The gift of song
Linda Sutton

The carol singersCarols were first sung in Europe before the time of Christianity. This was pagan music, sung at the winter solstice celebration. The word ‘carol’ means dance or song of joy. The early church replaced the solstice celebrations with Christmas, carols were meant to be sung at that time only.

In 1749, when John Byron asked his daughter Dolly ‘What do you want for Christmas?’ Dolly asked, not for two front teeth but a poem! Imagine the reaction to that request from twentieth century parents, who would expect a wish list of the latest in technological games or gadgets.

In answer to Dolly’s request, John Byron wrote some verses. When John Wainwright, the organist of Manchester Parish Church read them, he wrote a tune for the poem.

On Christmas morning, Dolly and her father awakened to hear a choir beneath the window singing. ‘Christians awake, salute the happy morn, whereon the Saviour of the world was born.’

‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas’, is hardly a song of joy, and ‘Jingle bells,’ although joyful, is sung to welcome, not the Christ Child, but the mythical Father Christmas. Our Western culture has seamlessly integrated Christmas music which may not be exactly pagan, but is scarcely Christian either, and a thought for the organisers of ‘Carols by Candlelight’ to ponder.

The theology of the Nativity is shared and the gospel proclaimed in the story-telling of Byron’s carol, “Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn”. The story of the birth of Christ is told in four verses, then the gospel is proclaimed in the last; ‘to sing, redeemed, a glad triumphal song.’ (and) saved by his love, unceasing we shall sing.’