels of Heaven rejoiced
And came to us with the tidings
Telling of the Saviour born today
An infant in Bethlehem
How great the humility and the love
Which was in Jesus Christ the Lamb
When He took the form of His Servant
An infant in Bethlehem
Great glory to God in the highest
Who rules in eternal happiness
The mind of God is now made clear to us
An infant in Bethlehem