Italian "Happy Birthday" song

[Matilda]

OK, here's a truly trivial question! I just read Stabile's Compleanno Canoro in which Paperetta is desperate to avoid having the folks sing The Song to her on her birthday, because it's "interminable and dreadful" and embarrassing. Just curious: is the birthday song in Italy the "Happy Birthday" song from America, translated? Or is it another song entirely? My impression was that the American HB song had colonized most of the world.

If it is the American HB song, I'm kinda surprised by how intensely Paperetta dislikes it. I'd say it's pretty anodyne. And hardly interminable.

That said, I do like Paperetta's list of No-No's: "No 'Happy Birthday to You'. No cuffs on pants. No pineapple on pizza."

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 25, 2018 13:24:40 GMT Matilda said:

If it is the American HB song, I'm kinda surprised by how intensely Paperetta dislikes it. I'd say it's pretty anodyne. 

I actually find the song utterly obnoxious (when large groups of people with absolutely no ear for music try to "sing" it in chorus). But beyond that, it could be that Dickie hates it for being so "old-school" and "childish"; her whole thing was, at the beginning, that she was a "cool" kid who liked rock'n'roll and stuff. 

[Hyaroo]

Jul 25, 2018 13:24:40 GMT Matilda said:

That said, I do like Paperetta's list of No-No's: "No 'Happy Birthday to You'. No cuffs on pants. No pineapple on pizza."

I always thought that girl had taste. ^_^

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jul 25, 2018 13:24:40 GMT Matilda said:

OK, here's a truly trivial question! I just read Stabile's Compleanno Canoro in which Paperetta is desperate to avoid having the folks sing The Song to her on her birthday, because it's "interminable and dreadful" and embarrassing. Just curious: is the birthday song in Italy the "Happy Birthday" song from America, translated? Or is it another song entirely? My impression was that the American HB song had colonized most of the world.

 

 Yes, it is the same song (in the sense of 'melody') all over the World. In its French wikipedia page there is a list of countries were it is translated, but they could be more.   

[RobbK1]

Jul 26, 2018 11:11:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Jul 25, 2018 13:24:40 GMT Matilda said:

OK, here's a truly trivial question! I just read Stabile's Compleanno Canoro in which Paperetta is desperate to avoid having the folks sing The Song to her on her birthday, because it's "interminable and dreadful" and embarrassing. Just curious: is the birthday song in Italy the "Happy Birthday" song from America, translated? Or is it another song entirely? My impression was that the American HB song had colonized most of the world.

 

 Yes, it is the same song (in the sense of 'melody') all over the World. In its French wikipedia page there is a list of countries were it is translated, but they could be more.   

Didn't other countries have their OWN happy birthday songs before USA started dominating World-Wide culture???

[Matilda]

Jul 26, 2018 11:57:07 GMT RobbK1 said:

Jul 26, 2018 11:11:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

 Yes, it is the same song (in the sense of 'melody') all over the World. In its French wikipedia page there is a list of countries were it is translated, but they could be more.   

Didn't other countries have their OWN happy birthday songs before USA started dominating World-Wide culture???

Um, no. Why would they? The only reason we think people would have one is that we now *do* have one, and it's so ingrained as a tradition it seems obvious. Before the "Happy Birthday" song was written, the English-speaking world only had the generic celebrative song "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," which didn't work all that well for female honorees.

And speaking of birthday traditions....Paperetta also has a cake with a candle, and as she blows it out she makes a wish. She explains to HDL that if she tells them what the wish was, it won't come true. (And she doesn't, and it does, so that's proven.) That myth about the wish is exactly what I grew up with in the USA. Though here, a cake would usually have little candles, representing the number of years attained. At least through the teenage years. My sense is that the birthday cake with a single candle started in Germany, but the USA may have developed the candles=years thing for children. What birthday cake/candle/wish traditions/myths did you Europeans grow up with? I'll have to do some net research. I wonder whether there's a good anthropological book on birthdays.

As I said on an earlier thread, one of the things I enjoy doing when reading European Disney comics is comparing holiday traditions (Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, April Fools', etc.). Interesting to see what's the same and what's different (fireworks or costume balls or oliebollen at New Year's--all of those alien to me, though there are probably New Year's fireworks in other parts of the USA). Sometimes a story doesn't make it into my headcanon simply because the holiday tradition in it would not occur in America, where I assume Duckburg to be.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 26, 2018 13:46:09 GMT Matilda said:

And speaking of birthday traditions....Paperetta also has a cake with a candle, and as she blows it out she makes a wish. She explains to HDL that if she tells them what the wish was, it won't come true. (And she doesn't, and it does, so that's proven.) That myth about the wish is exactly what I grew up with in the USA. Though here, a cake would usually have little candles, representing the number of years attained. At least through the teenage years. My sense is that the birthday cake with a single candle started in Germany, but the USA may have developed the candles=years thing for children. What birthday cake/candle/wish traditions/myths did you Europeans grow up with? I'll have to do some net research. I wonder whether there's a good anthropological book on birthdays.

In France, we also have the years=candles thing (though as everywhere, it's not absolute for adults); I don't know for how long, but it seems pretty well-ingrained. 

[RobbK1]

Jul 26, 2018 13:46:09 GMT Matilda said:

Jul 26, 2018 11:57:07 GMT RobbK1 said:

Didn't other countries have their OWN happy birthday songs before USA started dominating World-Wide culture???

Um, no. Why would they? The only reason we think people would have one is that we now *do* have one, and it's so ingrained as a tradition it seems obvious. Before the "Happy Birthday" song was written, the English-speaking world only had the generic celebrative song "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," which didn't work all that well for female honorees.

And speaking of birthday traditions....Paperetta also has a cake with a candle, and as she blows it out she makes a wish. She explains to HDL that if she tells them what the wish was, it won't come true. (And she doesn't, and it does, so that's proven.) That myth about the wish is exactly what I grew up with in the USA. Though here, a cake would usually have little candles, representing the number of years attained. At least through the teenage years. My sense is that the birthday cake with a single candle started in Germany, but the USA may have developed the candles=years thing for children. What birthday cake/candle/wish traditions/myths did you Europeans grow up with? I'll have to do some net research. I wonder whether there's a good anthropological book on birthdays.

As I said on an earlier thread, one of the things I enjoy doing when reading European Disney comics is comparing holiday traditions (Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, April Fools', etc.). Interesting to see what's the same and what's different (fireworks or costume balls or oliebollen at New Year's--all of those alien to me, though there are probably New Year's fireworks in other parts of the USA). Sometimes a story doesn't make it into my headcanon simply because the holiday tradition in it would not occur in America, where I assume Duckburg to be.

They sing the American "Happy Birthday To You" song now in The Netherlands.  We used to sing "Lang zal hij Leven" (similar to "Fer Eez a Jolly Good Fellah"  in England, back during the 1940s, '50s and '60s.  We had the birthday cake with candles for each year old for kids (Canadian tradition that developed together with US).  I had carrot cakes as birthday cakes, or rhubarb pie - either with candles.  In South Holland we had individual cakes for each child at the party, including the birthday child.  He or she had one candle.  Yes, we made a wish. 

[Hyaroo]

In Norway we have the song "Hurra for deg," which means "Hooray for you," and which in my opinion is one of the cringiest and worst birthday songs ever. In later years, most people have shifted to the much easier "Happy Birthday To You," sometimes with Norwegian translated lyrics. Even here the melody is instantly recognisable as a birthday song, so anyone humming a few bard of "Happy Birthday" will instantly get their meaning across.

We have the same tradition of one candle on the cake per year, but it's generally for kids here too. The traditional birthday cake is "bløtkake," which is Norwegian-style layer cream cake (generally with strawberries) though layer chocolate cake is often more popular with the kids.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jul 26, 2018 11:57:07 GMT RobbK1 said:

Jul 26, 2018 11:11:11 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

 Yes, it is the same song (in the sense of 'melody') all over the World. In its French wikipedia page there is a list of countries were it is translated, but they could be more.   

Didn't other countries have their OWN happy birthday songs before USA started dominating World-Wide culture???

Honestly, in this specific case it does not seem to me much a 'world dominating culture' issue. I think that a lot is due to the specific success of the melody. In Italy we also have the translation of the traditional 'good fellow' English song mentioned by Matilda.