Carol
a song of praise sung at Christmas-tide. It originally meant a song accompanied with dancing, in which sense it is frequently used by the old poets. It appears to have been danced by many performers, by taking hands, forming a ring, and singing as they went round. Bishop Taylor says that the oldest carol was that sung by the heavenly host when the birth of the Saviour was announced to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. It is probable that the practice of singing carols at Christmas-tide arose in imitation of this, as the majority of the carols dethe title of Noels, nowells, or novelles, applied to carols, would seem to bear out this idea. Carol singing is of great antiquity among Christian communities, as the carol by Aurelius Prudentius, of the 4th century, will show.