Christmas brings such a richness to our singing in church. This causes me to think about the origins of some of the carols we enjoy. Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but they were not Christmas carols, they were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice, being the shortest day of the year; usually it’s the 21st December. The word Carol actually means ‘dance’ or a ‘song of praise and joy’.

Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. In AD129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called "Angel's Hymn" should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written in AD760, by Comas of Jerusalem, for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write 'Christmas carols'. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that most people couldn't understand. By the time of the Middles Ages, most had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.

This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs which told the story. The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410 and was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time were only very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the Holy Family and were seen more as entertainment.

When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called 'Waits'. They were so called because they only sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as 'watchnight' or 'waitnight' because of the shepherds who were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began. Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. Many new carols, such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written in the Victorian period. Carol services became common, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still practised today! One of the most popular types of Carols services nowadays are ‘Carols by Candlelight’.

The most famous type of Carol service might be the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, where carols and Bible readings tell the Christmas Story. The service was created and performed in 1880 by Edward Benson, who was the then newly appointed Bishop of Truro. The idea travelled around the UK and became quite a popular service to hold on Christmas Eve. However, it was made very famous by the choir from King's College, Cambridge, which was reckoned to be the best Church choir in the world at the time. The Service was first performed at King's College in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of the First World War. In 1919 the opening carol came to be ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and this set the main order and structure of the lessons as it still is today.

I hope you will all enjoy carol singing at St. Anne’s this year. Remember, for the Church, the Christmas and Epiphany seasons run right through to the Feast of Candlemas (2nd February), long after most have had their tree shredded and decorations have been returned to the loft. There is plenty of time to sing and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

All at St. Anne’s wish you a blessed Christmas and a very happy New Year!