Christmas Bonus Episode: "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Anderson

As the frost of New Year's Eve nips at our comfort, we cannot help but be stirred by the tale of The Little Match Girl, a narrative that Hans Christian Andersen wove with threads of compassion and stark reality. This episode cradles your heart in the story of a young girl, shrouded in the chill of poverty, whose flickering matches cast light on the warmth of dreams and the coldness of her world. As we recount her visions and the stark contrast of the festive joy that eludes her, prepare for an emotional odyssey that questions our own awareness of those who slip through society's cracks.

Together we stand witness to the final hours of a year, as told through the eyes of a child for whom time bears down with the weight of hunger and neglect. No festive cheer adorns her tale; instead, each match struck is a beacon of what could be, a transient warmth against the backdrop of a society reveling in abundance. This episode, absent of any guest, becomes a silent vigil, a space for reflection, and a call to extend the hand of kindness not just in the season of giving but throughout the year. Join us, wrapped in the glow of your own homes, as we honor the spirit of the holidays through a story that gently pleads for a world more tender and less oblivious to the little match girls of today.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Christmas is a great time for us to be reminded that we need to have our eyes open for those in need around us, and this story that was written by Hans Christian Andersen is a great reminder to us of our duty to our fellow human beings. So gather the family and enjoy this Christmas story. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl with bare head and naked feet roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large indeed that they had belonged to her mother and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron. She carried a number of matches and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, poor little child. She looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long fair hair which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not. Lights were shining from every window and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New Year's Eve. Yes, she remembered that.

Speaker 1: 2:35

In a corner between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches and could not take home even a penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her. Besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah, perhaps a burning match might do some good if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall just to warm her fingers.

Speaker 1: 3:24

She drew one out. Scratch. How it sputtered as it burnt. It gave a warm, bright light like a little candle as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light.

Speaker 1: 3:38

It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the fire burned and seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them. When low, the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand. She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white tablecloth, on which stood a splendid dinner service and a steaming roast goose stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor with a knife and fork in its breast to the little girl. Then the match went out and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.

Speaker 1: 4:45

She lighted another match and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchants. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches and colored pictures like those she had seen in the show windows looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them and the match went out. The Christmas lights rose higher and higher till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. Someone is dying, thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.

Speaker 1: 5:41

She again rubbed a match on the wall and the light shone round her and the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in appearance. Grandmother, cried the little one oh, take me with you. I know you will go away when the match burns out. You will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose and the large, glorious Christmas tree. And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there, and the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful.

Speaker 1: 6:21

She took the little girl in her arms and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy, far above the earth, where there was neither cold, nor hunger, nor pain, for they were with God In the dawn of mourning. There lay the poor little one with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. She had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year, and the New Year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse. The child still sat in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. She tried to warm herself, said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother On New Year's Day. The End.