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Whilst carols are as familiar as a part of christmas as trees, presents and a startling lack of snow, their origin is often overlooked. In this entertaining ...
- 4 min
- 6.7K
- Gresham College
Christmas carols are one of the holiday season's most recognizable traditions. Ensembles that have remained dormant for the entire year come together to sing...
- 4 min
- 24.1K
- Liberty Park Music
Where do carols come from, how did they become so popular – and why are some carols not actually carols at all? We reveal the secret history of these festive favourites.
Dec 25, 2022 · Christmas carols ring throughout the world during the holiday season but their beginnings stem from a small medieval city called Truro, England. NBC’s Kelly ...
- 4 min
- 6.3K
- TODAY
- What Was The First Christmas Carol?
- When Did People Start ‘Carolling’?
- What Makes Christmas Music So Christmassy?
- Why Aren’T Christmas Carols Sung All Year round?
It’s generally accepted that one of the first Christmas carols ever to be recorded was the 129 AD ‘Angels Hymn’, according to The New Daily. Around this time, Christianity-themed hymns started taking over the previous pagan songs celebrating Winter Solstice. More and more slow, solemn hymns started to emerge in the fourth century, and by the 12th, ...
The notion of groups of carollers assembling in public spaces was a 19th-century one, according to Oxford. Called ‘waits’, these collections of singers used to gather to perform for passers-by, who traditionally thanked them with tasty offerings of drinks or mince pies. It became known as wassailing and continues today, of course. Groups continue t...
There are several elements that go into something seeming to sound unquestionably Christmassy. Stirring melodies are usually sprinkled with minor and diminished chords – think of the mix of major and minor melody lines in ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ – in popular Christmas carols and songs. This all underpins lyrics that are nostalgic, and often a...
“Oh, well I wish it could be Christmas everyday, When the kids start singing and the band begins to play...” rock band Wizzard first sung in the 1970s. Plenty of people do, and while we’re sure some sing Christmas carolsall year round, it’s traditional to stick to singing carols in the lead-up to Christmas Day, if we’re to take Oxford’s definition ...
Dec 20, 2016 · Alamy. The familiar tunes never fail to get us in the festive mood – but many of them have remarkably un-Christmassy roots, writes Mark Forsyth. The Christmas carol service was invented in...
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When did Christmas carols start?
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If you’ve ever wondered when Christmas carols first came about, the answer lies in the 14th century – although their evolution dates back even further. Even before Christianity, it is thought that midwinter songs existed to keep up people’s spirits, along with dances, plays and feasts.
