THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1961
THE MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7.1981
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RELIGIOUS STRANDS:
Carols Arise from Folklore Obscurity
AFFLUENCE:
'5.
Chanukah Emaciated
From Commercialism
By LOUISE LIND
Christmas carols have en-
&hrined for countless millions the
silent, holy beauty of the Christ-
mas night.
Yet the very development of
such carols have supplemented
the calm serenity of Christmas
with the familiar note of cheer
now common at all Christmastime
celebrations.
As such, the Christmas carol
has truly evolved into a tradition
whose origin, like that of so many
other traditions, lies somewhere in
obscurity.
Folk Origins
Traditionally, the carol is a
song for the celebration of Christ-
mas and dates from the 14th and
15th centuries in England.
In its oldest form, the carol
was a folk-dance song which or-
iginated with the "carole," a
medieval round dance with mu-
sical accompaniment.
At Christmas time, it was the
custom for the church to set up a
crib as the center of the dance. To
these dance tunes were written
some of the most famous Latin
Christmas hymns. These hymns
were called Wiegenlieder in Ger-
man, noels in French and carols
in English.
Nativity Celebration
The noel itself was part of the
nativity celebration traditionally
ascribed to St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis, in order to combat the
heresy and heathenism which de-
nied the Incarnation, is said to
have instituted the custom, of the
adoration of the crib. If the story
is true, St. Francis is the progeni-
tor of the ballad-carol.
SUPPLEMENT
This is the second of two special Christmas
supplements The Daily will publish this year.
Where not otherwise attributed, the ideas
and statements in the supplements are the
individual views of the staff writers and not of
The Daily.
eCOOL' YULE
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Indeed, the ballad, derived from
a medieval dance form, is probab-
ly the most immediate source of
the carol.
In any case, the French noels
flourished and gained wide popu-
larity through their use by the
Troubadours, the singers of nar-
rative ballads and love songs
which entertained medieval
France. Their English counter-
parts, the minstrels, also spread
Christmas songs.
Puritans Protest
"superstitions" and "profane" bal-
lad-carols and did their best to
abolish them. However, their ef-
forts were mostly futile for, by the
mid 1600's, entire collections of
carols had appeared.
The carol soon became widely
acceptable for use in religious
services and was modified and ex-
panded to its present forms.
Essentially featuring the Nativ-
ity, Christmas legends and Christ-
mas lullabies, carols are still being
written, although the present-day
trend is toward more sophisticated
By PHILIP SUTIN
Chanukah, once the festival of
freedom, today has become the
festival of affluence and commer-
cialism.
This holiday, celebrated this year
December 3 through 10, has lost all
of its significant meaning under
the influence of the modern
Christmas celebration.
Specifically, Chanukah com-
memorates a miracle that occurred
at the end of the Maccabean war
against the Selevcids, descendents
of Alexander the Great, who lived
in modern Syria.
Syrian Tyranny
The Selevcids had imposed the
Hellenic religion and culture on
the intensely religious Jews. As
overlords, they had no respect for
the Jewish faith or its institutions.
After seeing their laws and their
sacred Temple defiled, the Jews
arose under Matathias and his
seven sons to fight their oppressors
in what would be called guerilla
warfare in modern times. In 165
B.C. they had succeeded in freeing
themselves from the Syrians.
The Miracle
When cleaning and resanctifying
the Temple, the Maccabes found
Rigid classicists, the English lyrics set to a more modern scope
Puritans did not approve of these of harmony.
*i
that there was only one jar of holy
oil for the lamps. This amount of
oil would normally last only one
day, but it lasted for eight, by
which time new oil was made.
To commemorate this miracle,
Chanukah has been celebrated
ever since as an eight-day festival
for religious freedom.
In the European ghettos, it was
another of the festivals reflecting
the Jews' longing for this freedom.
Commercialized Chanukah
However, in the American free
society Chanukah has slowly lost
its meaning as a reminder of reli-
gious freedom. Because it falls in
the same season as Christmas, it
has taken on the worst aspects of
this holiday.
Gift giving, a minor and negli-
gible part of the holiday, has be-
come a major aspect of this cele-
bration.
In many families gifts are ex-
changed each night during the
festival. Merchants in Jewish
neighborhoods push Chanukah
gifts just as eagerly as Christmas
presents with the same effect on
the significance of the holiday.
Symbolism Infiltrates
A factor more inisdious to Jewish
values has crept into the holiday.
Much of the Christmas symbology
has been adapted to the' festival.
The Christmas tree has become
the Chanukah bush and instead of
"Merry Christmas" the sign in the
window decoration says, "Happy
Chanukah."
This erosion, fostered by. the
secular influence of Christmas,.is
dangerous to Judaism struggling
to maintain its identity against
great societal pressures of assimi-
lation.
Inherent Value
If the Christmas season were not
so commercial, Chanukah could
exist as a worthwhile and mean-
ingful holiday. Its message of the
value of religious freedom is an
important and timeless one which
could serve as a reminder to Jews
that freedom must always be
fought for and never taken for
granted.
However, under present circum-
stances Chanukah has lost all reli-
gious meaning. It has become a
symbol of religious compromise
instead of the sentinel of religious
freedom.
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"Things to remember this Christ-
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2. Always remember that there
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Boycott?
Writing in The Lutheran Mag-
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