CAROL SINGING

 

The custom of singing carols at Christmas is of English origin which began in the middle ages.

In the beginning the singing of Christmas carols was known as 'wassailing'.

But this soon changed, and the singers became known as carolers when groups of serenaders called "waits" would travel around from house to house singing ancient carols and spreading the holiday spirit.

The word "carol" means "song of joy."

The reason Christmas carols became so popular was that the angels sang when they appeared to the shepherds at Bethlehem to announce the birth of Jesus Christ's.

The original meaning of a carol is quite different to what we imagine it to be today for a carol was once a secular dance which was performed at any time of the year.

People danced around in a circle holding hands and singing songs.

The dance reminded onlookers of a coronet, so they called it a 'carol'. The name was transferred later on from the dance to the song itself. Carols

By the 16th century carols were sung only at Christmas time and at one time only Bishops and clergy were permitted to sing carols in church.

But carols became too popular amongst the public to be confined to church and were soon sung in the streets.

A true Carol tells the story in song of the birth of Christ and is sung during period leading up to Christmas.