Fum, Fum, Fum

Before being written down in the early 20th century, the song was a typical example of a cançó de les mentides (English: "song of lies"), appropriate for the debaucherous way in which Christmas was celebrated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Lyrics were improvised each time it was sung, with each verse more absurd than the last. ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913) defines "fum" as "to play upon a fiddle", quoting Ben Jonson, "Follow me, and fum as you go." == Lyrics ==

Foreign-language versions typically do not literally translate the original lyrics. For example, the typical English version of the carol, created by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw in 1953, does not take into account the satirical substratum of the original. It was this version that popularized the carol in the United States and other English-speaking areas, though there are several other versions in English as well. ==See also==