Carolling and other defunct traditions?

[Kira's Mom]

Yule log? WPIX in New York had this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVO590uMHro

I think that counts as tradition.

My church's youth group goes caroling every year. So does my mom's Rotary club. People still do it.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Thoughts anyone?

tl;dr

(Well, tl;justskimmedit actually. Still, pretty much as expected.)

I was born and raised in southern California and have never seen anyone caroling. Is it mostly an East Coast thing?

Probably a Protestant/Anglican thing. As far as I know, it's not part of most Catholic traditions.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Probably a Protestant/Anglican thing. As far as I know, it's not part of most Catholic traditions.

You've clearly never been to Germany.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I was born and raised in southern California and have never seen anyone caroling. Is it mostly an East Coast thing?

Probably a Protestant/Anglican thing. As far as I know, it's not part of most Catholic traditions.

The youth group that I mentioned taking caroling was Catholic.

 

[Lowdarzz]

Carolling is still common in my area. Usually its people from my church or the Lutheran church right across the street in my neighborhood. They never ask for money, they're just there to spread the Christmas cheer. My mother used to make me, my sister and my brother go carrolling but stopped when the teenage years hit.

I've been spending many Christmases with family on the east coast lately and it doesn't seem to be nearly as common there.

 

[iguana_tonante]

You've clearly never been to Germany.

The youth group that I mentioned taking caroling was Catholic.

I stand corrected. I've never seen it in my corner of Italy, but abroad it must be different. My bad.

 

[sojourner]

Caroling? In Florida? Not outside an air conditioned church.

 

[RandyS]

I've never seen anyone carol in my life. I don't think I'd like it.

Christmas 1979 in my neighborhood. That's the one and only time I remember seeing it. It went on on my street for hours. I was nine years old and distinctly remember hearing the carolers going from house to house long after my mom (ironically named Carol) put me to bed.

 

[Count Zero]

Unfortunately where I live there's a horrible catholic tradition of sending kids out panhandling for money between new year and January 6th, dressed as the "Three Kings" or whatever the fuck it's called in English singing bad christmas songs. Thankfully, they just bother you once a year and they usually shut up soon when you don't open the door.

Do you mean the Sternsinger people? That exists in Germany, too, though it's a regional thing confined to predominantly Catholic regions, it seems. Each year, the President will meet with some of them and listen to them. According to Wikipedia, they manage to collect several tens of millions for charity each year.

 

[Trekker4747]

Many folks still use the holidays as something of an excuse for excessive drinking and "revelry," but people pretty much don't go around singing in the streets in exchange for food and drink from their neighbours anymore (to the best of my knowledge).

You should probably add the words "where I live." to the end of that sentence.

Indeed. I've no idea -obviously- what it was like back in the ye olde goode dayf but I know my own experiences.

I've never experienced the old 1950s style caroling where people go up and down Chestnut street and sing in front of houses. Given the layouts of neighborhoods these days the dubious safety of many areas not to mention just the general lack of neighborly get-along-idness in the same vain as was probably around two-thirds of a century ago.

But caroling still happens, you just have to go to community gathering areas. If there's an outdoor mall/plaza where you live that's a relatively safe environment then I can assure you caroling will occur there sometimes over the next month or so, probably depending on your locale's weather and Christmasy-atmosphere it has.

I've seen it in an area known for it's Christmas decorations and lights that's a heavily trafficked shopping area and I've done it in that area.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I grew up in a working class neighborhood in America during the 1950s and 1960s. Everyone had Christmas trees and everyone decorated their homes in one way or another. No one carolled. Ever.

I loathe radio stations and stores that play nothing but Christmas carols from the week of Thanksgiving through Christmas. I like carols - I also like jazz, country music, rock, hip-hop and a ridiculous percentage of current pop music - but I don't like being inundated by one and only one genre, all over the goddamned place, for a solid month.

 

[Trekker4747]

A local radio station plays nothing but Christmas music between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yes, the people who program stations like that should be made to endure eggnog enemas.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I don't know what rock you were hiding under Dennis, but the radio stations started caroling before Thanksgiving this year.

 

[Trekker4747]

I really can't see being in a "Christmas music mood" unless, well, there's something Christmasy going on. Having a Christmas party? Sure. Are you decorating the tree or wrapping gifts? Sure.

Is it snowing outside and you're making a cup of hot-chocolate and you want to just curl up with a nice book? Great!

Is it 40-degrees outside and you're driving home from work as it's getting dark at 5 in the afternoon? Not exactly a Christmas-music time.

What's annoying is that working a grocery store they turn the Muzak system onto the Christmas music one so I get to hear it pretty much all day long every day of my life between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ugh. At least this year it's on a somewhat decent station, in the past they've had on a somewhat "secular" station that doesn't play the songs more centered around the religious aspects of the holiday but more of the festive songs.

I like songs like "The Little Drummer Boy", "Silent Night" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" I like the festive stuff too, but considering the nature of this holiday hearing the more religious-themed stuff is nice, besides it means there's more of a song selection so the likelihood I'll hear the same song twice in a day goes down.

 

[Warped9]

Be glad one ye olde Christmas tradition has (thankfully) disappeared long ago. It stems from a time when there was very much a carnival like atmosphere to keeping Christmas which could be loud, boisterous and downright rude (even by old standards) to the point of potential violence.

It was called mumming, when bands of boys and young men of the "rough" (poor or working) class roved the streets and invited themselves into people's homes, usually the homes of well-to-do persons. In exchange for intruding into someone's home with loud singing and playacting these often disguised revellers expected servings of the house's best food and drink (usually alcohol). And they often couldn't be enticed or persuaded to leave until they had been satisfied. This practice was somewhat tolerated until what was considered acceptable behaviour changed in the early part of the 19th century.

Mumming actually predates the observance of Christmas, but it coincided with Christmas being observed in December and so the two became associated with each other. Society's upper classes and newly emerging middle class of the late 18th century were beginning to tire of this practice until they began to outlaw it in the early 19th. This coincided with changing the nature of Christmas celebration from being a public celebration out on the streets to a private celebration revolving around home and family.

Today it's hard to imagine such bizarre behaviour being tolerated as even remotely acceptable. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "home invasion." Something of a very general analogy of this practice (when taken to extremes as it sometimes could be) can be seen in Star Trek TOS' episode "The Return Of The Archons." I'm referring to the Red Hour when the docile population were allowed to blow off steam so to speak and be free of usual societal restraints. TOS' "festival" is an exaggerated fictional parallel of the once-a-year practice of mumming during the holiday season.

Mumming, of course, was an extreme example of holiday revelry. Exchanges of food and drink with wassailers was probably conducted more quietly and somewhat more civilly between land owners and business owners and their servants and employees. Today carollers are probably the only thing we have left remotely similar to what was practiced two centuries ago, or at least the most recognizable.

 

[SeerSGB]

I don't know what rock you were hiding under Dennis, but the radio stations started caroling before Thanksgiving this year.

I was hearing fucking Christmas muzak a couple week before Halloween around my neck of TN.

 

[thestrangequark]

I don't really understand why people get so worked up over Christmas music. It's kind of childish, I think, to complain so much about it. Shops and radio stations have the right to play whatever music they like...except in the case of the poor person who lived across the Christmas market and had to hear it 24/7 out his/her own window, it's not like you're forced to listen to it in your own home. I don't bitch and moan when I walk into a shop that's playing smooth "jazz" or some other such rubbish.

Personally, I love Christmas music. I'm listening to it right now, as a matter of fact. And I'm not even Christian! I also recall caroling as a child, with my girl scout troupe and sometimes with my family (though they aren't Christian either, we all just enjoy the holiday).

 

[SeerSGB]

I don't really understand why people get so worked up over Christmas music. It's kind of childish, I think, to complain so much about it. Shops and radio stations have the right to play whatever music they like...except in the case of the poor person who lived across the Christmas market and had to hear it 24/7 out his/her own window, it's not like you're forced to listen to it in your own home. I don't bitch and moan when I walk into a shop that's playing smooth "jazz" or some other such rubbish.

Personally, I love Christmas music. I'm listening to it right now, as a matter of fact. And I'm not even Christian! I also recall caroling as a child, with my girl scout troupe and sometimes with my family (though they aren't Christian either, we all just enjoy the holiday).

For me, I just don't like it. As I said, I've heard some wonderful performances, I still roll my eyes and think "oh for fuck's sake". Can't explain, always been that way.

The other thing is that, at least in stores, comes off a bit pushy. Like stores are just driving it home over and over that this there is this time of year coming up where you're expected to spend money on presents (which for the kids and wife, it doesn't bother me but any one else: fuck you, you're lucky to get a card in the mail) and make nice with family that you never talk to the rest of the year or if you do talk them you don't get along with them but you have to been nice cause "It's the holiday season"

I think a lot of MY issue is that as I've gotten older, and I've had my own kids, the overt commercialism and missed messages of this time of year sort makes me pause more than they used it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Let me just say that I applaud tsq for not bitching and moaning when she walks into a shop that plays smooth jazz. Although I am also sure that if she chose to do so, they'd listen.

That being said, I don't carol. When I listen to Christmas music it is usually this.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba8vhha6jU0[/yt]