Sunday, December 12, 2021

Carol of the Bells


We just learned about the carol Good King Wenceslas.

Another famous Christmas carol is Carol of the Bells.

This music for this song comes from the Ukraine, and used to be a song about spring time and happy birds.
Long ago in the Ukraine, the new year was in April, so the new year's celebration was in the spring.
When the people of the Ukraine became Christians, they moved the new year's celebration to the winter.
The song about birds in the cold didn't make much sense, so someone wrote this song about Christmas and used the same music.

The words were written by Peter Wilhousky, an American whose family had come to America from the Ukraine long ago.


(from: wikipedia - carol of the bells)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Swiss Guard