December 24: Fum, Fum, Fum

Fourth Week of Advent: Love - Christmas Eve
December 24: Fum, Fum, Fum (Catalan) - Links & Lyrics Below

I grew up in a home bursting with Norwegian pride and tradition. As relatives would come to visit, the house would be filled with the languages and expressions from “the old country.” But also overheard were English words sprinkled in and, occasionally, an odd blending of both when the conversation required a word that neither language could do justice.

Occasionally, I would ask about a particular word or phrase, and the response often was, “well…there’s no English word for it…”

So it is with Fum, Fum, Fum. If I were a child, my question to an adult in the room would be, “What’s a fum?” Historians who have studied this carol from the northeast region of Spain can’t agree. Is the word meant to imitate the rhythm created by an instrument? Or is it a take on the word “smoke,” based on the dialect of the area?

The carol has simple words that retell the story of Christmas, focusing specifically on the date December 25. The song was born sometime in the sixteenth or seventeenth century while this region was battered by a war between Spain and France. “Mommy, how long will this war last?” “Daddy, when will we know peace again?” What a comfort it would be to the common folk of the region to remember God’s perfect timing of sending Jesus into the world. “But when the right time came, God sent his Son.” (Galatians 4:4)

Pastor Nancy Bontempo
Friends Community Church - Sturgeon Bay

Link to Spotify Playlist

Link to YouTube Playlist

English Lyrics On December five and twenty fum, fum, fum. Oh, a child was born this night So rosy white, so rosy white Son of Mary, virgin holy In a stable, mean and lowly, fum, fum, fum. There, at the top of the mountain Fum, fum, fum There are two little shepherds Well bundled up, well bundled up In a skin and a cloak They're eating eggs and sausage Fum fum fum. Who will tell the biggest lie? Fum, fum, fum The senior shepherd responds, The big loudmouth, the big loudmouth: ‘I will take ten thousand strides, all at once in a single leap ’. Fum, fum, fum [On December five and twenty fum, fum, fum. Comes a most important day Let us be gay, let us be gay. We go first to church and then we Have the sweetest buns and candy, fum, fum, fum.] [God will send us days of feasting fum, fum, fum. Both in hot months and in cold for young and old, for young and old. We will tell the holy story Ever singing of his glory, fum, fum, fum.]

Catalan Lyrics A vint-i-cinc de desembre fum, fum, fum (bis) Ha nascut un minyonet ros i blanquet, ros i blanquet; Fill de la Verge Maria, n'és nat en una establia. Fum, fum, fum. Allí dalt de la muntanya fum, fum, fum (bis) Si n'hi ha dos pastorets abrigadets, abrigadets; amb la pell i la samarra, menjant ous i botifarra. Fum, fum, fum. Qui dirà més gran mentida? Fum, fum, fum (bis) Ja en respon el majoral el gran tabal, el gran tabal; jo en faré deu mil camades amb un salt totes plegades. Fum, fum, fum. [A vint-i-cinc de desembre fum, fum, fum (bis) n'és el dia de Nadal, molt principal, molt principal, quan n'eixirem de matines, farem bones escudines. Fum, fum, fum.] [Déu vos do unes santes festes fum, fum, fum (bis) amb temps de fred i calor, i molt millor, i molt millor fent-ne de Jesús memòria perquè ens vulgui dalt la glòria. Fum, fum, fum.]