The Soundtrack of Christmas (But It Wasn't Always That Way)
The Christmas holidays are here, bringing with them turrón, gifts, family gatherings, and, of course, the inevitable soundtrack: Christmas carols, those cheerful little songs we repeat year after year. But do you know their origin? Let’s The Christmas holidays are here, bringing with them turrón, gifts, family gatherings, and, of course, the inevitable soundtrack: Christmas carols, those cheerful little songs we repeat year after year. But do you know their origin? Let’s take a look.
Originally, during the Renaissance, Christmas carols were songs sung in villages by their inhabitants, the "villanos" (villagers), which is where the name comes from. They were performed at popular festivities and covered diverse topics, such as recent events in the village or region, battles, love stories, and sometimes even humorous tales.
From the second half of the 16th century onwards, the Church began to move away from Latin in sermons and masses, as people didn’t understand it. They adopted local languages to make themselves better understood. Additionally, they incorporated music, and this is when they started using songs similar to those sung by the people, the villancicos, in masses, but with religious themes, especially during Corpus Christi and Christmas. Cathedrals and churches with greater economic resources had their own villancico composers, making these songs more elaborate. This is when people began learning these songs and associating them with specific religious celebrations.
By the 18th century, the Church reserved villancicos exclusively for Christmas festivities. This is why they became a specific genre of Christmas song, and today, the term refers to any song with a Christmas theme.
The tradition has spread worldwide, encompassing songs of all kinds: *Carol* in English, *Noël* in French, *Laude* in Italian, or *Weihnachtslied* in German.
Happy holidays, and sing lots of carols this Christmas!
