Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols
On the final episode of Hark! this season, prepare yourselves for a wee bit of scandal because we’re looking at a tune that began as a bawdy love song and has long been associated with an evil monarch, but which, over the course of three centuries, finds its redemption as a Christmas carol. This is the story behind, “What Child Is This?”
While “What Child Is This?” is an explicitly Christmas song, the tune speaks to the mystery of identity and purpose—questions that transcend religious boundaries and appeal to the human experience.