Christmas Carols evoke manyresponses in us; they makeus remember our past, theyremind us of other places, theyprompt our memories of funtimes and sad times. We evensing along with Carols, whensinging outloud is somethingwe rarely do in public. We hearCarols being played over andover again in shopping mallsand stores, so even if we havenever heard of them before, afew hours later we know themwell. Carols can remind us ofchildhood memories and of adifferent climate to the one weare in. Afterall, how long hasit been since you decked thehalls with boughs of holly andI love Christmas Carols. Do you?eaten figgy pudding? When wasthe last time you saw Frostythe Snowman in Indonesia?
Snowman in Indonesia?What Carols do you know?What do you associate withthese Carols? Which one is yourfavourite? Why is it a favourite?
Carols sung at Christmasare a relatively recentphenomenon. The bookthat popularised them wasChristmas Carols Ancient andModern, published in 1833. Butprior to that Carols were beingwritten and sung. The oldestChristmas Carol was actuallywritten in the 300s AD, that is1,700 years ago. It is believedthat “Of the Father’s LoveBegotten,” written by AureliusPrudentius, may have been thefirst recorded Christmas Carol.
Christmas Carols becamemore popular when the famousinventor Johannes Gutenbergcreated his printing pressaround the year 1447. Thismachine allowed copies to bemade fairly easily, so papercopies of Christmas Carolscould be rolled off by thedozens, even hundreds, andpassed around.
The most famous ofChristmas Carols is SilentNight, Holy Night. It waspenned as a poem by JosephMohr, a priest in Austria, in1816. Two years later, on24 December 1818, Mohrjourneyedto the homeof musicianschoolteacherFranz Gruber.He showed hisfriend the poemand asked himto add a melodyand guitaraccompanimentso that it couldbe sung atmidnight Mass.The church’sorgan wasbroken. Thatnight was thefirst publicperformance ofthis Carol. Mohrand Gruber saved’ Christmas for thecongregation that year.
‘Joy to the World’ was themost published Carol in NorthAmerica in the late 1990s. Thewords are by English hymnwriter Isaac Watts, based onPsalm98 in the Bible. The songwas first published in 1719 inWatts’ collection; The Psalms ofDavid: Imitated in the Languageof the new Testament, andApplied to the Christian Stateand Worship. Books had longtitles in those days.
By far the most recordedChristmas song is I’m Dreamingof A White Christmas withover 500 versions in dozensof languages. Now here is aChristmas song that is popularwith those from the northernhemisphere because of itsassociations. I come fromAustralia where Christmas wasalways hot and so the words tome are meaningless!
But what older Carols do foreveryone is not meaningless.Carols remind us (or if weare new to Christmas and itscelebrations then Carols tellus) why we have Christmas.They remind us that Christmasis a celebration of the birth ofJesus in Betlehem in the landwe currently call Palestine, andthat he was destined for greatthings and came as a practicaldemonstration of God’s love. Itis great to be reminded of this.
Happy Christmas!
Ian
