- Art from @jennyhahnart
To truly understand this post, it’s essential to listen to this song through one of these links while reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-mmd7RyS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsmPz4w_U6A
A warning before we start: You will never listen to this song the same way again. It has an Illusion. And we will break it.
Ready? Let’s begin:
You’ve most likely heard this song before “HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)”, nothing new. Maybe on the radio, from an old Christmas compilation album, or more recently, in a playlist on your favorite music app.
This post isn’t about a HAPPY XMAS. It is about WAR. And why it was never over.
If you’re like me, you probably never bothered to read the full title. Or you saw it and thought it irrelevant. It’s such a small detail, and after all, it’s just a Christmas song, right? Or maybe you never even had the chance to learn its name. You just heard it on autopilot. Yet you could hum its melody:
“Hey, what’s that song that goes like, ‘So this is Christmas…’? It has a funny choir at the end.”
But did you ever understand its meaning? Did the artist convey their message to you?
WAR. What does this word even mean? As a child born in 1993 in a peaceful country like Brazil, I didn’t truly know what WAR was. So for me, the music title only was a manifest of something obvious : that war is, in fact, over. And the song was a CELEBRATION.
By the way, who wrote this song?
There are so many versions from different times, places, and cultures that it’s common nowadays not to know its origin.
Even without deeper analysis, it’s remarkable that any song could achieve international recognition. “Imagine,” then, making it a global cultural phenomenon in 1971 and keeping that status for 53 years!
Find me another song with such reach and timeless consistency—across different cultures, personas, and locations. Such a feat belongs to the level of bands like The Beatles.
Well, know that the original composer is none other than this guy :
“The Beatles” legend, John Lennon . I discovered this long after hearing the song for the first time.In fact, my first time wasn’t with Lennon (IMAGINE that). The version that became a hit in my country (Brazil) was performed by Simone and released in 1998, with name “Então é Natal” (So it’s Christmas).
YES, she cut the “WAR IS OVER” part from the title. And that’s where things start to get interesting.
The original lyrics are rooted in a campaign by Lennon and Ono in late 1969. The couple rented billboards and posters in eleven cities worldwide that read:
“WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko.”
It only takes a simple equation to gasp the meaning of the often-overlooked part of the song’s title, “War Is Over”, refers to Vietnã. However, the war didn’t actually end until the fall of Saigon in 1975—four years LATER the song was released. So the WAR WAS NOT OVER.
There’s a documentary on Apple TV called “1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything” that, in eight episodes, delves into the American zeitgeist (a German term meaning “spirit of the time”): the Cold War, the decline of the hippie counterculture, rise of rock and roll, racial tensions, feminism, and, of course, the movements against the Vietnã War.
Like or not, John Lennon was THE activist against the Vietnã War. He was monitored by the CIA, which considered him a dangerous political influence, and it took five years to obtain his permanent stay in America. See the Bed-in protest.
Here is that “If You Want It” is so important. Indeed is THE MOST IMPORTANT VERSE OF SE SONG. This provides a completely new (and often forgotten) perspective on the lyrics. This verse only apears in the background, sung by the children choral. What else would you expect from a legend who once said:
“Now I understand what you have to do: Put your political message across with a little honey.” ~ John Lennon
That sentence is an appeal to the listener. YOU can stop the war. You…
I only may point out some other hidden facts about the lyrics :
Christmas vs Xmas : In 1970 “God”, Lennon sang that he didn’t believe in Jesus, the Bible, the Buddha, the Gita or the Beatles. Only one year after the release of hist “christian song”. Maybe the X represents that the message he was tryng to say is universal. Or fuck christianity, who can assure ? (Go ask yoko)
In the verse :
And, so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
The originaly “The world is so wrong” sometimes apears in a more light way “The road is so long”. Why ? Try figure it out.
But this is not why i decided to write about this song.
Remember the brazilian song “Então é Natal” ? There is one more thing about it.
Simone not only removed the War from the title. She remove the Harlem Community Children Choir. Bad right ? NO.
In exchange, she put a choir of children singin “Hare Krishna”. Now that I think about it, what could be more John Lennon than mixing a “Christian” theme with THE Hindu mantra ?
Now, the already lost meaning of the original song, was buried*.
But something else emerged.
Do you know the meaning of the “Hare Krishna” mantra ?
The Hare Krishna mantra is composed of three Sanskrit names: Hare, Krishna, and Rama.
Hare : He who removes illusion
Krishna & Rama: Supreme Godhead himself
It is essentially a call to divinity to dispel confusion.
What confusion/illusion do you think Simone wanted to adress ?
*In the end of the song, the group sang
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Mururoa, ah
This words… any clue ?
It’s not funny ? A song originaly about giving self power to people end the war:
- First loses it’s subject (the vietnã war), decreasing it’s meaning.
- Then time slowly erases the author and their achievements.
- The war turns into a thing from the past and … !BOOM!
The music turns into a celebration. War was forgoten.
This is the illusion: That War went away.
So here we are.
90 seconds to midnight in the Doomsday Clock.
Looking to the stars. Dreaming to be in Mars.
While the world prepares for a third dangerous cycle.
What is the price of forgetting something ?
Want to end one and for all the previus understanding of this “Christmas song” ? Here, see this :
Then you realize that this footage is not, for the most part, from Vietnã. Back to 2003. It’s from the official channel with 24 million views, so Yoko likely approves.
This text is about this: CHANGE in meaning of a art peace. The Breake of an Illusion …
And WAR.
WAR.
Let’s not forget about it.
Do not … forget … about it ?
So from this day forward, whenever you hear this song (the happiest song, on the happiest day of the year), you will remember the worst things that we, as human beings, have ever done. And we can keep doing it. Like a wise dead man said:
If YOU want it.
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