• Born In A Barn

  Contributed by Jason Bonnicksen on May 15, 2011 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  None

  Tags:  Christmas Eve

  Denomination: Lutheran

BORN IN A BARN

Have you ever heard it said to you: "Were you born in a barn?" Or maybe this variation -- "You weren't born in a barn -- shut the door!" I tell ya what; I use to hear that said a lot growing up -- either referring to that I had left the door open, or that my room was becoming something of a pig sty, and that I needed to get it cleaned.

And this is such a universal saying too -- one that I know I have passed down to my children -- reciting it far too often I am afraid, for I cannot tell you how many times one of my children has inadvertently left the door open when rushing into the house after a long day at school.

Have you ever wondered where that expression came from? From all the sources online that I have read, folklore says that the phrase originally was said "Were you born in Bardney?" But what was Bardney, you might be asking.

Bardney Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 697 in Northern England.