A Christmas carol (also called a noël) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, or the winter season in general. They are traditionally sung in the period before and during Christmas. The tradition of Christmas carols hails back as far as the thirteenth century, although carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church, and to be specifically associated with Christmas. It is also a book which Charles Dickens wrote in 1843.

A popular urban legend was that they were named after a little girl named Carol Poles who disappeared in 1888 in the Whitechaple district of London. According to the legend, the little girl was reported missing around Christmas and many people went searching for her at night. Due to fears concerning Jack the Ripper, the group would sing Christmas carols upon knocking in order to declare their good intentions.

Traditional carols have a strong tune and consist of a verse and/or chorus for group singing. They are often based on medieval chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like 'Personent hodie' and 'Angels from the Realms of Glory' can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages, and are amongst the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung. Carols suffered a decline in popularity after the Reformation in the countries where Reformation settled, but survived in their rural communities until the revival of interest in Carols in the 19th century. Composers like Arthur Sullivan helped to repopularise the carol, and it is this period that gave rise to such favorites as "Good King Wenceslas" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

Today carols are regularly sung at religious services. Some compositions have words which are clearly not of a religious theme, but are often still referred to as carols.

Secular songs such as "White Christmas" and "Blue Christmas" are not true Christmas carols, though they are also popular in the period before Christmas, and should therefore be considered to be Christmas songs.

Carols can be sung by individual singers, but are also often sung by larger groups, including professionally trained choirs. Most churches have special services at which carols are sung, generally combined with readings from scripture about the birth of Christ, often this is based on the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge. Some of these services also include other music written for Christmas, such as Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" (for choir and harp), or excerpts from Handel's "Messiah."

There is also a tradition of performances of serious music relating to Christmas in the period around Christmas, including Handel's "Messiah," the "Christmas Oratorio" by J. S. Bach, "Messe de Minuit pour Noël" by Charpentier, and "L'Enfance du Christ" by Berlioz.

In England, and some other countries (i.e. Poland (kolędowanie) and Bulgaria (koledari)), there is a tradition of Christmas carolling (earlier known as wassailing), in which groups of singers travel from house to house, singing carols, for which they are often rewarded with money, mince pies, or a glass of an appropriate drink. Money collected in this way is normally given to charity.

In Australia, where it is the middle of summer at Christmas, there is a tradition of Carols by Candlelight concerts which are held outdoors at night in cities and towns during the weeks leading up to Christmas. In Melbourne, "Carols by Candlelight" is held each Christmas Eve. Performers at the concerts including opera singers and musical theatre performers and popular music singers. People in the audience hold lit candles and join in singing some of the carols in accompaniment with the celebrities.

Christmas carols can also be played on musical instruments, and another tradition is for brass bands, such as the Salvation Army brass bands, to play carols before Christmas.

Media

• Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, by J. S. Bach
• Deck the Halls (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Deck the Halls
• Oh Holy Night (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Oh Holy Night
• Jingle Bells (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Jingle Bells, performed by Piano, flute, clarinet, French horn
• Jingle Bells (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Jingle Bells, performed by Celesta and Violin
• Oh Christmas Tree (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • O Tannenbaum
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Angels We Have Heard On High (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Angels We Have Heard On High, performed by Clarinet and French Horn
• Angels We Have Heard On High (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • Angels We Have Heard On High, Piano solo

Links

• The Hymns and Carols of Christmas a comprehensive and scholarly site
• Christmas Tunes Information on Christmas Carols
• ChristmasCarolMusic.org free SATB sheet music for voices and all instruments
• Christmas Carols and Singing Greeting Tags
• Scandinavian Yuletide Voices Christmas Carols from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark
• Favorite Christmas Carols (lyrics and scores)
• Easybyte - free easy piano arrangements of many Christmas carols
• Some traditional Christmas carols from county of Nice, France.
• Jingle bell's fantasy (harp and flute)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Video: Mickey's Christmas Carol

The Cerna River is a river in Romania. The Cerna has its source on the south-east side of the Godeanu Mountains and flows into the Danube. The upper reach of the river is sometimes called Cernişoara River. With a basin of 1433 square km and a length of 84 km, it carves an erosive tectonic valley with numerous gorges, quite deep sometimes. There is a man-made lake on it (Tierna), just before it crosses the Băile Herculane spa.

Iovan Iorgovan (Hercules) legend:

Iovan Iorgovan is a character in Romanian mythology, similar in some ways with Hercules (some writers consider him to be the same person). The legend is present in the Cerna valley of south-western Romania. In the legend, Iovan is named "fiu de rămlean" which can be translated as "son of a Roman."

In the middle of Cerna, Romanian folk traditions tell us, a colossal simulacrum of Hercules once existed, an ancient monument, which our heroic songs connect with the legend of a beautiful maiden who dwelt in a cave in the Cerna mountains.

Iorgovan, a great strongman from the eastern parts, comes, either to hunt deer in the Carunti mountains (Cerna mountains), or, according to other versions, in the Vergii or Covergii, Sovergii mountains, or to look for a beautiful girl in the Mountains of Gold.

Arriving at the river Cerna on a Thursday morning, Iorgovan rides up the river, armed with bow and arrows, and having with him hawks from Bogaz (the Danube mouths) and hounds from Provaz, while ahead of him runs his clever bitch, Vija.

But Cerna was in those times a big river, wild and with black waters. Its waves were high like church steeples and it flew with a frightening roar. Cerna had killed all the brave men (the old heroes) who had gone up the river.

Iorgovan, finding no ford to cross to the other bank, calls to Cerna, asking her to calm her waves, to stop her roar, to show him the ford, not to kill him, but instead to tell him where he can cross, because he had travelled and he had arrived, according to his predestination, to find here and take with him, a wild girl, handsome and strong. At his pleading, Cerna answers him to go upriver until he will get tired and will reach the three young maple trees - at the round hill and the dugout bank - where, after crossing to the other side, he will find a stone mossy wall, where is gone, and where is hidden, the wild girl, handsome and strong.

Iorgovan does as Cerna said, and riding up the river he reaches the three young maple trees, then, crossing the ford, arrives at last at the stone, upraised mossy wall.

Here, under this stone wall, in deep shade, the beautiful hidden maiden, face like the moon, golden hair falling on her shoulders, sits weeping with a beautiful voice and a caressing tone.

As soon as he sees her Iorgovan tells her that the love of her had bitterly punished him on this earth, that he had travelled the world in length and in width, and had found no other like her, whom he would marry. But she answers him, to well remember that once they both had served a proud queen, and that he had kissed her and had left her pregnant; but, because of his fame, of her mother’s anger and her father’s shame, she had punished herself, had secluded herself and gone into exile, and here she had come, in a deep valley, under stone walls, unbeaten by wind, unseen by anybody, where she had became wild.

Because the young maiden does not want to come out of the cave, Iorgavan, losing his mind, incites against this unhappy girl, the hawks, hounds and the bitch Vija, to dig under the rock and pull her out in the daylight. They listen to his order, rush into the cave and start scratching the white face, unbeaten by wind and unseen by people, of the unhappy maiden.

In vain cries the girl, and pleads with Iorgovan to call back his hawks and his hounds, which bite and scratch her, while her baby is crying. He, getting even madder, wants now to kill her.

Then, in her suffering and despair, she curses Iorgovan. (See the original article)

Film made by Dan Alexoae