X is for Xmas Carols

Yes, at this time of year we can become a little jaded about Christmas carols as we are stalked by them just about  everywhere we go! Nonetheless they are one of the great traditions of Christmas and I am grateful for carols that remind us of what Christmas is all about.
The word carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy!Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived.

 The first recorded Christmas carol is from AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written, in 760AD, by Comas of Jerusalem for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this, many composers all over Europe started to write carols. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that most people couldn't understand.

This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started the public performance of nativity plays. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs and they were usually sung in homes rather than in churches.

When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained mainly unsung until Victorian times, when two men called William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected lots of old Christmas music from villages in England.

Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called 'Waits'. These were bands of people led by important local leaders (such as council leaders) who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public. They were called 'Waits' because they only sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as 'watchnight' or 'waitnight' because of the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began.

Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. Many new carols were also written .

New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Perhaps the most famous carol service, is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio (and all over the world). The Service was first performed in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of the First World War. It is always started with a single choir boy singing a solo of the first verse of the carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. http://tistheseasonto.be/carols/once-in-royal-davids-city.html

 A service of Nine Lessons and Carols, has nine bible readings (or lessons) that tell the Christmas story with one or two carols between each lesson.

As for we Aussies we have our own carols that celebrate a hot Christmas celebrated in city and country alike. Here are a couple of my favourites.