When you think about it, national anthems are kind of a weird concept.
I mean, why a specific song, and why specifically a specific song to represent a whole nation?
Sure, the national unity at important events and sports games is nice, but not all of us
have good singing voices, as seen here...
But I digress.
So, what was the first true national anthem, and what is the oldest still in use today?
Well, in the grand scheme of nations and empires, national anthems are kind of a new concept,
with most only dating back to the 19th century at the most.
However, while national anthems may now be popular because of Europe and all that colonialism
stuff, what may be the oldest national anthem in the world (and indeed oldest still in use)
is the national anthem of Japan.
Kimigayo, meaning “His Imperial Majesty’s Reign” was written as a poem by an unknown
author from sometime during the Heian period, which basically means anywhere between the
years 794 and 1185, though even the latest would make it the oldest national anthem in
the world.
Or well, technically at least, but we’ll get to that in a second.
Kimigayo, which you are of course hearing the instrumental version of right now, is
also one of the shortest national anthems out there, being literally only 32 characters
long.
The song, which is essentially a praise to the Japanese emperor, wishing them a long
and happy life, was adopted as the anthem of the Japanese Empire in 1888, but disbanded
from 1945 to 1999 for… empire reasons.
J.J.
McCullough goes into a bit more detail on this in his second anthems video.
Why only in 1888, though?
Well, the one caveat here that lets me make a longer video out of this is that Kimigayo
was written as a poem, not a song.
Therefore, it only had music added onto it in the year 1880, possibly nearly 1,000 years
after it was first written.
So in a sense, it only really, truly counts as the oldest lyrics to any national anthem
in the world.
In terms of actual songs, there are actually a few more contenders for that such position.
Okay, well what’s another choice for us?
Well, another song often cited as the world’s oldest national anthem is Het Wilhelmus from
the Netherlands.
The song was written during the Dutch Revolt, either in or just before the year 1572, when
the Dutch were deciding that they didn’t like being a part of Spain.
The song, which also had music added onto it at around the same time as it was written,
was written from the viewpoint of William I, Prince of Orange, often said to be the
father of the Dutch nation.
The song describes William’s personal struggles to be loyal to the King of Spain, without
being unfaithful to his conscious or his nation.
Prince William was the stadholder of the Netherlands under King Philip II of Spain, which was basically
kind of like the equivalent of a governor under this rule.
However, there’s another caveat coming, which is that Het Wilhelmus, although dating
back to the 16th century and having always been popular among the Dutch, was not made
the *official* national anthem of the Netherlands until 1932…
God damnit.
Okay, so we already got two answers, but maybe not very satisfying answers for those who
want old national anthems that already had music and were actually their countries’
national anthems.
Well, you’re still in luck (obviously, I mean we got over 200 to choose from, at least
one’s got to be pretty old by now).
Well, another national anthem that has a pretty good claim to fame in this regard is God Save
the King/Queen, which was adopted by the United Kingdom to be its anthem in the year 1745,
long after Kimigayo and Wilhelmus were written, but still a good deal before they were officially
adopted (if you want to jump into /that/ boat).
I talked more about this song in a previous video, which you should, like, totes check
out.
It isn’t quite known when it was actually written, but it appeared in a songbook from
1744 and subsequently became quite popular in Britain.
Its original lyrics however didn’t just honor “the King of England”, but specifically
King George II, the then ruling monarch of Britain.
Also known by Brits as “the guy before the crazy guy” and by us Americans as “the
guy before the crazy guy we won a war against”.
One little known fact about the anthem is that there was actually a republican version
of the anthem written in 1794 by American and Frenchman Joel Barlow, which actually
honored the “liberating power of the guillotine”.
Yes, nothing more liberating than being finally relieved of having to carry around that annoying
head of yours… or the monarchy.
Obviously, this wasn’t the most important thing I could have told you, just a funny
side note that I just learned.
However, we haven’t even considered historical anthems yet, of which there is yet another
contender, the old Polish hymn… oh f…
The hymn…
Bogurodzica… “burgerodica” was composed sometime between the 10th and 13th centuries,
and was sang by Polish knights before the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.
However, since national anthems weren’t exactly much of a thing yet, the song was
more of a patriotic hymn that was closely associated with Poland.
Bogurodzica was actually considered as a candidate for the national anthem of the new Poland
created in 1918, out of the ashes of the Russian and German Empires, though it was far from
the only choice, with the anthem status eventually going to the current anthem, [Mazurek Dąbrowskiego].
So, what is the oldest national anthem in the world?
Well, it’s not all that clear if there even is a single winner, so it really depends on
what category you want.
Kimigayo by lyrics, Het Wilhelmus by actual songs, God Save the Queen/King by actually
being the official anthem, or the Star-Spangled Banner by anthems of the United States named
“the Star-Spangled Banner”, it’s a very short list but still.
I know it’s probably rather unsatisfying that there isn’t one true answer to this
question, but it’s important to keep in mind that anything that doesn’t have an
exception is the exception to the rule whenever it comes to studying anything made by humans.
But, what even is a national anthem, and what truly counts it for this list?
Kimigayo is absolutely a worthy mention to this list, but it’s kind of difficult to
give it the spot outright, due to its surprising initial lack of… actually being a song.
So, which song truly counts?
Argue about it in the comments below, honestly though, you probably already have.
Thanks as always for watching this video.
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