Singing in the season

Festive fervour

The magic of Christmas is here, the carols and seasonal songs are flooding the air. With people choosing gifts and doing Christmas shopping, the season’s traditions are on. The door-to-door carolling too is back and a few Bangaloreans in the City, who have started their festivities, speak to Metrolife.

Asha Elisha, who works in customer service and a member of the St Mark’s Cathedral, says, “We do door-to-door caroling and have a lot of houses to cover. So, we plan the route. Since our congregation consists of more than 1,000 people, we make a list of the people who want us to come over. They often organise dinner or refreshments for us.”

Asha, who has been carolling for 30 years, says that this is the only season they get to enjoy the carols and have fun. “The carolling starts from 6.30 pm and goes on till 3 am or later. We carry the mouth organ and the guitar, get on a rented bus, and sing all the way to the homes,” adds Asha.

Shwetha E, a second-year art student and a member of the Wesley English Church, says, “We’ve started our carolling and will be going to different areas on different days. Carolling has been on at the church for almost 50 years now, and I’ve been a part of the carolling tradition for five years now. My family’s into carolling and it’s been a regular tradition. It’s nice and warm to be together with family and have fun.”

“We’re a very active group of the church and we’ve been carolling for the 30 houses that are in our ward for about 10 years now. We move around as a huge group of about 60 to 70 people in a hired bus and have several cute Santas in the group. The singing is accompanied by the guitar,” says Babu Thomas of the Chavara ward, a group from the St Alphonsa Church, Sultanpalya. Babu adds, “This year, we even had special uniforms for women and kids. The carolling night ended in a grand feast at the last house that we carolled at, just like every year.”

“We’ve been carolling since the inception of the church, and I have been a part of carolling at homes for almost 50 years now. Since the members have increased drastically, we have split the carolling group into three. They start their rounds from the beginning of December and go on till December end,” says Tara Jayapal, a caroller from St Luke’s Church.

“Youngsters nowadays are so busy and caught up with work or studies. They can’t be involved with carolling. So, we often wonder whether to continue with it but when Christmas comes, we decide to do it again,” she says.  While most churches in the City have door-to-door carol singing, not all churches do this regularly.

Sujith Mathew, manager of a company and the choir in-charge of the East Parade Church, says, “We don’t have a carolling group in an organised manner. We do go to the homes of a few senior citizens, but it’s not a regular thing. We have regular Christmas programmes with classical orchestra, but since the musical instruments used there can’t be carried outside, we do carolling only during special circumstances.”