Patna echoes with songs of joy this season

PATNA: Don't get alarmed or reach for your hockey stick or licensed revolver if you suddenly hear a lot of people singing outside your door, or in front of your neighbour's gate, or under your window. It's not a civic protest or a political dharna, but just a good-natured Christmas tradition. It's called carolling. A carol is a festive song, often with a dance-like or popular beat.It is of a religious nature but not necessarily connected with church worship. The traditional attributes of a carol may be described as celebrating a seasonal topic, alternating verses and chorus, and danceable music.
A few doughty bands of carollers are braving the chill to stand outside the odd house and belt out renditions of 'Jingle bells' and 'we wish you a Merry Christmas' in varying sharps and flats. Residents in certain areas like new Patliputra Colony and Fairfield Colony are likely to be visited by more than one band of carol singers. These 'Songs of Joy' are sung in many languages. While most groups include Hindi and English songs in their repertoire, you will be lucky to hear the fascinating Kerala drum beats of the energetic Malayalam carols sung by the Mar Thoma and 'Syrian Tradition' communities.
"It's all about spreading the joy and peace, singing out the news of peace and earth and goodwill to everyone," says Gyan Prakash, who along with other members of the Masih Satsang sings Christmas songs in Bhojpuri. These songs, accompanied by the dholak, are in a feisty bhajan style.
Christmas carol competitions are organized at several places. The Anglo-Indian Association, Patna Women's College and Don Bosco Academy regularly organize such events. Thursday night saw - what is arguably the largest Christmas carol event of the year in the city - the seventh edition of Songs of Joy in which 36 choirs from schools, colleges, youth groups, and churches came together for two hours of rich Christmas music at the open-air stage of Ravi Bharati, the Jesuit-run communication institute.
"It's where all cultures and people meet, to spread the word that Christmas is for everyone, and not just for Christians," said Ravi Bharati director Benny Moolan SJ, "The singers on the teams were from various faiths: Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists. It was an evening of music, sharing, and amity. On stage were people from Bihar, Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Kerala - truly pan-Indian. Though it was a competition, the emphasis was on being together for peace and love: that's what the birth of Jesus is about. There were some 400 amateur singers, more than 50 per cent of the participants were non-Christians, and it is this support that made the event so unique." In fact, the choir that won the English carol section this year had only one Christian member.
Christmas carols herald Christ's birth. But no one actually knows Jesus' actual birthday. Some scholars say that Jesus might not have been born in the winter, but in the spring or the autumn! Israel can get very cold in the winter and it's unlikely that the shepherds would have been keeping sheep out on the hills.
During the spring (in March or April) there's a Jewish festival called 'Passover' to mark when the Jews had escaped from slavery in Egypt about 1500 years before Jesus was born. Jews from all over the Roman Empire travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. So, it would have been a good time for the Romans to take a census. Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census (Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem). Other Biblical scholars think that the Sukkot festival in the autumn would be a likely time for the birth of Jesus. It also would have been a good time to take the Roman Census as many Jews went to Jerusalem for the festival and they would have brought their own tents or shelters with them.
The first recorded date of Christmas celebration on December 25 was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I declared officially that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December. Christmas had also been celebrated by the early Christians on January 6.
Most of the world uses the 'Gregorian Calendar' implemented by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Before that the 'Roman' or Julian calendar was used (named after Julius Caesar). The Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Roman calendar which had too many days in a year! When the switch was made 10 days were lost, so that the day that followed the 4th October, 1582 was 15th October, 1582.
Many Orthodox and Coptic Churches still use the Julian calendar and so celebrate Christmas on the 7th January (which is when December 25th would have been on the Julian calendar). And the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates it on the 6th January! January 6 is still called 'Old Christmas' as this would have been the day that Christmas would have been celebrated on, if the calendar hadn't been changed. That's why the Christmas season traditionally lasts till January 6.
Whenever the real birthday of Jesus may have been, the truth is that Christmas will always be a time for celebration.