It’s a carol that, once heard — and you’ll hear it everywhere — refuses to leave your head, as if the festive spirit itself has taken possession of your brain. Of course we’re talking about Christmas earworm Fum, Fum, Fum! which, when sung by squeaky-voiced children (it always is), sounds like a scurry of chipmunks high on helium-filled balloons. These are sharp shrill tones that will pierce not just the cold winter air but especially your inner ear with all the precision of a dentist’s drill but with none of the anesthesia.
While the basic lyrics describe baby Jesus being born in a barn and the visiting shepherds, what exactly is this “fum” all about? Fum means smoke, so is it the crackling fire? The puffing of a chimney? Chestnuts roasting? The answer is delightfully ambiguous.
Fum, Fum, Fum! hails from the Catalan-speaking regions and dates back to the 16th or 17th century. It’s sung with such gusto that it feels like the carolers are trying to wake the entire village, perhaps because it was originally meant to be sung outdoors while traipsing through chilly mountain villages. Its boisterous refrain, “fum fum fum!”, has a rhythmic punch that practically demands a foot stomp, especially if you’ve had a bit too much hierbas.
But let’s talk about that word: fum. In Catalan, fum, as we’ve seen, means “smoke,” but it also has deeper folkloric connotations. In some interpretations, the repeated fum evokes something steamier—an allusion to physical attraction, flirtation, or even more explicit desires. Ethnomusicologist Jaume Ayats says the chorus may even be interpreted as an invitation to fornicate. That’s right: “fum” translates as a four-letter word that also begins with “f” in English.
This dual meaning is typical of traditional folk music, which often weaves together the sacred and the profane. What might sound like a pious carol to the uninitiated could carry a risqué undertone for those in the know. So Fum, Fum, Fum! could easily have once been performed with winks and knowing smiles, especially in gatherings where wine flowed freely. It was thus a nod to the festive fertility of winter celebrations before they were fully sanitized by religious authorities.
Some versions of Fum, Fum, Fum! lean into this tradition, adding local humor or irreverent verses to spice up the performance. Another takes a bawdy turn, referencing shepherds eating eggs and sausage— perhaps a sly euphemism that nods to more risqué interpretations.
The song is also cited as a classic example of a “cançó de les mentides” (song of lies), a genre of Catalan folk songs that playfully mix truth and fiction. The lyrics were improvised by the singers with every performance, each verse striving to outdo the last in absurdity. This tradition lingers in the modern version, where one verse playfully asks, “qui dirà més gran mentida?” (“who will tell a bigger lie?”). So these songs often included exaggerated, ridiculous, or outright bawdy tales, testing the listener’s ability to discern the real from the fabricated. This playful flexibility made Fum, Fum, Fum! a communal event, blending the serious and the silly — and perfectly suited to the raucous and rowdy way Christmas was celebrated in the 18th and 19th centuries.
So, whether you hear it sung by a group of innocent kids in a town square or delivered with a mischievous grin, Fum, Fum, Fum! is a festive reminder of our knack for mixing reverence with revelry. It summons up not only the cozy, smoky warmth of the season but also the ribald spirit of Yuletide — when things are not always as they seem. Fum, fum, fum!
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