20th December: Go Caroling Day

Today is Go Caroling Day, so today, 10 facts about the Christmas Carols you might be singing today or at a carol service, and popular Christmas songs.

1. Carols were originally songs to be danced to. The word "carol" derives from the French word, "caroller" which means to dance in a circle. The verses in early carols were all the same length with a chorus in between to accommodate the dance steps.
2. The Medieval church encouraged the singing of carols, which at that time were popular tunes with religious lyrics. Wandering friars would go from town to town singing them. The most prolific carol composer of the day was James Ryman of Canterbury, who wrote 119 of them, which he collected in a manuscript dated 1492. 500 early carols survive, but most are just the lyrics, with no music attached to them. Many of these very old carols were lost forever when Oliver Cromwell banned the singing of jolly songs at Christmas. It wasn't until Victorian times that people started singing jolly Christmas tunes again.
3. The oldest carol still sung today is probably O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, which was originally written in the 9th century, probably by Gregorian monks. The original version was in Latin, and it was translated into English in 1851 by John Mason Neale.
4. Early carol singers would take a wassail bowl with them on their rounds. The bowl would be full of spiced ale or cider, and they would drink a toast to the health of each household they visited, often in return for money.
5. One of the very first songs broadcast on radio was O Holy Night. Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden, argued by some to be the real inventor of radio instead of Marconi, played the tune on his violin and sang the final verse at his radio tower on Christmas Eve, 1906. Some sources say it was the first tune, others say it was the second, but whichever it was, it was picked up by receivers hundreds of miles away.
6. The first song to be performed in space was a Christmas song, too. During the Gemini 6 and 7 missions, as the two spacecraft passed close by each other, the astronauts in Gemini 6, Walter “Wally” Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford, transmitted that they had just seen a UFO consisting of a command module with eight smaller modules in front, in a polar orbit... and the pilot of the command module was wearing a red suit. Then they got out their harmonica and Christmas bells and launched into a rendition of Jingle Bells.
7. In the original version of I Saw Three Ships, the ships were carrying the skulls of the three wise men.
8. Silent Night, it is claimed, was written for a choir of children to sing in church without accompaniment because the organ was broken - although there is no actual record of a broken organ or a children's choir in its documented history. We do know, though, that it was written in 1918 by Father Joseph Mohr (lyrics) and Franz Xaver Gruber (tune); that it has been translated into 140 languages; was declared an “intangible cultural heritage” by Unesco in 2011; and that it was sung during the Christmas Truce of 1914 as it was the only song all the troops knew, albeit in several different languages.
9. Several Christmas songs have a fair amount of artistic licence in them. Jingle Bells was originally written for Thanksgiving and Deck the Halls for New Year's Eve; O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written about the birth of Bonnie Prince Charlie; Good King Wenceslas was actually a duke; there is no reference to angels singing in the Bible; and on a more secular note, the New York Police Department doesn't have a choir.
10. Some of the best known Christmas songs, including Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree and Holly Jolly Christmas were written by Johnny Marks, who was Jewish and didn't celebrate Christmas.

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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