About a week and a half ago, Mr Fadi, who is a volunteer who teaches at PSOTA and is originally from Syria, asked me to sing at an event with him and Josh Davis, who is the leader of Proskuneo Ministries. The event sounded interesting, and even after attending it, I am not entirely sure what it was. The general idea of it was people from the Arabic culture coming together to celebrate Christmas. This event included both Muslims and Christians. During the event, Mr. Fadi, Josh, and I, along with Mr. Fadi's wife, Ramona, and his brother and sister-in-law, sang a number of Christmas songs, most of which focused on Jesus. Also during the event, both the Christian leader spoke, and the Muslim leader spoke, and both shared their faith/their opinion on Christmas. It was a joint event in a way, yet it was held at a church, and the music was all Christian. Two things happened at or because of the event that made me ask some questions/have some thoughts.
The song Jingle Bells is the first thing. At the event, we sang the song in both English and Arabic. In English, the song focuses on a fun winter night in which there is singing and laughing. In Arabic, it focuses on Jesus and how He came to earth, full of glory, offering us grace. The tune is the same, the syllable count is the same, but the message is completely different. The idea that possibly the most well known song around this time of year is Jingle Bells, yet it means different things in different cultures is interesting. If you speak another language or are from another culture, what does the message of this song mean? I would love to hear it :)
My second thought or thing that happened was I sang in Arabic on stage in front of over 100 Arabic speaking people, and they were shocked. The leader of the event dropped his jaw when I started singing along with the two Arabic women on stage with me. When we finished singing, he jumped up and said, "Did you hear the white american girl sing? In Arabic?" He just made such a big deal about how I sang in their language. It impacted me so much. To have someone not in their culture, come into their culture, and embrace an aspect of their culture meant something to them. I try to do this on a daily basis, but do I do it as much as I should or as I could? How do you do that? I really want to hear all of your thoughts on this, it is important to me to learn about this, and so please leave a comment! :)
Fun Facts:
1. Saturday was the first time I sang at an Arabic Event. And the first time I sang in Arabic.
2. I love Christmas music, all of it, and yes I am that person who listens to it constantly from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
3. Singing songs in other languages and from other cultures is a passion of mine.
CHALLENGE:
Take your favorite Christmas song and find where it talks about it in Scripture!
SONG:
I love the piano guys and this is their latest Christmas song! So cool, has anyone every tried anything like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n543eKIdbUI