The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 16 - Carolers That Could Have Used an Uber App

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, dear listeners to the Strange History Podcast and

0:03 Speaker 1: day sixteen of our Victorian Christmas countdown the twenty five

0:07 Speaker 1: Strangest Days of Christmas. Today we discuss the Victorian caroaler.

0:12 Speaker 1: Not the sweet high school choir in scarves, not your

0:15 Speaker 1: neighbor Sharon and her ukulele. No, I'm talking about the

0:19 Speaker 1: old school caroling gangs. Caroling was once a form of

0:22 Speaker 1: musical extortion. A group of singers would approach a house

0:26 Speaker 1: and sing loudly, intensely, relentlessly until the homeowner gave them food, ale,

0:32 Speaker 1: spare change, or whatever was in the pantry and not

0:35 Speaker 1: nailed down. If refused, the carrollers didn't just leave, Oh no,

0:40 Speaker 1: they switched to insult carols. Imagine trying to relax by

0:44 Speaker 1: the fire while outside your door a group of spirited

0:47 Speaker 1: tenors belts, good tidings we bring and your curtains are cheap.

0:52 Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty three, the town of Bath issued a

0:55 Speaker 1: caroling curfew because local singing groups were pounding doors with

0:59 Speaker 1: unruly harmony past midnight. But that's a Victorian Christmas. It

1:03 Speaker 1: was festive, it was melodic, it was mildly threatening.

1:07 Speaker 2: Today's episode is sponsored by Caroler begone, Indoor noise barrier

1:11 Speaker 2: curtains now with advanced tenor dampening technology. Kroler be gone,

1:18 Speaker 2: because sometimes the season of joy needs a volume knob.

1:22 Speaker 1: Tomorrow we pour another round of chaos. It's time for

1:25 Speaker 1: the paper chains and the Victorian craft night that could

1:28 Speaker 1: last days.