Hyderabad: Christmas is a lot more than the day. It is the season where you will find a lot of activities. One such important event is carol singing. Groups walk from house to house around several neighbourhoods, singing hymns while playing instruments during the night.
Carols are joyful songs in praise of Jesus celebrating His birth. In hymns lyrics narrate the episode of Christ’s birth, the purpose of His birth, very joyfully sung. Carols are not only sung in English but also in many Indian regional languages. Praya Parker, an employee of the national academy of construction, said, “I belong to a Hindustani service that uses pure Hindi and Urdu. We have a congregation from north India. There is some connect when the service is your mother tongue. Pas aao vishwasiyo, anand karke aao’ is the Hindi translation of the carol O come all ye faithful.
Pastor Ashok Sawlikar Matati said, “The Marathi families who came from Pune, Nanded, parts of Maharashtra are who we sing for. This is the time we have the most home visits. Compared to other language services we have a very small gathering; it's like an extended family.”
Mr Qubert Wilson, head of the choir at Holy Family Church, Trimulgherry, said, “This is the biggest Tamil congregation in the twin cities. Half of the cantonment has Tamil-speaking families. If you ever pass through Mudfort, Trimul-gherry, Bolaram, Ammu-guda, Alwal, Lothkunta, you can hear Tamil. Most of the people we serve are Tamil. During this season, we have five teams who will be going from door to door carol singing in Tamil. Since 70 years, this Tamil carol singing has been going on in this church.”
St Paul’s Public School principal Rodha Vasundra said, “My husband waits for the carollers to visit. His family are migrants from Karnataka,
Kannada carols bring back to him his childhood memories. It feels nice when you see the regional language songs sung to praise God. The whole family will be full of joyful singing.”
Mr E. Raja Praveen, choir member of the Methodist Telugu Church, said, “The dominant language has services with a congregation of 1,500. Visiting each and every house is a task but also a must We start the carols early in the second week of December and we make sure that each member’s door is knocked with carols. The beauty of Telugu carols is that most of them are originally written and composed.”
