On 22nd December GB News was claiming that the Church of England was ordering the words of carols to be changed. Like much that appears on Reform UK Ltd’s PR channel this claim was unevidenced. It also underlined a completely unsurprising lack of knowledge of British history
The association of carols with the Church and with authorised words and tunes is no older than Victorian times at best. Historically carols came from an oral tradition where there were no agreed words and often no tune at all.
In Scotland where they were attempts to ban the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds in the final quarter of the sixteenth century the singing of carols was associated with fornication. ‘Profane pastimes’ such as ‘footballing, the singing of carols and other profane songs and dancing’ was forbidden, although not always successfully.
Its also the season of the Lords of Misrule, who turned the world upside down. A tradition there was to sing carols outside the houses of better off people until a donation was made…
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