"Caroling, caroling through the snow, Christmas bells are ringing..."

A Very Vintage Christmas post #8

Today is (already) the 16th of December...

Do you realize what this means?It means it is only NINE days until Christmas.

We're down to single digits,people!

Christmas caroling!

A lot of people traditionally do this during the Christmas holidays, whether you do it as a part of a church group, or you just do it with family and friends.

I have some memories of Christmas caroling with my grandpa's church when I was a youngster in elementary school. And, in much more recent times, I have a group of friends that gets together shortly before Christmas, watches the movie White Christmas, and then goes Christmas caroling to the surrounding houses in the neighborhood.

But have you ever wondered exactly where the idea of Christmas caroling came from? Or maybe wondered how long it has been around? Well if you ironically happened to be wondering about those two exact questions, then you've come to the right place because that is exactly what today's post is about!

The word "carol" comes from a word that means to dance or sing songs of joy. "Carols," or traditional songs date back centuries, to celebrations of the Winter Solstice. As time went on, more carols were used for all the seasons, including spring and summer, although only winter carols really survived the test of time.

When the early church began to make efforts to replace the Winter Solstice with the Christmas holiday, special carols for masses and celebratory services were written. However, the common people got tired of them fairly quickly because they could not understand them since they were written and sung in Latin. So, the use of Christmas carols was put on the back burner, so to speak.

The celebrated monk, Francis of Assisi, began bringing back the use of Christmas carols during his nativity plays, and they became much more appealing to the people in the audience because he made an effort to have them sung in their native language. This practice caught on and quickly spread all over Europe.

It was during the Middle ages that the idea of public caroling as we know it today was started. Minstrels would travel through the streets during the Christmas season, especially on Christmas Eve, and sing carols for others enjoyment. Eventually, the use of carols temporarily died out once again during the 1600s, when Oliver Cromwell rose to power. Yet even though they were not sung in public anymore, many people still privately used them in their homes, so they were not entirely forgotten. They began to come back into use during the Victorian Era.

Naturally, when settlers came to America, they brought their tradition of Christmas carols with them and turned it into their very own tradition, until it grew into the modern idea of Christmas caroling that we have today.

So, if you enjoy Christmas caroling then maybe this will fascinate you the next time you do it. If you've never been Christmas caroling, perhaps it will inspire you to do so. Either way, I hope that you have enjoyed this little throwback on an old Christmas tradition.

That's it for today!

Check back with us on Thursday, December 20th, for another classic Christmas song.

Who knows, maybe you could add it to your list of songs to use when you go caroling.

Until then, have A Very Vintage Christmas!