One of my favorite Christmas memories is going caroling as a youth. Unfortunately, it appears few continue that practice today.

The Beginning

Carols were sung and danced in Europe thousands of years ago. However, prior to the birth of Jesus and the celebration of Christmas, these carols were pre-Christian/pagan songs and dances celebrating the Winter Solstice. When the birth of Jesus began to be celebrated at approximately the same time of year as the Winter Solstice, early Christians began singing Christian songs.

No one knows where Christmas carols began. Nor do they know who authored them or how they evolved. All that is known is caroling was an oral tradition passed down from one generation to the next.

It is believed that the first carols—slow, solemn hymns honoring Jesus’ birth—were written in Latin in the fourth and fifth centuries. But it wasn’t until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that they began to be associated with Christmas.

Did You Know…

• Originally, the words “carol” and “caroling” meant a “dance in a ring” accompanied by singing. “Carol” derives from words for dance. In Old French “carole” means a “kind of dance.” While Latin’s “choraula” means a “dance to the flute,” and the Greek word “choraules” means a “flute player who accompanies the choral dance.”
• Carols were once written for all four pagan season celebrations, but only the singing of songs for the Winter Solstice, which was absorbed by the Christmas holiday celebration, survives today.
• A Roman Bishop in 129 A.D. requested the song, Angel’s Hymn, be sung at Rome’s Christmas service.

The Middle

In 760 A.D., Comas of Jerusalem wrote a famous Christmas hymn for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon European composers began to write “Christmas carols.” This continued throughout Medieval times. The problem was these songs were written in Latin, and that language had disappeared with the Roman Empire several hundred years before.

And yet Christmas carols and services continued to be held in Latin, a language normal people didn’t read or speak. So, it’s not surprising that by the Middle Ages few people celebrated Christmas.

As explained in Did You Know St. Francis of Assisi Changed Christmas?, St. Assisi recognized the problem this language barrier presented. In 1223, he not only introduced the first living nativity, he nixed the use of Latin. He also encouraged his church members to embrace Christmas carols in their homes during the holiday season.

Spreading these songs were Minstrels, traveling singers. They were the radio, TV, and internet of their day. They entertained people wherever they traveled, often changing the song lyrics to fit the location. But because these early Christmas carols were like folk songs, they weren’t deemed proper to be sung in churches and were instead usually sung in homes and taverns.

These Christmas songs were shared across the world. And their popularity continued to increase until the 1640s, when the Puritans took over England and banned carols, caroling, and Christmas.

Did You Know…

• Most countries have their own unique Christmas traditions, but the one tradition common to most is caroling.
• The earliest known Christmas carol to be written down is from 1410, though only a small fragment of it still survives.
• In 1582, some of the Christmas carols that had been handed down by word of mouth were gathered, documented, and published.

The Finale

Even when the ban on singing Christmas carols ended in the late 1600s, the popularity of Christmas carols didn’t return. It wasn’t until Victorian times (1837-1901), that this began to change. Carols returned to churches, and, over time, they became an integral part of Christmas celebrations outside the church.

The twentieth century was a major turning point for Christmas carols. The inventions of the phonograph (record player) and radio provided people with a way to listen to Christmas carols without leaving home. But it was the widely used, The Oxford Book of Carols, that put Christmas carols back on top. This publication was used by more choirs and congregations than any other Christmas carol collection previously printed.

Did You Know…

• Christmas carols only survived during the ban in the mid-1600s because people continued to sing them in secret. Afterward, when secrecy was no longer necessary, it was the people living in rural areas that kept the carols alive into the 1800s.
• In the 1820s, many old Christmas carols were saved because two Englishmen, William Sandys and Davis Gilbert, collected them from English villages and published them.
• Many of today’s favorite Christmas carols were written during the 1800s.
• In the 1800s, prior to Christmas carols becoming popular again in churches, “Waits” were official carol singers. They sang on Christmas Eve, also known as “watchnight” or “waitnight” because of the shepherds who were watching their sheep when the angels came.
• The Oxford Book of Carols (first printed in 1928) remains in print today.
• In 2017, the Pew Research Center reported that around 16% of Americans had gone caroling. Maybe it’s time to introduce a new generation to this tradition.