Christmas Carols Historical Facts, Figures and Trivia

Facts about Christmas Songs and Carols

• 56 percent of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets.
• Carols are songs of religious joy sung at a particular season of the year, especially Christmas. Christmas carols are songs (hymns) where the words are about Christmas or winter that are sung just before or during Christmas.
• Christmas carolling began as an old English custom called Wassailing - toasting neighbors to a long and healthy life.
• Christmas carols were banned between 1647 and 1660 in England by Oliver Cromwell who thought that Christmas should be a solemn day.
• In the festive song, ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’, there are 364 gifts
• It's "God rest ye merry, gentlemen," not "God rest ye, merry gentlemen."
• Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.
• The "Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally written to help Catholic children, in England, remember different articles of faith during the persecution by Protestant Monarchs. The "true love" represented God, and the gifts all different ideas: The "Partridge in a pear tree" was Christ; 2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments; 3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity -- the Theological Virtues; 4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists; 5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which relays the history of man's fall from grace.; 6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation; 7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments; 8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes; 9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit; 10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments; 11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles; 12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
• The popular Christmas carol Silent Night was written by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr in 1818 as a result of a broken church organ.
• The word carol comes from the ancient Greek choros, which means, 'dancing in a circle,' and from the Old French word carol, meaning 'a song to accompany dancing.'
• There are some early carols which date back to between 1350 and 1550. People loved to sing carols then. However, in 1647 and during the time of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Parliament, Christmas was cancelled because it was thought that people were enjoying themselves too much to remember Jesus Christ.

>>> Christmas Facts: Religion

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