Do you have plans to go out Christmas caroling this year? It might be good for your health, according to studies. Even if carols aren’t your thing, there are other ways that music can help during what can be a stressful season.
“Singing is a cognitive, physical, emotional and social act,” according to Alex Street, a researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research cited earlier this month by the BBC. He studies how music can be used to help children and adults recover from brain injuries.
Christmas carol history actually dates back to the 14th century, when Franciscan friars produced them, per the English Heritage organization. It said that even before Christianity, singing was part of midwinter celebrations.
Today, there are a still a ton of ways to get in on the caroling action. For example, an event this weekend St. John Capistran Church in Pittsburgh, Pa. There’s another one – a holiday sing-along in Los Angeles, Calif., at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Next weekend, there’s a caroling event in New Orleans, La., the Caroling in Jackson Square annual event.
While it can be a little daunting to sing in public, joining others in song can have positive effects. Research has shown, that choral singing can serve as an “intervention for improving psychological well-being,” can “can increase closeness to less familiar individuals regardless of whether they share a common motivation,” and that it has a “role” in social bonding for primates
“It can draw people closer together, prime our bodies to fight off disease and even suppress pain,” said the BBC.
Though the history of Christmas carols spans almost 2,000 years, the progression of these songs took some interesting turns through the centuries. “While popular music constantly evolves, Christmas music stands out for its remarkable stability and enduring appeal,” said
Ariana Wyatt, a professor of voice with the Virginia Tech College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, explained that the carols most of us are familiar with today became popular in the Victorian era. It’s not surprising that many caroling groups and events have Victorian themes.
By 2013, the Pew Research Center found that caroling seemed to be declining in popularity. It found that the share of people who planned to go caroling that year – that is going from home to home singing – was “lower than the share who say they typically did so as children.” In fact, only 16% of participants said they planned to go caroling.
That decline didn’t prevent the largest caroling group ever recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records to get together in 2018, though. That caroling group – all 1,880 of them, gathered in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Karaoke, which can be done as a group, is also increasing in popularity, according to market research. And for those who can’t stand Christmas music and want something a bit more hardcore, a 2015 study published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal found that banging on the drums might be beneficial for mental health too.
“The findings indicate that extreme music did not make angry participants angrier; rather, it appeared to match their physiological arousal and result in an increase in positive emotions,” said the study authors. “Listening to extreme music may represent a healthy way of processing anger for these listeners.”