E X T Before Testatina E N s I O N CHRISTMAS CAROLS Carols are special songs sung during the Christmas season. At first, they were pagan songs. people sang them while they were dancing round stone circles at the celebrations of the winter solstice1. When the first Christians arrived, they adapted these songs to their religion. in the 11th and 12th centuries people lost interest in carols, probably because they were in latin.then St Francis of Assisi started to use them in italy. His songs were in the language spoken by the people. they described the story of the nativity2. everybody could sing them now and this new tradition spread3 all over europe. in the following centuries, people continued this tradition and mixed the Christian themes with more entertaining ones. people sang carols at home and travelling singers spread them around. During the puritan4 Age in great Britain, the government banned5 carol-singing. But people continued to sing them in secret, until they became very popular again during the victorian times. today, caroling singing carols in the streets and asking for money for charity is still very popular. Some of the most famous Christmas carols in the British tradition are: Away in a Manger, We Three Kings of Orient Are, Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Joy to the World. 1. winter solstice: shortest day of the year, when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky at midday (21st December). 2. nativity: birth of Jesus Christ. 3. spread (spread-spread-spread): extended its influence. 4. Puritan: movement of strict moral and religious principles. 5. banned: made illegal. 18