La stella in cielo già fa capolino
per annunciare con gli angeli l’evento:
la grotta si prepari e del bambino
conforto sia la paglia di frumento.

Finché un canto piano piano
s’ode da lontano verso le città.
Qui giunge festoso e bello:
è nato un bambinello per l’umanità.

Buoni e cattivi attendono davvero,
non sanno ancora che l’umile Maria
e che il suo sposo han detto “così sia”
al piano del celeste messaggero.

Finché un canto piano piano
s’ode da lontano verso le città.
Qui giunge festoso e bello:
è nato un bambinello per l’umanità.

Tutto si muove: pastori con il gregge
perfino Re che vengon dall’Oriente,
e tutto prende luce finalmente
davanti al Bimbo che l’universo regge.

Finché un canto piano piano
s’ode da lontano verso le città.
Qui giunge festoso e bello:
è nato un bambinello per l’umanità.

BIS

 
English version

The Christmas star is already peeping out
announcing the great event with all angels:
the cave be prepared, and a wheat straw
bed be a comfort for the child.

A quiet and soft song is
heard from distant villages,
and here joyful and nice it arrives:
a little child was born for mankind.

Good and wicked people are really waiting,
and do not know yet that humble Mary
and her husband said “Amen”
to the heavenly herald project

A quiet and soft song is
heard from distant villages,
and here joyful and nice it arrives:
a little child was born for mankind.

Everybody is moving: shepherds with their flock,
and even Kings arriving from East.
At last everything becomes clear
before the Child that sustains the world.

A quiet and soft song is
heard from distant villages,
and here joyful and nice it arrives:
a little child was born for mankind.

TWICE 

“The Child that sustains the world” is no more recognized by youngest generations: years and years of consumerist pressure, the farce of transforming traditional symbols of Christmas' Holy Crib in a lay time of pleasure and materialistic behavior are challenging our sons.

The tradition of a gift – as God presented us a gift, the real fundamental gift for our salvation, that is God becoming Men – becomes the parody of St. Nicolas, the worldwide famous Bishop from Mira, who is transformed in a red dressed old man living at the North Pole… and for our consumerist and atheist countries Christmas is nothing more than a gorgeous lunch and a moment of exchanging gifts, the more useless and luxurious the best.

This parody is becoming more and more offensive toward religion: Santa Claus becomes soon a nice girl to induce you to buy something more, and soon after a tempting girl in her underwear… or nearly no lingerie.

The Amelio’s song depicts the Nativity scene as traditionally represented in its origin. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene in 1223 at Greccio, Italy, in an attempt to place the emphasis of Christmas upon the worship of Christ rather than upon secular materialism and gift exchanging. Staged in a cave near Greccio, St. Francis' nativity scene was a living one with humans and animals cast in the Biblical roles. Pope Honorius III gave his blessing to the exhibit. Such pantomimes became hugely popular and spread throughout Christendom. Within a hundred years every church in Italy was expected to have a nativity scene at Christmastime. Eventually, statues replaced human and animal participants, and static scenes grew to elaborate affairs with richly robed figurines placed in intricate landscape settings.

The Christmas Crib is a very popular image also today, particularly in Southern European Catholic countries, where Nativity scenes are prepared in homes and churches for Christmas, mainly composed of figurines depicting the Child Jesus resting in a manger, Mary, and Joseph. In order to re-build the scene of the night in which Jesus was born, in most Nativity scenes the Angels are announcing the salvation, the shepherds stay around the Holy Crib with their flock, and the Three Sages or Magi may also appear, sometimes not placed in the scene until the week following Christmas to account for the feast of Epiphany. Particularly in Naples’ tradition a lot of humble people, dressed with the main garments of their work, are going to the cave as the shepherds did: it is an invitation to everybody to identify oneself with these figures and repent of ones sins. Thanks to the fantasy and artistic ability of Neapolitan craftsmen, the traditional Naples’ “Presepe” are sometimes real masterpieces, gifts for kings and noble families which we can admire nowadays in some museums.

The song of Amelio not only depicts the Nativity scene but also gives the right dimension to the extraordinary event of God becoming Man. Are our children able to understand this mystery? This song makes them understand in simple words what happened. The music helps them to remember both the history and the details. All details of that night have a deep meaning, related to the Bible and to the prophecies, to the long waiting of the Jewish people.

The ox and ass, for instance, are commonly part of the nativity scene. They were seen as the fulfillment of what was said by the prophet Isaiah: "The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib", and by the prophet Habakkuk: "Between two animals Thou are made manifest”. A clear symbolism is attached to the ox and the ass. The ox traditionally represents patience, the nation of Israel, and Old Testament sacrificial worship, while the ass represents humility, readiness to serve, and the Gentiles. Both animals are a sign that history changed by the extraordinary event of salvation represented by the incarnation of God in that night.