The first sung carols were pagan songs, sung at the winter
Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles.
Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, celebrated
to honour the sun god usually on 22nd December. Early Christians
adopted the songs and replaced them with Christian songs.
Around A.D 129, according to history, a Roman Bishop’s
request that a song ‘Angel’s Hymn’ be sung at a Christmas service in Rome,
marked the birth of Christmas Carols.
From there, several composers around Europe wrote Christmas
Carols. However, the Carols were not widely accepted because it was mostly in
Latin language which was not understood by the common people.
The use of the Carol almost went to extinction due to lack of
interest. However, by the year 1223, St Francis of Assisi started his ‘Nativity
Plays’ in Italy, whereby the people in the plays sang songs telling the story
of the activities that took place during the birth of Jesus.
The carols however had a setback in 1647 during the rule of
Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans when the celebration of Christmas and singing
of the Carols was abolished. Its survival was made possible by keeping secret records
and singing it in secret, till the Victorian times when it attained the status
and standard it has occupied till this our present generation.
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