Birthday Songs Throughout the World

Throughout my life, my all-time favorite musical tradition to take part in has always been the singing of the "Happy Birthday" song to whoever was being celebrated. While, like just about everyone else, I've never liked being on the receiving end of this, there is something so joyous about gathering together with family and friends to sing in celebration of someone you love! So, when I read the prompt for this assignment, I knew this was the ritual I wanted to focus on.

I think we can all agree that each family or group's rendition of this song is quite unique, some sung perfectly in tune with four-part harmonies, and other that sound just about like a catfight with a dash of the pre-concert tuning of an orchestra. But even with these differences - the addition or lack of "cha-cha-cha's", mentions of zoos and smelling like monkeys, or "hip-hip hooray's" - the "Happy Birthday" song, as known in English-speaking countries has remained quite steadfast.

 English Birthday Song

German Birthday Song

Two versions of the "Happy Birthday" song I stumbled upon during my search were Native American - one, a Navajo birthday song, and the other a version sung by members of an unspecified tribe in Virginia. What I found so interesting about these two versions was that, although they did share many aspects of Native American music, with vocables, call, and response, and disjunct melodies, they were still two very different songs, with different lyrics, melodies, and very different energy levels. 

While this makes sense given the differences in tribe and, with that, culture, it is still interesting to see how big the differences in such a "simple" tradition could be when comparing them both to each other and to what I am personally used to. 

Navajo Birthday Song

Native American Birthday Song

However, (and this really surprised me) this is where the major differences in birthday songs seemed to stop. While there are other traditional birthday songs out there, they are surprisingly hard to find, and, if the search results on Youtube were anything to go by, it seems like many countries now use the same "Happy Birthday" song used here in the U.S., just translated to whatever language they speak. 

However, I did come across one last birthday song specific to its culture - "Las Mañanitas." While this song is also sung right before cake, it is also traditional to sing it while waking the the birthday person or even to hire a Mariachi band to sing it to them.

The song is quite versatile as well, being used not just for birthdays, but for anniversaries, Mother's day, and many other holidays and special occasions!

Las Mañanitas

Sources:

“Las Mañanitas.” Viva Cuernavaca, https://universaldomainexchange.com/vivacue2/las-mananitas/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CLas%20Ma%C3%B1anitas%E2%80%9D%20is%20a%20traditional,Las%20Ma%C3%B1anitas%20during%20people's%20birthdays.