I could read at an early age and during Christmas we were singing "It came upon the Midnight Clear". For the longest time I thought the line went "the world in SOLOMON stillness lays" and for some reason Kins Solomon had something to do with the Nativity. My mom realized what I was singing and stifling a giggle informed me the "n" was silent!

Nikki

I used to believe that in the song "Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly", "deck" was short for "decorate". It didn't confuse the meaning of that line too much. I'd say back then I was doing well to come that close to getting the meaning of the first line, considering how then I would have been totally clueless about the meaning of other lines, like "Don we now our gay apparrel". And I did wonder what the heck a troll was doing in a Christmas song, the only kind of troll I knew of at the time being a scary creature that lived under a bridge. Although the first line seemed clear, I must have had a somewhat confused time later learning the general meaning of "deck", though.

Natalie

In our religion, our music is played from a CD, but when I was little I never knew this. I thought there was an old lady in the roof with a piano.

Anon

We sang without hymnbooks at our school and this was in the 70s when conflict in the Middle East was in the news a lot - we had a hymn with a line which I was sure went "and set the damned Jordan free" - when I finally saw a hymnbook and found out it was "and set the downtrodden free" I was disappointed

still singing it like that now

When I was a Girl Guide, we would start every meeting by singing a song that included the line 'God is nigh'. For about two years, I was sure I was singing 'God is nice' until one of the leaders kindly corrected me. And then laughed.

Anon

i used to believe that the song "we 3 kings" went like this:
we 3 kings of orient are
1 in a taxi 1 in a car
1 on a scooter blowing his hooter
smoking a big cigar

kitten

the dance settee seems to be very popular... I'm another one who thought of Jesus dancing on a sofa....

Anon

When I was a very small person, my fatehr used to teach me little songs. One of these songs was to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers" and I believed that the words my father taught me were the real words. The first time I was able to stand up and sing hymns in church, I jumped onto my seat and proudly belted out, "Lloyd George knew my father, father knew Lloyd George!! Lloyd George knew my father, father knew Lloyd George!!" over and over until the hymn was finished. My mother was horrifed but my father had to excuse himself becuase he was laughing so much.

Nemo

When I was little my sister used to play the guitar and sing what I thought was 'God is twirling in my heart' ('God is dwelling in my heart' is the correct lyric).... I would imagine God in a long robe twirling around in my chest.

rachel g

Dammit i thought it was 'dance seetee' too. used to picture jesus jumping on my old grey sofa.

glad to no im not alone

possilby slighlty deaf

Regarding the belief about the misheard lyric of the sung "Amen" in an Easter Mass, it reminded me of something more appropriate. I'm a BIG fan of the Mass of Creation (by Marty Haugen) setting, people. If the organ (I mean a BIG, ritzy pipe organ) blasts out that section of this Mass setting that follows after "Christ has died, Christ is risen..." part, you might be thinking (if you're scared of it):

O-OR-GAN, O-OR-GAN, O-O-O-ORGAN!

(I drew out the vowel to emphasize how the "Amen" part of the Mass of Creation goes.)

Anon

I used to believe that the words (in the christmas carol, "It came upon a midnight clear")

"With angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold"

were actually

"With angels spending near the earth to touch their hearts of gold."

Curiously I never wondered why angels should have golden hearts, but I always wondered what the angels were spending their money on.

Fara Shimbo

When I attended church we always sang the song...
"I've got the bible enthusiam all over me".
BUt when I sang it as a child,
I sang it this way ,
"I've got the bible school and susie has them all over her.
My folks laughed so hard when they heard me at home singing this song.

P. Glenna

I've been to a lot of Catholic parishes and when I sang this traditional hymn, Forty Days and Forty Nights, I long ago thought the first line went "Forty plays and forty fights..." As a Catholic, I wouldn't do that in church!

Anon. Catholic Teen

A few years ago, I attended Catholic mass with my brother and father. My brother and I hadn't been brought up Catholic, so the rituals and hymns were all very new to us. When the congregation began to sing "Hosana in the highest", my brother whispered to me, "Are they saying 'Throw Osama in the fire'?"

Chelsea

in some hymns, they say, let the seas roar! i thought the seas would literally roar like tigers and would swallow you up at the seaside!

ROAR!

do you know the swahili song that goes Siahumba kukan yenhe kwen kos (sorry i don't speak any swahili and this spelling is probably completely wrong!), or the english translation, We Are Marching In the Light of God. When I was young and when everyone sang that song in church, I always used to think on the kwen kos bit they were singing about cous cous!

cous cous lover