It isn't Christmas without Christmas Carols!

A city that is home to a populous which is diverse in its ethnicity, Delhi celebrates Christmas by bringing in Carols conducted and performed by choirs enumerating different styles and languages. With the onset of the season of new beginnings, TOI looks into the enticing voyage of Carols as it progressed into the present day to be part of our celebration of Christmas.

While the world has seen Christmas hymns since the 4th Century, Carols came to India with the onset of Christianity here. While initially they were sung only in Churches and homes, the people eventually took it upon themselves to take it outside, singing hymns and going from house to house, enlivening the mood. “From being just community and folk songs, they progressed to not only being a part of the rural community celebration but also the Urban,” Shobha, a long-time resident of Delhi, said.

With the 200th anniversary of the famous carol song, the Silent Night, TOI found that the celebrations in Delhi have taken a multilingual turn. While churches like Sacred Heart Cathedral perform carols in languages like Hindi, English and Malayalam, there are also minor communities that conduct carols in other languages like Tamil, Konkani and sometimes even Bengali. Some of the best Places for carols are Green Park Free Church, New Life Church and Evangelist Baptist Convention Church.

Many Traditional Carols have been modified and made more appealing by speeding up the tempo and rhythm. One such development is the popularity of Hindi Carols like the Love Delhi Carols that have songs sung both in Hindi and English. “Many English Carols are translated into Hindi and some are incorporated with folk or tribal beats and rural or rustic styles and are performed in many churches,” Swapna, another resident, said.

It isn’t surprising that the capital has its own choir circuit. The oldest among the choir groups is Delhi Christian Chorus, which was formed some 50 years ago! The group performs classics like Mozart to old Hindi songs. With the youth finding their way back to finding delight in multiple traditions and cultures, groups like Lyric Ensemble of Delhi conduct concerts lacing together Classics, Broadway music and Christmas songs in Italian, German, French and English to make sure not only to entertain Delhi with more diverse forms of music but also to make it more relatable and remove any form of elitism that comes attached with it. Some of the songs sung in their Concert include the famous Opera pieces of La vergine degli angeli (The Virgin of the Angels) by Giuseppe Verdi and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert.

Another prominent group is The Capital City Minstrels, known to be Delhi’s best, comprising university students, doctors, lawyers, architects, teachers, corporate executives and embassy personnel from different continents. They are returning this winter to celebrate the sound of Christmas with their ‘Peace’ themed concerts. Entertaining audiences with a wide repertoire from the earliest choral music to the entire spectrum of western classical music; opera, ballads, folk songs, Broadway tunes, rock, pop, jazz, as well as Indian music, they let you admire elegance in diversity.

While the New Delhi YMCA used to conduct the “Festival of Choirs” every year over several decades, they stopped conducting it for schools. This, however, at the same time gave birth to a whole range of carol competitions in the city that encouraged songs in multiple languages. Some famous carol competitions in Delhi are Gloria and Carol Bells.

From traditional songs like ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ and ‘We three Kings’ to modern songs like ‘Blue Christmas’, ‘Mary, did you know’ and ‘Carol of the bells’, we can see that the carols have evolved along with the people and time.

These are some of the choirs conducting carols in the coming days to make your Christmas musical!

The Capital City Minstrels

Concert schedule:

December 15, 7:30 PM – Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre.

December 16, 7:30 PM – St. Dominic's Church, Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi

December 18, 7:00 PM – Cathedral Church of the Redemption, 1 Church Road, North Avenue

Green Park Free Church Concert:

When: December 13th at 6 pm

Where: A-24, Green Park

Love Delhi Carols

Schedule:

December 14th - Starbucks, Nehru Place

December 15th - At the Attic, Connaught Place

December 20th - At the Little Theatre, Mandi House

Grahamites Christmas Carol Service

When: December 16th

Where: DBF Central, Bhai Vir Singh Marg, Delhi

Green Park Free Church Carol service

When: December 23rd at 6 pm

Where: A-24, Green Park

There are also Carol competitions coming up. Some of them are:

Aman Ka Utsav

When: December 17th

Where: Tosh Goswami Garden, Connaught place

Gloria Carol Competition

When: January 13th 2019

Where: Mater Dei School, New Delhi