Vær velkommen Herrens Aar og velkommen herhid!

Abstract

Vær velkommen Herrens Aar og velkommen herhid![Be welcomed Year of the Lord and be welcomed hither!]By Jette HolmGrundtvig’s two hymns entitled Vær velkommen Herrens Aar og velkommen herhid!, for Advent and the New Year, respectively, were written for the First Sunday of Advent 1849 and New Year’s Day 1850 and sung at Vartov. Grundtvig’s son Svend Grundtvig, a scholar and a collector of folksongs, had published an old manuscript in Dansk Kirketidende on 2 December 1849: Wer welkommen, Herrens Aar, och wellkommen herre! An old text for the New Year, with the same beginning, was mentioned as well.N. F. S. Grundtvig was so delighted with the expression “Vær velkommen Herrens Aar og velkommen herhid” that in his sermon on the First Sunday of Advent 1849 he called it “ret et ægte Dansk Hosianna, hvor Munden taler af Hjertets Overflødighed” (“indeed a true Danish Hosianna in which the mouth speaks from the heart’s plenty”). (Fasc. 41).The sermons on the First Sunday of Advent 1849 and on New Year’s Day1850, in which Grundtvig preaches on his two new hymns, have never beenpublished and therefore have been transcribed for Grundtvig-Studier from hismanuscript in Fasc. 41.In his sermon on the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity 1849, Grundtvighad realized for the first time that the old texts, i.e. the old lectionary authorized for use in the Sunday services of the Danish Lutheran Church, form a unity, created by the Holy Spirit. It is this “Herrens Aar” (Year of the Lord) with“Herrens Dag” (the Day of the Lord), with texts and sacraments that Grundtvigwelcomes in his hymns. At Advent just like the crowd in Jerusalem shoutingHosianna!In his sermon on the First Sunday of Advent, 1849, Grundtvig remindsthe congregation that the Year of the Lord brings Mercy, Peace and Joy forChristians. His hymn for Advent has four stanzas, one for Christmas, one forEaster and one for Pentecost, while the fourth sums up the whole Year of theLord with the Days of the Lord.In his sermon on New Year’s Day 1850, Grundtvig quotes the four newstanzas of his second hymn Vær velkommen Herrens Aar and clarifies thedifferences between the New Year of the Church and the civil New Year. Howcan Christians pray for the civil community and their home country? Denmarkwas at war 1848-51.For Christians the Kingdom of God is Justice, Peace and Joy in the HolySpirit. But God is also the Father and Creator of all men, the Lord of Truth,Mercy and Peace. Consequently, He delights in truthfulness, mildness and love of peace; and the Danish people in spite of its worldly poverty and weakness, embodies these values.