Editing Christmas carol (section)

====Form====
Most carols follow a more or less standard format: they begin by exalting the relevant religious feast, then proceed to offer praises for the lord and lady of the house, their children, the household and its personnel, and usually conclude with a polite request for a treat, and a promise to come back next year for more well-wishing. Almost all the various carols are in the common [[dekapentasyllabos]] (15-syllable [[Iamb (foot)|iamb]] with a [[caesura]] after the 8th syllable) verse, which means that their wording and tunes are easily interchangeable. This has given rise to a great number of local variants, parts of which often overlap or resemble one another in verse, tune, or both. Nevertheless, their musical variety remains very wide overall: for example [[Polyphonic song of Epirus|carols]] from [[Epirus]] are strictly [[pentatonic]], in the kind of [[Drone (music)|drone]] [[polyphony]] practised in the [[Polyphony#Balkan region|Balkans]], and accompanied by C-[[clarinet]]s and [[fiddle]]s; just across the straits, on [[Corfu]] Island, the style is [[Musical temperament|tempered]] harmonic polyphony, accompanied by [[mandolin]]s and guitars. Generally speaking, the musical style of each carol closely follows the secular music tradition of each region.