Christmas Carols

I’m going to begin my festive season of posts with some carols to get the ball rolling. 

Love them or hate them, they’re a traditional part of Christmas but for how long have they been around?

Carols are very hard to trace but the earliest manuscripts date to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As with the majority of social history however, a far longer oral history is likely to have preceded and Ashley (see Notes) argues for tracing them all the way back to pre-Norman England following her analysis of themes and rhythm in earlier carols.                 

Many of these early carols contain folk song elements such as a repetitious nature possibly suggesting a work/labour song with an individual leading the song. 

For example:

"Tyrle, tyrlow, tyrle, tyrlow

So merrily the shepherds began to blos

Tidinges, tidinges that be true,

Sorowe is paste and joye dothe renue

Lully, lulley, lully, lulley,

The faucon hath borne my make away"

(Ashely: 66)
 


For your listening pleasure, the early fifteenth century "Nowel, nowel, nowel" from Deo Gracias Anglia! Medieval English Carols, The Trinity Carol Roll (Obsidian,  2012) CD

Blending folk traditions and religion has a long heritage and from the start, Christmas has entwined both pagan and Christian traditions. The very date of the 25^th of December was actually the date of the birth of the Roman deity Mithras and became associated with Christmas under Emperor Constantine and Mithras himself is often depicted with a red hat (Lancaster: 289). Having linked his birthday and Christmas already for you, I’ll leave you to make your own connections with the red hat.

[On that note, the naming of and the traditions of Easter are said to actually have their origins in Ēostre or Ostara, a Teutonic fertility deity.]

In England, the pagan traditions continued in the activity of wassailing (visiting orchards, praising the trees and drinking lots of mulled cider) and holly and ivy contests where religion was added retrospectively (I’ve more to say on holly and ivy – stay tuned!). 

So my thought for today is to remember that when getting hot under the collar about the secularisation of Christmas, think about how outraged the mithraists and pagans must have been following the Christianisation of their festivals.

Notes

Ashley, J. "Mediaeval Christmas Carols" in Music & Letters, vol. 5, no. 1 (Jan, 1924) pp. 65-71

Lancaster, C. “Metaphysical Beliefs and Architectural Principles” in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Mar., 1956), pp. 287-303