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Showing posts with the label christmas carol

Origin of word carol?

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In old French a 'carole' was circle dance accompanied by singing. Carols written and sung for all four  seasons. They were linked to the agricultural calendar, with harvest carols for example.  Though predating Christianity, carols were adapted by the church.  Christmas carols originated from pagan mid-winter festivals but developed into the modern tradition 19th Century.  When Dickens called his story A Christmas Carol he was referring to the tradition of story telling through song - with the five staves mimicking verses. Though there is a recognizably Christian theme of redemption, there are no specifically Biblical references. The ghosts, for example, are clearly secular. Carol services  Popular carols come from very disparate sources. The Coventry Carol, one of the oldest and darkest, is a 16th Century commemoration of the Slaughter of the Innocents. While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks from the same period is more suitable for the Nativity play market, but protestants cheerf

'Bah! Humbug!'? What is humbug?

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‘Bah!’ said Scrooge. ‘Humbug! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money?  For finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer?' Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash For Scrooge (and Scrooge McDuck!)  Christmas is 'humbug'. In the modern sense of the term, 'humbug' is roughly synonymous with the more recent 'virtue signalling'. In other words, insincere or hypocritical speech aimed at gaining social acceptance. Was Scrooge an early opponent of virtue signalling? Not exactly. Scrooge's complaint is more against the idea of charity itself. He sees this as a fraudulent commercial trick aimed at 'picking a man's pocket'.  The poor, he argues, are the responsibility of the prisons and workhouses. This view contrasts with that of Scrooge's nephew, Fred: 'Christmas is a good time - a kind, forgiving, charitable time' But what is a humbug?   In British English, a striped candy/sweet.  It's boil