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This world is full of various religion and different types of people. Every religion has its own culture, festival and rituals. Christmas is the biggest festival of the Christians but people all over the world enjoys and participates in this festival. Thus it is the largest festival of this planet. Now Carol means a song or a hymn. When it is written on the basis of Christmas festival and its lyrics are mainly based on the themes of Christmas then it is called a Christmas Carol.
Christmas carol has a great history behind it and it has been going on for more than eight hundred years. Common people used to hum these songs which was later introduced in the church it was deeply associated with Christmas. There are various types of Christmas carols like: Religious, Non-religious, Czech, and French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Filipino and carols in many other languages. Some the great Christmas carols are: A Babe is Born in Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful, Angels Carol, As Lately WE Watched, Away in a Manger, Do You Hear what I Hear, Glory to God, The Holly and the Ivy, Irish Carol, Little Donkey, A Marshmallow World, All I Want For Christmas Is You, Christmas Shoes, Hi Ho the Holly, Jingle Bells, Last Christmas and many more. |
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Early carols, some of which are in English and some in Latin’s, were composed mainly for the educated audience at the Royal courts. Wassailing carols were omitted from the church carols. Thus if we observe the gradual history of Christmas carols we will find that it has undergone various stages over the years. Today carols are sung in almost every Christian celebration and every church gathering.
If we go through the various genres of traditional Western Classical music we will find that many music composers of various time was greatly influenced by carols. It also shows the fact that carols were not entirely confined within churches .In Australia Christmas takes place in the mid of summer, and in Melbourne there is a ritual of “Carols by Candlelight”. Here people hold a lit candle in their hand while the carol is being performed on the stage.
Thus we can see that there are various ways of singing and performing carol songs. The mass carol singing in North Sheffield and North Derbyshire is also hugely popular. Before I finish this topic, it can be said that carols over the years have played a great role in Christian celebrations and festivals in order to make those events more memorable and cherish able. |
