Coventry Carol - Lully lulla - The Saddest Christmas Carol.

The Coventry Carol dates from the 16th century, when it was performed as part of a mystery play, The Pageant of the Shearman and Tailors, in Coventry, UK. This play follows the story of the Birth of Christ, following Matthew 2. The Coventry Carol itself concerns the Massacre of the Innocents, where King Herod ordered the murder of all baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of 2. (Matthew 2:16-18). Although this event is not attested in historical records outside the narrative of the Gospels, it is clearly in keeping with what we know of Herod’s character from elsewhere. The Massacre of the Innocents is marked by the Roman Catholic Church on 28th December and the ’Innocents’ are seen as the very first Christian martyrs. The modern revival of this carol took place at Christmas 1940, during the Second World War, in the ruins of the recently bombed out Coventry Cathedral. This drew parallels between the sufferings of the innocent in antiquity and the sufferings of the innocent in the midst of the