The word Carol today refers to a joyful religious song celebrating the birth of Christ.
The ancient word Carol referred to “Dancing and Singing songs of praise and happiness”. Not necessarily Christmas songs. A Fourth Century Pope declared December 25 to be Christmas. After this some secular songs were adapted for songs celebrating the birth of Jesus. Church leaders frowned on this and took control of Christmas music for the next 1200 years or so. You were only allowed to sing the songs designated by the Church. Those songs were in Latin and the common people did not understand them. They brought no Joy. Music through the Dark Ages was rarely associated with Christmas.
The first Nativity scene showed up in 1223 A.D. St. Francis of Assisi built the scene right outside of his church. He invited children to view his vision of what the first Christmas looked like and to join him in the midst of the display singing Christmas songs. He taught them songs in their own language. These children standing outside in the cold were probably the first Christmas Carolers.
The Nativity grew more ornate and complex every year and evolved into actual plays about Christmas. The Carols, which consisted of a Psalm put to music, were sung between scenes. This became popular and spread thru-out Europe. Christmas had come outside the walls of the church and common people were beginning to understand and even embrace the holiday.
The songs were put to the tunes of common melodies. Amateur musicians were using common folk melodies so that common people could easily sing along. This shocked church leaders so much that they began to try to ban songs written by anyone but trained clergy. The attempts by the church to snuff out Christmas Carols didn’t work. This new movement was too strong and people ignored the attempted ban.
Soon professional and amateur carolers could be found throughout Europe. They entertained audiences with a new type of singing during the month of December. When the troubadours moved on to the next town the carols stayed behind.
Church leaders felt that by losing control of Christmas music they were losing control of their faith. So the church continued to fight the spread of Christmas music.
In the 16th Century Martin Luther embraced Christmas Carols. George Frederic Handel, also a German, composed The Messiah in 1741. This began to change the churches opinion of Modern Christmas Music.
Then in Austria a priest name Joseph Mohr and a schoolteacher named Franz Gruber put their talents together to create “Silent Night”. The Church then began to accept Carols in earnest. Silent Night has now become the most recorded song in history. Christmas Carols finally became fully accepted as Christmas history when Queen Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Germany in 1840. The royal family loved Christmas music. In an effort to charm the royals, church groups would go to Windsor Castle to serenade the Queen and her family. Soon Victorian Carolers made their way thruout London.
The new age of Caroling had also brought a sincere expression of faith and joy. In the United States the Methodists were the first to introduce carols. The Lutherans were a close second. They brought organized street carolers to their own towns. By the end of the Civil War, thousand of churches were using carolers to reach the lost.
Caroling became a way to spread the Gospel throughout the land. Today it is accepted not only in Christian culture but also in secular culture. I recently went to Disneyland and found myself in the midst of an incredible Christmas concert in the main town square of the “Happiest Place on Earth”. It was a full-blown Gospel presentation set to Christmas Carols and narrated by Dick Van Dyke. It was amazing. It became, for some people, a worship service right on Main Street USA. For others it was just a concert with Christmas songs. A Christmas song is a song about Christmas. A Christmas Carol is joyful religious song celebrating the birth of Christ. What is the difference? The difference is in the word Joyful! For the believer we hear the news of a savior coming for us and we experience Joy! The difference is not in the song but in the heart of the singer.