Most of the popular Christmas carols date from the 18th and 19th Centuries. ``Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,`` written by English hymn-writer Charles Wesley (brother of John) with music adapted from Felix Mendelssohn`s
``Festgesang,`` was reputedly inspired by the chime of church bells as Wesley walked to church one Christmas morning. Handel`s ``Messiah`` prompted London minister Isaac Watts to write ``Joy to the World.`` John M. Neale set the verses of ``Good King Wenceslaus`` to a 16th Century hymn. ``O Come All Ye Faithful`` was translated from the Latin ``Adeste Fideles`` by Frederick Oakeley in 1841 under the title ``Hymn for Christmas Day.`` And ``Silent Night, Holy Night`` was written by Joseph Mohr, a parish priest in Obendorf, Austria, on Christmas Eve 1818.
Carols began to be written in the U.S. in the 19th Century. ``O Little Town of Bethlehem`` was penned by Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal minister, after he visited the Holy Land in 1868. Edmund H. Sears, another minister, wrote the lyrics and Richard Willis composed the music of ``It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.``
Down through the ages, the carol has retained its timeless quality. Occasionally, its popularity has waned only to be renewed again with even more vigor.
``I have a hunch (its longevity has) something to do with the real understanding of the birth of Christ,`` says Thomas Gieschen, conductor of the Kapelle Choir of Concordia College. Gerald Edmonds, director of the Moody Church Choir, says ``the theological content, the beauty of phrase and the music itself`` have kept carols among the holiday traditions.
Familiarity is a key factor as well. ``It`s the one time of the year where there is a common ground where we all can meet,`` Geischen says. ``After all, everyone knows at least the first few words of most carols.``
Each December, carol singing bridges the gap between the secular and the religious. People who would otherwise never enter a church attend the services to hear the lovely melodies. They may do so because it`s ``something familiar, something heartwarming,`` Gieschen says. ``There`s always been an aspect of nostalgia attached to it, a fondness for childhood memories.``
Without carols--from ``The First Noel`` to ``Jingle Bell Rock``--
Christmas wouldn`t seem like Christmas.
DURING HANUKKAH CELEBRATION, JEWS REKINDLE THE LIGHT THAT WOULDN`T
From darkness to light--that is the theme of Hanukkah.
While carols celebrate the birth of the Saviour, Hanukkah, an eight-day religious holiday beginning this year on Dec. 27, commemorates the lifelong struggle of a people to achieve independence. Yet a universal quality pervades this very ancient Jewish celebration.
``The whole world should be celebrating Hanukkah because it`s the first time a people fought for religious freedom,`` says pianist Arnold Miller, who with his wife, Sima, will be performing the ``Songs of Hanukkah`` Dec. 22 at the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center.
The earliest observance of Hanukkah (meaning ``dedication`` in Hebrew)
dates back to Palestine in 165 B.C. ``The Feast of Lights`` celebrates the victory of Judah and the Maccabees over Antiochus Epiphanes, king of the Syrian Greeks. The victors purified the Temple and sought to rekindle the sacred lamp but found enough undefiled oil to last only one day. By a divine miracle, the precious liquid lasted eight days. From one days` oil came eight days` light.
The songs of Hanukkah sing of this miracle but also of the rebuilding of the temple, of the battle between two opposing forces and especially of the candles themselves and the light that refused to be extinguished.
Many aspects of the Jewish heritage are included in the Hanukkah pantheon of songs: anonymous folk songs, Hebrew folk songs, Israeli songs, Yiddish songs, Sephardic songs, Hassidic songs, Jewish-American songs and contemporary songs. ``Each separate Jewish cultural group really has its own music and its own particular expression,`` says Roz Ebstein, music consultant to the Board of Jewish Education.
A large number of the Hanukkah songs performed today are no more than 150 to 200 years old and possess a strong Eastern European influence. Some of the ceremonial songs, however, date back many centuries.
Each night of Hanukkah a candle is lit, beginning with one light and lasting until all eight receptacles of the menorah (candelabra) are filled; a ninth light or shammas is used to light the others. On the first night, the shammas is lit and three blessings are said. Among the Ashkenazic communities descended from Central and Eastern Europe, the household sings ``Ma-oz Tzur`` or ``Mighty Rock`` (the English version is ``Rock of Ages``).
Each evening`s lighting of a candle is accompanied by the recitation of various blessings and the singing of ``A Psalm, a Song for the Dedication of the House.`` Daily prayer includes the recitation of Psalms 113-118 known as Hallel or Psalms of Praise.
THE CREATION OF CUSTOMS