CHRISTMAS CAROLS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 51, 19 December 1907, Page 45

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Probably one of the most generally known of the old Christmas observances npxt to the giving of presents ,is the . singing of Christmas carols: _ These were* pious canticles designed to replace the ribald songs of the old heathen festivals, and the custom 'of children- and even grown people going about from house to house and singing them- at the door on Christmas Eve, - and being rewarded with) Christmas, cheer and Christmas' spending. money, is maintained in many parts of England at .the present day. Many collections of these quaint iredieval carols were made from lime to time,

but of the oldest of such collections but one sheet remains, and it contains only two. It is carefully "preserved in tlie Bodleian Library at Oxford, as is also a celled-ion xof ' UJiristmassc Kariles,' "published ' by Wynicin de Worde in 1531. Later collections of tnese old Christmas hymns of various nations haye been pub^ lishech One of the French carols (Noels) was issued at Poitiers in 1824-, one of JDnglish at London in 1833, and one of German at Grata in 1853. It is remarkable that the Welsh have produced even more of - «u»e"se Christmas carols than the iuiglish or. any otner nationality.