A Christmas Carol (1984) - Watch Full Movie Online

A Christmas Carol is a 1984 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' famous 1843 novella of the same name.

TURKEY: Istanbul's Greeks celebrated Christmas with their traditional "calanda"

 

Istanbul's Greeks celebrated Christmas with their traditional "kalanda" activity where Zoğrafyon Greek High School student chanted Christmas carols on Istiklal Avenue.

Since 2009 Istanbul's Greek community has celebrate Christmas with a special walk on Istiklal Avenue, singing Christmas carols and giving presents to street passers-by. The crowd has been received by Greek Consule to Istanbul and his spouse.

"Calanda means Christmas carols in Greek," Özcan Şabudak, Zoğrafyon Greek high school vice principal, said. "Children used to collect tips by singing carols and donated to charity organizations. Now we are doing the walk to motivate Istanbul's closed Greek community to be more active. We encourage them to confront their fears and be more confident as minority citizens."

Yani Klimentaki, an Istanbul-born Greek, said he was happy to see his community celebrate Christmas in joy even though he complained that many of his friends had to leave Istanbul due to pressures. 

Klimentaki's remarks remind us one more time how challenging it could be to live as minority in Turkey. The Christmas celebration on Istanbul Avenue should mean something to other people as well. 

Maybe it is time that people in Turkey asked themselves why the few remaining Greek community still lived long with fears. (BK/HK)

Today it’s Christmas Eve! Christmas carols are sung on the mornings of Christmas Eve (VIDEO)

 

In Greek Orthodox tradition, carols are sung on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), New Year's Eve (Dec. 31) and on Eve of Epiphany (Jan. 5). The lyrics for these days are different. Groups of children go from house to house in their neighbourhood singing the carols. The Singing is accompanied by the playing of triangles. 

Householders hear them through and reward the children with a small amount of money or with seasonal sweets. The lyrics shown below are the "standard" ones sung in cities, although there are several regional variations, which are typically longer and make use of local dialects.

The lyrics of the Christmas Carol follow.

GOOD EVENING NOBLEMEN

Good evening to you noblemen

And if it is your wish

In praise here at your mansion,

Of Jesus' birth I'll sing. 

Jesus Christ was born today

in town of Bethlehem

The skies above rejoicing

All nature satisfied.

T'was in a cave that he was born

And in a manger laid

The king of all the skies above

And maker of all things.

Angelic hosts are singing

All glory be to God

And holy be to shepherds

And to their faithfulness.

From Persia are arriving

Three magi with their gifts

The brightest star has led them there

No hour have they delayed.

Origins of Favorite Christmas Carols: Greensleeves (VIDEO - This is soo touching)

 

Greensleeves

 

What Child Is This?

The tune "Greensleeves" has a long history extending at least as far back as the 16^th century, but its association with the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" is relatively late. It wasn’t until the 19^th century when three stanzas of a poem (called “The Manger Throne”) by William Chatterton Dix were set to the Greensleeves melody.

Dix’s text was only one of many set to the famous tune; the original text begins with the words, “Alas, my love, you do me wrong / To cast me off discourteously…” That Henry VIII wrote the song as a lover’s lament for Anne Boleyn is a good but unfounded story.

Shakespeare referred to the tune in his 1602 play the Merry Wives of Windsor when Falstaff exclaims, “Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves!” Over a hundred years later, in John Gay’s Beggars Opera, a prisoner awaits his execution on the Tyburn tree, and sings yet another version of Greensleeves.

(poss. Henry VIII of England, 1500's.)

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,

To cast me off discourteously.

For I have loved you well and long,

Delighting in your company.

Chorus:

Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight,

Greensleeves was my heart of gold,

And who but my lady greensleeves.

Your vows you've broken, like my heart,

Oh, why did you so enrapture me?

Now I remain in a world apart

But my heart remains in captivity.

chorus

I have been ready at your hand,

To grant whatever you would crave,

I have both wagered life and land,

Your love and good-will for to have.

chorus

If you intend thus to disdain,

It does the more enrapture me,

And even so, I still remain

A lover in captivity.

chorus

My men were clothed all in green,

And they did ever wait on thee;

All this was gallant to be seen,

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,

but still thou hadst it readily.

Thy music still to play and sing;

And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Well, I will pray to God on high,

that thou my constancy mayst see,

And that yet once before I die,

Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.

chorus

Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,

To God I pray to prosper thee,

For I am still thy lover true,

Come once again and love me.

chorus