Some belated Xmas info today (I'm a couple weeks behind with my Learning Pile).Although Xmas hymns are extremely old, as you would expect, the tradition of the peppier popular Xmas carol is older than I had thought, and can be traced, somewhat unexpectedly, to a religious figure I recognize (no small feat, since I am not especially well versed in religious history). But then, almost everyone has heard of St. Francis of Assisi.
That's right-- when he wasn't off doing his Dr. Doolittle shtick ("If I could preach to the animals..."), founding the Franciscan monastic order, or otherwise being moderately awesome, he was encouraging a shift from more formal Latin hymns to songs based on popular music in the native languages of the populace. He didn't write any carols himself, as far as we know, although there is one apocryphal scrap of parchment attributed to him* with just the line "Ye Olde Bloo Christmass."
Apparently he also was responsible for arranging the very first manger scene in 1223. Some busy guy, huh?
*Attributed to him by me, since I just made it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment