O Come, All ye Faithful

A look at carolling over the years:

When you hear the first strains of a carol you realise it's Christmastime again. And your mind darts back to the times and traditions you were a part of.

Carols were first sung over 1,000 years ago, dating back to around 200 AD in recorded history. However, during the Middle Ages, this musical tradition suffered a lull, as the songs were sung in Latin. The ninth and tenth centuries saw further evolution of what would become the traditional Christmas carol because of rhyming verses.

According to reports the introduction of rhyme, along with the cultivation of pagan lore attributed to Milanese Bishop St. Ambrose, brought tuned chants a bit closer to the Christmas carols of modern times. One of the earliest carols are believed to be 'We Three Kings' written by an Episcopal Bishop, John Henry Hopkins. But it was not published until 1863, during the midst of the Civil War.

The two traditions of singing and visiting first merged in Victorian England, as church carols began to merge with Christian folk music. At that time, it was far from a Christmas tradition; festivals such as May Day were considered worthy of carolling, too, but the repertoire as well as early records of this are somewhat unclear.

Sri Lanka

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.

Many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England with a demand for Christmas songs to sing. Due to this, carols again became popular. Many new carols, such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written in the Victorian period.

The act of travelling to different homes first merged in Victorian England, as church carols began to merge with Christian folk music. At that time, it was not strictly a Christmas tradition. In the 19th Century, Christmas became more commercialised and popular.

At present carols services of many forms have been created and have become popular. The custom of singing carols in the streets are not found in Sri Lanka as frequently as in some countries. A popular form of Carols services are the Carols by Candlelight services where the church is only lit by candlelight. Carols by Candlelight services are held all over the world, with Sri Lankan schools and churches too taking part on a wide scale.

Favourites

Carols, which originally were meant to dance to something or as a song of praise is unforgettable because it is linked with people's lives from their young days. Hearing a Christmas carol is like meeting an old friend. It takes one back to his childhood days when he relives the moments shared with the carols. While there are favourites in the list of carols country-wise, there are those that are favoured by both sides of the Atlantic.

Sri Lankans' traditional favourites include 'Away in a Manger', 'Christians Awake', 'Christmas Day Is Come', 'Deck the Hall', 'Ding Dong Merrily on High', 'Do You Hear What I Hear?', 'The First Nowell', 'Go Tell It on the Mountain', 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen', 'Good King Wenceslas', 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing', 'Joy to the World', 'Little Donkey', 'The Little Drummer Boy', 'Mary's Boy Child', 'O Come, All ye Faithful', 'O come, O come, Emmanuel', 'O Holy Night', 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', 'Once in Royal David's City', 'Silent Night', 'We Three Kings of Orient Are' and 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks'.

While celebrating Christmas with all its trappings and forms are more looked forward to by children, carols are cherished by people of all faiths.

Silent Night

When Silent Night was written in 1816, its writer Fr. Joseph Mohr in Mariapfarr, Austria, wasn't aware it would become an all time favourite Christmas carol. It took two years to find a music score to match his composition, and that came about by Franz Xaver Gruber who was Mohr's school teacher friend. It was sung at the Christmas service at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.

The song we know as 'Silent Night' was born as 'Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht' in a small Austrian village in 1818. According to legend, the church organ was broken on Christmas Eve, so the organist and town priest collaborated to create the carol with a guitar accompaniment to ensure that the people of Oberndorf did not go without music on the holy night. The song was translated to English by an American Episcopal priest in 1859.

There is also a legend associated with the carol that says Fr. Mohr wanted the carol to be sung by the children of the village at the midnight Christmas Eve service, as a surprise for their parents. But in the middle of practicing, the organ broke and not a note would come from it! So the children had to learn the carol only accompanied by a guitar. They learnt the carol so well that they could sing it on its own without accompaniment.

At Midnight Mass in 1818, Fr. Mohr and Franz Gruber sang each of the six verses with the church choir repeating the last two lines of each verse. Mohr set down the guitar arrangement on paper around 1820 and that is the earliest manuscript that still exists. It is displayed in the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg. There are a number of manuscripts of various 'StilleNacht' arrangement that were written by Franz Gruber in later years.

Most recorded

Later, Bing Crosby, whose Christmas album is one of the most popular of all time, first recorded 'Silent Night' in 1928. The song has since been recorded and re-recorded by countless artistes.

According to Time magazine 'Silent Night' is by far the most recorded carol in America since 1978, outstripping runner-up 'Joy to the World' almost two to one. A 2010 study showed that the same applied to Britain. Of the top 10 highest-selling Christmas albums of all time, no less than seven feature the song.

Since its humble origins in an Austrian village almost 200 years ago, the song has come a long way for UNESCO to declare it as part of an "intangible cultural heritage."

Since its humble origins in an Austrian village almost 200 years ago, the song has come a long way. It is now one of the most, if not the most, recorded song in the world!