HYDERABAD: ‘Feliz Navidad – Prospero Anyo y Felicidad (wishing you Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart)’ a popular Spanish Christmas carol, written by a Puerto Rican singer, is the toast of the town, particularly with the youth. Carols are being rendered in almost regional languages and native tongues.
There are a number of churches which offer different language services in the city, in addition to English, Telugu and Hindi. One can see services in Marathi, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. It feels good to hear the original Telugu folk composition “Rajulaku Raju Putenu aniah” or “Dootha Pata Padudi Rakshakun Stutincudi” (a Telugu version of ‘Hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king’).
When the tunes are similar, the congregation picks up lyrics in their own language while carols mixed in one’s native tongues add pep to the celebrations. According to Lalani Renolds, a chorister from Hyderabad Archdiocese Choir, “we sang ‘O Come all ye faithful’ in five different languages, including Italian.”
Pastor for Christians from Nagaland, Johnson, said, “though our worship takes place in English, we get a homely feeling listening to tribal carols, songs and hymns composed in our dialect.”
Rajesh Taneja, whose family is settled in the city, said “It is rare to get to listen or sing Punjabi carols. But whenever we hear them, they touch our hearts and take me back to my childhood times.”
Jessica Gahatraj said “our community is small in Hyderabad. But for Christmas and other celebrations we bring in our native songs and carols.”
Pastor Davidson Ebenezer, pastor for Hope Unlimited church, said “our service is in English. We make sure that we involve regional carols as a special touch.”
Prema Florence, a retired government teacher, said “we worship at Holy Family Church, Trimulgherry. Since our roots are from Tamil Nadu, we patronize this church as it has Tamil service and one can listen to carols in Tamil. Whenever my relatives want to listen to Tamil songs they visit our church.”
