An Overview of the most Popular Christmas Carols
Christmas would not be Christmas without Christmas Carols. The familiar tunes and words take us all back to childhood Christmases. Everyone has their favourite Christmascarolbut some are very popular indeed. Christmas carols seem to unite people whether they go to church regularly or just at Christmas or not at all. A Salvation Army band striking up ChristmasCarols, in a shopping centre, always draws a crowd of onlookers, some singing the old familiar words.
People have sung carols in Europe at the winter solstice for millennia. The word ‘carol’ means a simple verse with a refrain and once referred to all such songs. One of the first true Christmas carols was one called “Angel’s Hymn”, and was sung at a Roman Christmas service in 129AD. The first Christian Christmas carols were sung in Latin, the language of priests and scholars rather than that of the ordinary people. In 1223, St Francis of Assisi instituted Nativity plays in Italy, which partly told the nativity story in songs and canticles, which were largely in the audience’s own language, so they could join in. These carols spread throughout Europe. Most early carols were for home entertainment rather than for singing in church. Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan government banned Christmas carols seeing them as part of a sinful, pagan celebration. People sang them secretly in their homes. In Victorian times, William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected traditional old Christmas music from English villages, where it had survived.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was one of the Christmas Carols collected by Sandys and Gilbert into “Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern” published in 1833. However, it lyrics are old English and thought to date to the fifteenth century although it may be older and its author is unknown.
“Silent Night” is many people’s favourite carol, its gentle melody and beautiful words give many people pleasure. Yet its writing was of necessity, according to an old story 180 years ago, Father Joseph Mohr and Choirmaster Franz Xavier Gruber, writers of words and music respectively, sang “Stille Nacht! Herlige Nacht! ”, accompanied by a guitar, for the first time. From a village church at Oberndorf, Austria, at midnight mass on Christmas Eve, 1818, this beautiful Christmas carol spread around the world and was translated into many languages including English.
“Ding Dong Merrily on High” is thought to have originated in sixteenth century France. Its words were originally Latin, hence the ‘Gloria in excelcis Deo’, meaning glory to God in the Highest, which is the only survival of the original Latin words. It is a stirring carol, which bring home the joy of Christmas especially for youngsters.
Perhaps the most festive among the traditional Christmas carols is “We Wish you a Merry Christmas”. The carol’s author and composer are unknown but historians believe that it dates back to, at least, the sixteenth century and describes the ancient English custom of wassailers, or carol singers, singing at wealthy houses in exchange for Christmas treats. The exhortation to “bring us some figgy pudding” refers to the forerunner of the modern Christmas pudding.
The Wassail Song is a traditional song celebrating New Year rather than Christmas. Wassail is an old English word meaning a toast similar to “Good Health”. It can also mean a drink of spiced mulled wine used to drink such a toast. The carol’s author and composer are unknown, as is the age of the carol, but wassailing traditions date back to, at least, the twelfth century.
O Come All Ye Faithful or Adeste Fideles was originally a Latin hymn written in the early eighteenth century and not intended to be a Christmas carol. ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ may have pagan origins and date back more than a thousand years. Although it seems that it may be an unusual survivor, it was always a British custom to take holly and ivy indoors at the winter solstice or Christmastime and it seems that like these two hardy plants the carol survived.
Christmas carols remind us that Christmas was not always the commercial celebration that it is now. They take us back to the simpler, more innocent time of childhood. Carols are part of our shared history. They remind us of the true meaning of Christmas and we enjoy singing them together.
