Birthday song

You have heard the melody of this song at least once a year ever since you can remember what those candles and cake were far. Actually, you have heard it longer than that, you just don't remember. It's the birthday song, so popular that if anyone asked you to sing it right now, not only could you do it, you could add variations, some involving monkeys and zoos. The questions really is then, is this something you have in common with someone half way around the world? Is this song universal, or just something American or Anglo? The first issue to look at when trying to find out how universal the song is, is to see that the melody was written in the late 1800's by two elementary school teachers as a song called "Good Morning to all" in the United States. Around 1912 someone printed the melody with "Happy Birthday" lyrics, and an American tradition was born. At the very least, we know it has been an American staple for the last 100 years, however we also know it has been translated into over 18 different languages. This means it has obviously escaped US borders. It turns out, many countries have adopted the melody to our dear, old "Happy Birthday" song. For example, in Arabic speaking countries, they sing the words "Sana helwa ya gamee" to the same tune we sing and other countries do the same, co-opting the melody and translating the words. But this doesn't mean it is universal. In some countries, our "Happy Birthday" is accompanied with a traditional song of that country, such as the Greek's "Polychronion" ("God Grant Many Years") or the Dutch singing "Er is er een jarig" ("There is a birthday"). It seems most countries incorporate the "Happy Birthday" song in some way, though sometimes as part of a medley with songs that predate our own "Happy Birthday". Perhaps next time an opportunity comes around to sing it, you can think of all the people around the world who may likely be singing it with you, and perhaps sharing this new found knowledge will help people to realize what a truly small world this really is.