Here’s an interesting blog from a Jewish woman who grew up in the US and now lives in Cornwall, England explaining her like of and iffiness with Christmas carols.
Here’s a list of some of the holidays that people from around the world celebrate during December:
- Tuesday, December 6 St. Nicholas Day Austria
- Tuesday, December 6 Feast of St. Nicholas (Bari) Italy
- Wednesday, December 7 Feast of St. Ambrose (Milan) Italy
- Monday, December 12 Day of the Virgin Guadalupe Mexico
- Monday, December 12 Poinsettia Day
- Wednesday, December 14 Full Moon Lunar
- Wednesday, December 21 Winter Solstice (GMT) Solar and China
- Friday, December 23 Festivus
- Saturday, December 24 Christmas Eve General
- Sunday, December 25 Christmas General
- Sunday, December 25 Hanukkah Jewish
- Monday, December 26 St. Stephan’s Day Christian & Austria
- Monday, December 26 Boxing Day Canada
- Monday, December 26 Second Christmas Germany
- Monday, December 26 – Sunday, January 1 Kwanzaa
- Saturday, December 31 New Years Eve
I agree with her general statement about this Holiday season.
“Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, or celebrated if I’m late, I wish you a good one. And if you don’t celebrate anything, I wish you a moment of quiet amid all the aggressive celebrating.”
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Christmas carols, according to one source I found, weren’t originally Christian. They were solstice songs. Then the country was Christianized and it took the songs along with it, but they didn’t become church songs, they stayed outside, in people’s homes, as well as out of doors and in whatever the period’s equivalent of the pub was. They were seasonal folk songs.
Fast forward more than a few hundred years and Oliver Cromwell came to power, with his humorless version of Protestantism. He didn’t approve of fun, and he tried to stamp the songs out but they went underground and survived.
In the Victorian era they were rediscovered and became respectable (I think) and new carols were added.
End of history lesson. I won’t swear that it’s entirely accurate, but it seems to be somewhere in the neighborhood of accuracy. Close enough (as they say of guitar tuning) for folk music.
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Civil Rights Advocacy 
Thanks for the reblog. I appreciate it. A small correction, though: I’m a she, not a he. It’s okay–I’ve been called worse, and I’m amused by the confusion–but I thought I probably should mention it.
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