![]() Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn't understand. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write 'Christmas carols'. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written in 760, by Comas of Jerusalem, for the Greek Orthodox Church. In 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called "Angel's Hymn" should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. The word Carol actually means a dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived.Ĭhristmas, remembering the birth of Jesus, then started to be celebrated at the same time as the solstice, so the early Christians started singing Christian songs instead of pre-Christian/pagan ones. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around 22nd December. They were pre-Christian/pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations. Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols.
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