The idea of celebrating in December with special songs has been around for many hundreds of years - even before Jesus was born. But of course they didn't call them Christmas carols back then, because Christmas didn't exist! In Roman times, when it was dark and cold, people used to cheer themselves up with a winter festival called the Saturnalia. It was a long, noisy party, with lots of wild dancing and singing.
After Jesus was born and his teachings began to spread to many parts of the world, his followers wanted to encourage everyone to become Christian. But they didn't really approve of all of this noisy winter partying.
They wanted everyone to celebrate the Christian message properly by singing about the birth of Jesus, so they put new Christian words to the old favourite songs. Lucie explains: "The word 'carol' probably comes from the old French word 'carole', which - from around the mids - meant a popular circle dance accompanied by singing.
By the late Middle Ages, carols had become more associated with Christmas and the nativity. In the 19th Century, lots of new carols were written by the church and many of them are the carols we all know today. Lucie explains: "Ordinary people sang carols in their homes, often to their favourite folk tunes, while in church more formal, professional choirs sang sophisticated Christmas music.
The simple answer to this question is all over the place! Christmas carols have been sung in towns and villages for hundreds of years, with many places having their own local songs. This was long before the days of CD players and radios, so communities would come together to sing in order to enjoy music.
Many people couldn't read or write, so they learnt their carols by heart. It was a way to express your faith, devotion and belief system incorporating fun. It was just fun. People from diverse cultures and religious groups across the world have used rhythm, movement and sound to share their deepest emotions and beliefs.
It was probably one of our first ways of expressing humanity. Humans have rhythm. Humans sing. This legacy of Christmas carols has continued to be cherished by generations up to today — not to mention the life-changing impact it had on a group of soldiers at war in So why do these songs continue to captivate us?
How did one song help send a message of peace to the soldiers in those trenches? He still recalls gathering with his friends as a teenager and caroling for neighbors or going downtown to sing in stores — and hoping folks would treat them to hot chocolate and cookies for their performance. Nowadays Christmas carols are sung either from door to door or by a full a choir at a fixed place.
This brief history is of course much simplified and generalized. Hopefully I haven't ruined your festive mood. Or perhaps a different kind of Christmas carols actually seem refreshing, as some of you are already tired of Christmas music by now? Either way, Merry Christmas, my dear readers! We teach a variety of instruments and styles, including classical and jazz guitar, piano, drums, and music theory.
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History of carols The history of the genre "carol" was in fact not without questions. In the fifteenth century, carols became polyphonic and more and more elaborate.
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