Christmas Carols

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12008, 10 December 1924, Page 10 (Supplement)

Christmas Carols

Older than Christianity Itself

New Progress Through Centuries

Christmas carols are infinitely older than Christianity. Through the impossibility of ascertaining their actual dates, ecclesiastical anniversaries were fixed at cardinal points of the year. The time allotted the Feast of the Nativity waa that of the Winter solstice. Way haok in the remotest shadows of the past, this part of the year had been given over to feasting, dancing, drinking, and song, mingled with religious rites of thanksgiving for the return of the sun, which then begins to regain power and mount in the horizon. It had been thus among Chinese, Persians, and Greeks. The Bacchanalia and Saturnalia of the Romans, and the Thor festivals among Saxon and Other northern nations at Yuletide were merely comparatively modern developments. XtMs, therefore, not surprising that Bacchanalian illustrations have been found among the decorations of the early Christian churches. . But in the first century, when Christianity was the faith of a few and l not the State religion, the Feast of the Nativity was celebrated in the catacombs. The sounds of pagan revelry muffled the Christian carols of praise which otherwise would have risen from beneath the palaces and temples of Rome. . . It was not till the time of St. Francis that the humanity of Nativity (which had hitherto been regarded as a theological mystery, made possible the “carol spirit,” which links the ineaniation to everyday life. Jacopone db Todi, who was born shortly- after the death Of Si. Francis, first gave voice to this tjew spirit. The following lines (translated from the Italian) show with what human love the Saviour hod come to be regarded: __ Gome, and look upon her child 1 Nestling in the hay! See his fair arms opened wide, On' her' lap to play l And ,ehe tucks him to her side, Cloaks, him as she may! Gives her paps into his mouth, Where has lips are laid.

! Ifi his time Jaoopone was considered niftd. “But if mad,” says a modern Italian writer, “he was as mad as a j The next century shows a somewhat similar wave of fervency to have passed.'fiver Germany. This was a mystical movement caused by the preaching of Dominican friars. The soul comes into immediate union with God by bringing forth the son within itself. The doctrine is expressed in ono of the earliest German carols: Whoe’er would hope in gladness :To kiss this Holy Child, MbSE' suffer many a pain and woe, -Patient like him and mild. Hftist die with Him to evil • And rise to righteousness, That so with Christ he too may share : Eternal life and bliss. Tn Spain and all the other‘Western European countries there was a prodigious output .of carols during the fif-' teertth and sixteenth centuries. Most ctirious of all, perhaps; ate those in various languages which describe the nfiises made by animals at.the-news of; Christ’s , birth. The following"'is'a French example:— . Comae les bestes autrefois;? ParMefit mieux Latin fiue Frafitjola,, Le coq, de loin voyant lo fait, S’ecria; Chrißtuanatus est. Le boeuf, d’un air tout abaubi, Demands 1 TJbi ? Übi ? Dbi P Maistre Baudot, cutiosus De l’aller voir, dit; Eamus; Et, droit sur ses pattes,-le veau , Bougie deux fois; Volo, Volo! England's greatest vocal activity, so far as carols are concerned, was in the. fifteenth century. Wynkyn de Worde printed the first collection in 1521. The most characteristic note of the best of these early carols is-a pathetic wistfulness. In some cases the yearnings of the writer - find expression iff real poetry. For instance, there is something strangely haunting in “The Seven Virgins” : All under the leaves, and the leaves of life, I-met with virgins seven, And one of them wag Mary mild, Our JXord’s mother of Heaven. O what are you seeking, you seven fair maids All under the leaves of life? - Come tell, come tell, what seek yon All Under the leaves of life? We’re seeking for no leaves, Thomas, But for a friend of thine. We’re seeking for sweet Jesus Christ To he our guide and thine. Go down, go down to yonder town And sit on the gallery, And there you’ll see sweet Jesus Christ Nailed to a big yew tree. So .down they went to vonder town As fast as. foot could fall, And many a grievous bitter tear FYons the Virgin’s eye did fall. |

O peace. Mother, O peace, Mother, ] Your weeping doth me grieve; ! I must suffer this, he said I For Adam and tor Eve! Mother take yon John Evangelist AH for to be your son, ' And he will comfort you sometimes Mother as I have done. 1 O come thou John Evangelist • Tfyou’rt weloome, unto me. But more welcome my own dear Son* , Whom I nursed on my knee. ] ' Then he laid his head on his right I shoulder Seeing death it struck him nigh* The Holy Mother he with your soul, I cio Mother dear, I die. O the rose thfi gentle rose, And the fennel that grows BO green. ' , God give us grace in every place To pray for our King and Queen. In a rather different shape, this carol probably belongs to the fifteenth century. But the majority of the old carols had nothing of the esoteric. They were chiefly the direct narration of facts —too direct, perhaps, to suit modern taste. The following, considered the best of old carols by many, is called The Cherry Tree Carol: Joseph was an old man, And an old man was he, When he wedded Mary In the land of Galilee. O then bespoke Mary, So meek and so mild, Pluck me one cherry. Joseph, For I am with child. O then bespoke Joseph, With words most unkind, Let him pluck thee a cherry, That brought thee with child. O then bespoke the babe, Within his mother’s womb, Bow down then the tallest tree For my mother to have some.

O then bespoke Joseph, I have done Mery wrong* But cheer up my dearest And be not cast down. I And so on till the miracle about lo happen ta explained to Joseph. These early carols were sung by "wassailing neighbours.” Through the snow, tinder the bright, cold stars, they tramped from door to door, sure of finding warm hearts or flowing cup, and gifts for the good luck they brought the house. Men wore their piety comfortably, as they wore their clothes. Nicholas Breton, m his Fantasticks (1626), tells us how it was: “It is now Christmas, and not a cup of drink must pa& without a carol. Musicians now make their instruments speak out. and a good song is worth the hearing. ... In sum, it is a holy time.” In Poor. Robin’s Almanac for 1700 we come across a carol which expresses with utmost sincerity the singer 1 # point of view: Now that the time is come wherein Our Saviour Christ was horn, The larders full of beef _ and pork The garners filled with com. Etc. But as the seventeenth century advanced people became more niggardly with their good cheer. This, lighthanded' conduct was the cause of many complaints by the carolling fraternity. Probably the nearest they got to revenge was singing outsido the mean man’s house the carol of Dives and Lazarus. It was no doubt, some gratification, even if shivering in the cold, to sing in sixteen stanzas how Dive* sees Lazarus in Heaven as he goes te Hell on account of his meanness. Th« following lines must have been sung with a rare gusto: As it fell out upon a day, Rich Dives sickened and died; There came two serpents out of hell His soul therein to guide.' Rise up, rise up. brother Dives, And go along with me; There is prepared a place in hell From which thou ne’er can flee. Besides the sacred carols sung id the open air, were those which at- » tempted to express nothing but a rougher sort of joviality and thankfulness for the good things provided is the kitchen: And the Lord be praised My stomach is well eased My bones at quiet may go take their rest; Good fortune surely followed me To bring me thus so luckily To eat and drink so freely of the best. The carol owes its origin to the need, first recognised in the thirteenth century, of popularising religion. These days the Churches nave adopted other expedients for the same purpose. Converted into a “carol service” held within the church, the carol has been stripped of its picturesque trappings. It can now appeal to our imagination and emotions only by its historical as-sociations.—-“Orwell*”