Marvellous Christmas Songs in the History

Christmas songs are certainly some of the warmest memories most of us have from our childhood. As a child, we never questioned these things; we just learned them and grew to love them. Legend tells that the first Christmas chant was sang when Jesus is born. Can you imagine that it is well over 2,000 years ago? However, it was under the influence of Saint Francis of Assisi that Christmas songs have been published in a "vulgar" language and that their number increased.

Born in Italy, Christmas songs arrived in England where they have been associated with dances and became the famous Christmas carols. Time passed and the tradition changed: carolers also sang to raise funds for charity, receive gifts or a wassail bowl. For decades, American Christian culture grows by the addition of Christmas carols from a lot of different countries of the world.

During the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press; which allowed people to copy things in a short amount of time. And so the words and lyrics to the Christmas carols were copied and distributed all over the countries; which made them become so popular.

During these centuries, Christianity was the greatest part of everyone's life and thus, Christmas was also really important. Unfortunately, the puritans and other uptight people did not believe in Christmas carols and when the puritans ruled the country of England from 1649 to 1660, they actually abolished Christmas carols of any kind.

The largest part of reknowned Christmas carols were written from the mid-1700's to the early 1800's and are still popular today. In 1742 there was a fundraiser in Ireland where George Frederich Handel performed his famous "Messiah" carol.

Actually "Silent Night" has been written in 1818 by the Austrian Joseph Mohr and its original title was "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht". He wrote this song for the simple reason that his church's organ had broken and he wanted to write a song that needed no instruments, this was written on Christmas eve and he saved Christmas that year for his parishioners.

Today, it is easy to create a carol: when the holiday season comes, artists as well as Hollywood produce their Christmas hymn. But we still have a preference for the atmosphere and the sounds of the old Christmas songs. Traditions are hard to leave and while we might like new carols none of them would ever replace oldies such as The Little Drummer Boy or Silent Night. Although the number of Christmas carols we listen to is very large, almost none of them is a recent one.

If you want to successfully celebrate the Christmas season, gather your family and friends around the tree and sing those marvellous carols.