{"id":50953,"date":"2024-12-24T11:52:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T10:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b7c91959-3c04-4bbf-97c7-783cebcdd2f1"},"modified":"2024-12-24T13:09:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T12:09:20","slug":"oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest Christmas carol: a guide to the dawn of a much-loved tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 10:52 AM<\/p>

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Though Christmas carols<\/a> as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to be the oldest known Christmas carol.<\/strong><\/p>

Nine of the best ancient Christmas carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li>
Carol singing: when did the Christmas tradition begin?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div> <\/div>
The oldest Christmas carol<\/h2>
Christmas Day itself has been marked as a day of celebration in the calendar since 336 AD, and it is in the decades after this that the Christian poet Prudentius (348-405) wrote the hymn \u2018Corde natus ex parentis<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>

<\/div> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who was Prudentius?<\/h2> <p>Prudentius \u2013 or Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, to give him his full name \u2013 was an influential Roman statesman who lived in northern Spain, where he practised law and was regional governor. He turned his attention fully towards Christianity towards the end of his life, writing and collecting hymns.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/christmas-carols\">The greatest Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>And if you have a bent for Latin, you will have already spotted that Prudentius\u2019s words to the oldest Christmas carol still appear in carol services today \u2013 \u2018Corde natus ex parentis\u2019 translates (roughly) as \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/of-the-fathers-heart-begotten-words\/\">Of the Father\u2019s heart begotten<\/a><\/strong>\u2019.<\/p> <div class=\"wp-block-group highlight-box is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"> <div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/six-best-unknown-carols\/\">Five of the best\u2026 unknown carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/composers-behind-your-favourite-carols\/\">The composers behind your favourite carols<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div> <\/div> <p><strong>You can find <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/tag\/christmas-carol-lyrics\/\">lyrics to your favourite Christmas carols<\/a>. Also have a look at our articles on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/christmas-songs\/\">best Christmas songs ever<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/christmas-songs-for-children\/\">best Christmas songs for children<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <p><strong> <\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 10:52 AM Though Christmas carols as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50954,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/oldest-christmas-carol-a-guide-to-the-dawn-of-a-much-loved-tradition.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 10:52 AM Though Christmas carols as we know and sing them today didn\u2019t really catch on until the mid-19th century, the first ever festive lyrics to be set to music would appear to date all the way back to the fourth century. This is believed to be the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}