Christmas is fast approaching, the time to be decorating your trees and houses with lights is near and soon the Christmas carols will be playing out across the land in shops, pubs and ice-skating arenas. Christmas carols are synonymous with the festive feeling, the Christmas spirit and the holiday season.
A Christmas carol is defined as “a song or hymn whose lyrics are in keeping with the theme of Christmas and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the surrounding holiday season”. The earliest hymns records indicate were in Latin and were used during church liturgy. They were only religious lyrics and, really, not very popular. Later on in the Middle Ages, songs remained very religious but became more family oriented and ultimately more popular, especially influenced by Frances of Assisi in Italy, France and then Germany.
Christmas carols in recent time don’t have such heavy religious connotations but more about wintertime, the snow, robins on the trees and so on. The most popular have background to Christmas symbols and winter traditions such as Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas flowers, amaryllis or poinsettia, the Christmas star, jingle bells, snowman, Santa Claus bringing presents down the chimney, the reindeers, the list goes on!
From early December, everywhere on the radio, television, streets, lifts, shopping centres you will hear Christmas songs from Jingle Bells, Oh Christmas Tree and Let It Snow being among the most popular Christmas melodies, and each country has their own translations! For example:
Oh Christmas Tree
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!
How are thy leaves so green!
Not only in the summertime,
But even in winter is thy prime.
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so green!
Oh denneboom (Dutch)
Oh denneboom, oh denneboom
wat zijn je takken wonderschoon
ik heb je laatst in 't bos zien staan
toen zaten er geen kaarsjes aan
Oh denneboom, oh denneboom
wat zijn je takken wonderschoon
Oh Tannenbaum (German)
Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum.
Wie grün sind deine Blätter.
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerszeit,
nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter.
In Australia and New Zealand for example, Christmas takes place during the middle of the summer and Christmas is often celebrated on the beach! The tradition is to have outdoor concerts and have carols by candlelight at night during the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Similar to carols, Christmas flowers, Christmas wreaths and poinsettias are part of the magic of the Christmas spirit. Wish your dear ones blessings of joy and happiness for Christmas with a sparkling Christmas gift. Our Christmas Flower shop is open for you and our local florists will help you to send your love and hugs with flowers!
