Festive spirit: This Christmas, Urdu carols also spread holiday cheer

Children perform ‘geets’ for the first time at carol-singing event at St Anthony’s Church.

KARACHI:

Carols are to Christmas like elves are to Santa Claus - one wouldn’t be the same without the other. Say Silent Night and most know that the holiday season has begun. But ‘Hum teen Badshah’ - an Urdu translation of the carol We Three Kings - doesn’t hold the same festive connotation for most.

Sehrish Masih and her friends were part of a new trend introduced this year at St Anthony’s Church when they performed ‘Hum teen Badshah’ at a carol-singing event last week. Clad in bright red and green clothes, the children assembled nervously on stage and sang two Urdu carols, also called geet.

“I was so scared that my hands were shaking. But it was good to sing in front of so many people and be part of Christ’s nativity celebrations,” said the beaming girl backstage.

This was the third time that the children were singing carols at St Anthony’s Church, where a bilingual carol singing event is uncommon.

A parishioner at St Anthony’s, Diana Joseph, said that the step was taken by Friar Clifford, who wanted the Goans and Punjabi Christians to come together on Christmas. Out of the 5,000 people attending the church, 3,000 speak Urdu and Punjabi.

According to Christian activist Zahid Farooq, as Christianity spread among locals, those more educated started translating Christmas carols while more geets were developed by poets, including ‘Masih aya, Masih aya, Khusiyan Manao’, ‘Masih ki aaj Wiladat ki Raat aye hai’, ‘Naachay Jhoomay Eid Manaye, and ‘Deewaron par Dheep Jalana aaj ki Raat’.

Some of the words used in Urdu carols are ‘Gudarya’ for Shepherds, ‘ Taara’ for the Star of Bethlehem and ‘Churni’ for the barn in which Jesus was born. Smaller churches, with majority of Punjabi Christians, also sing carols in Punjabi.

One Christmas, two masses

The demography of Christian community in Karachi has changed over the years, with an increasing number of Goan Christians migrating to other countries and Punjabi Christians moving to Karachi. Prominent churches have reformed their prayer services to accommodate both the English an Urdu speaking groups on the festive occasion.

The Holy Trinity Church for the past several years has been conducting its midnight Christmas mass in Urdu. With the nativity scene set up in the church, Reverend Shahid Sabir said that the majority of believers at the Protestant church converse in Urdu. On Christmas day, the church offers separate services for both English and Urdu congregations.

“There is no difference in the services as the message of God is the same and our community celebrates the unification.”

But not everyone is up for the separate masses - a representative of Punjabi Christians, Michael Javed, believes that there should be one single mass for the entire community. “We should combine all Christians and have one universal bilingual prayer?”  According to Javed, there are around one million Punjabi Christians and less than 5,000 Goans living in Karachi.

The Roman Catholic St Patrick’s Cathedral’s midnight mass, largest in the city, will cater to Christians of both languages, the other three masses on Christmas day are all in English.  Erum Gonslaves, married to a Goan, however, said that the intolerance has decreased over the years. “Our people have become more tolerant. They are part of us no matter what language they speak.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2012.