Buonasera a tutti! Did you know that Christmas Carols Originated In Italy?
During the thirteenth century, among the early Franciscans, Saint Francis of Assisi introduced the carol, which soon spread all over Europe. He had a particular devotion and affection for the mysteries of the holy childhood of Jesus.
Saint Francis wrote a Christmas hymn in Latin—Psalmus in Nativitate—but there is no evidence that he composed carols in Italian. His companions and spiritual sons, however, the first Franciscan friars, contributed a large number of Italian Christmas carols. Here is the English translation of one of these thirteenth-century Italian carols. The tune has become very familiar as the theme on which Handel developed his Pastoral Symphony in the Messiah:
In Bethlehem is born the Holy Child,
On hay and straw in the winter wild;
O, my heart is full of mirth
At Jesus’ birth.
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