Christmas carols: How it all began centuries ago

Christmas means hot chocolate, Secret Santa and of course, listening to carols on a loop! Did you know the carol singing started thousands of years ago as songs of worship before they evolved to the current cheery music we hear today? From Gregorian chants sung by Christian monks to Nat King Cole’s ‘A Christmas Song’, which introduced us to the modern carols, there’s a lot of evolution that has taken place.

The history of Christmas carols

Let’s go back a bit, rather a lot, to pre-Christian Europe when pagan songs were sung throughout the year, but mostly during the Winter Solstice celebrations. The early compositions were written in Latin, such as ‘Angel’s Hymn’ proposed by a Roman bishop in the year 129 and the ‘Christmas Hymn’, written in 760 for the Greek Orthodox Church. Things changed with St. Francis of Assisi staging his nativity plays in 1223 in Italy, told in an accessible language, with the carols becoming popular across Europe. 

As Christianity spread across Europe from the fourth to the 14th century, Franciscan friars can be credited with creating the earliest carols. The earliest ones are believed to be written in 1410, telling the story of Mary and Jesus in Bethlehem. Carols survived over centuries even braving a ban by Puritans in 1640s England on Christmas celebrations. Until 1700, it was only ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night’, recounting the story of the three shepherds visiting baby Jesus, was permitted to be sung besides Psalms from the Bible. All this changed during the Victorian times, when William Sandys and Davis Gilbert brought folk songs or rural Christmas music into mainstream culture. Soon, carols were being sung across churches, concert halls and even the streets.

As for England’s oldest surviving carol, English Heritage trustee Professor Ronald Hutton is quoted as saying, “If you go for the component parts, I think it’s ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night’, which has a 16th-century tune and 17th-century words. On the other hand, they’re not put together securely until the 19th century. So if you’re going for the oldest carol that’s still popular, which is complete, it’s probably ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, both the tune and the words of which seem to be securely put together by the end of the 18th century.”

Popular Christmas carols and their origins

‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’: Meant to be a “solemn” song, the lyrics were penned in 1739 by Charles Wesley (1707–88), said to have been inspired by the sound of church bells. Titled ‘A Hymn for Christmas-Day’, its first line was ‘Hark how all the Welkin Rings’ (‘welkin’ meaning sky or heaven). In 1754, this became ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ as we know it today, adapted in 1855 to be sung to German composer Felix Mendelssohn’s tune. A prolific writer and brother of Methodist founder John Wesley, he reportedly wrote nearly 9,000 hymns and poems.

Hutton remarks, “The original first two lines are, ‘Hark how all the welkin rings, Glorious the king of kings’. And quite obviously, this is pretty obscure. Even in the early 18th century, ‘welkin’ was a rather old-fashioned way of saying heaven or sky. And so quietly and tactfully, the Methodist preacher George Whitefield tidied the thing up and, in 1754, [added] the two opening lines that have remained ever since.” The present opening lines are “Hark! The herald angels sing; Glory to the new-born king.”

‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’: The classic Christmas carol, centred around the 12 days of the season, has seemingly a random lists of gifts, from a partridge in a pear tree to swans and drummers. However, this makes sense as according to experts, the song was meant as a memory game. Here is the list of gifts: A partridge in a pear tree; Two turtle doves; Three french hens; Four calling birds; Five gold rings; Six geese a-laying; Seven swans a-swimming; Eight maids a-milking; Nine ladies dancing; Ten lords a-leaping; Eleven pipers piping and Twelve drummers drumming.

‘Deck the Halls’: Originally a Welsh folk song, the 16th-century carol was originally titled Nos Galan and only acquired its Christmassy overtones in the 19th century. The lyrics were also made “more proper” to suit the Victorians by Thomas Oliphant, who also added the festive ‘fa la la’ chorus.

‘Silent Night’: The perennial favourite, originally known as ‘Stille Nacht’, first performed on Christmas Eve in 1818 has interesting origins. As the story goes, Joseph Mohr, a young Austrian Catholic priest at St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, was faced with a disastrous Christmas service when the church organ was attacked by mice. He recalled a poem he had written earlier and asked schoolmaster and organist Franz Xavez Gruber to set it to music. Later, the two men — Mohr on guitar — performed ‘Stille Nacht’ for the Christmas Mass. The song has since been reportedly translated into over 300 languages and dialects. 

Christmas carols are all about evoking nostalgia and joy, while being uplifting and inspiring. While the earlier hymns centred around the birth of Jesus, today we sing more of Christmassy sleigh bells and chestnuts! Next time you’re listening to carols, remember how it all began!