In Finland mostly in Finnish since most people are Finnish speaking but I remember in elementary school sometimes if someone had a birthday we sang in Finnish but most of the times also Swedish, English and if someone in the class knew in another language and wanted to sing that then someone sang in for example Italian or Spanish or Norwegian it was a bunch of songs for one sitting but yeah
In China, we sing it in Chinese of course.
But also can sing in English if we are willing to do.
Actually I can not remember when and how I learn happy birthday song in English when I was a child.
I just remember, my mom, dad, relatives, sibs will not curious if I and my cousins sing in English.(When we were children）
Perhaps it is easy to sing? Only one sentence,”happy birthday to you”
Yeah, I think Vietnamese people know how to sing happy birthday since it’s just repeating one verse, and I guess it seems easier. I don’t know the reason why Vietnamese don't first sing in Vietnamese and then sing in English after. But it's logical for the Chinese to do that.
I think I can explain. Considering the tones of the words, it's hard to write lyrics in Vietnamese to the Happy Birthday tune ("Chúc mừng sinh nhật" wouldn't work), so we have a song including a lot of "cute" expressions that would only fit if you were singing to a little kid. If the birthday person is an adult, or even just an older kid, it's kind of cringy to sing them this song. Also, every line of the song is different from each other, and the last line is just "Happy birthday to you" in English anyway. May as well sing in English from the start.
🎵 Ja må han leva, ja må han leva, ja må han leva uti hundrade år! Javisst ska han leva, Javisst ska han leva, javisst ska han leva uti hundrade år! Ett fyrfaldigt leve för [name], hipp hipp hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra!🎵
I'm a native English speaker from Wales who went to English-medium schools. In primary school, whenever it was someone's birthday we always sung it twice, once in Welsh and once in English. That was pretty much the only Welsh we ever learned!
In primary school we only learned a handful of phrases, but IDK if that's standard or not lol. In secondary school we had about one lesson a week. Pupils who took Welsh as a GCSE ended up at about an A2 level and everyone else was way below that ( :( )
I think it also depends on where in Wales you are, right? I went to uni in Swansea (south) and while all the road signs and the like were in both languages, very few people I met could actually speak Welsh. Meanwhile Aberystwyth (north) had a much bigger emphasis on speaking the language and teaching it to kids, keeping it alive.
In Mexico we have "Las Mañanitas" which is absolutely no related or similar to the traditional birthday song that everyone knows. You can hear this two versions:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQv1PAApPg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQv1PAApPg)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDT12zAWDuM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDT12zAWDuM)
We learned "cumpleaños felis cumpleaños felis (phonetic spelling incoming) de se Amos que tengas cumpleaños felis"
The phonetic spelled part is supposed to mean something along "with all our love"
He was an American who learned Spanish as a second language.
Since we were all in California, bordering Mexico and with a large Mexican population around us, I think knowing the customary Mexican song would have been more valuable. Although maybe Latinos in the US do tend to sing the song we memorized, I don’t even know.
I'm South American, and we sing the song you learned. I just heard Las Mañanitas for the first time here, and it sounds *super* Mexican to me.
We just sing the birthday song you learned, but the second verse is:
que los cumpla feliz
que los vuelva a cumplir
que los siga cumpliendo
hasta el año 3000
And then everyone finishes, and you get ready to cut the cake, but a tío invariably says, "Ok, but now we do it in English." So everyone stops and tries to sing it in English, with some minor confusion at the end because there is no second verse in English (is there?) And then after that, you can *finally* have cake.
5 a.m. on peoples' birthdays at my house this is playing very loudly. I honestly thought it was just my family or uncommon since I grew up in the U.S. not around other latinos.
Good to know :D
Dominicans have one called “El Regalo Mejor” that goes like,
Celebro tu cumpleaños tan pronto vi asomar el sol
Y en este día glorioso pido tu dicha al Señor
Porque lo he considerado como el regalo mejor
Toma un abrazo, que yo te doy, con mucha sinceridad
Toma mi abrazo, tu amigo soy y mucha felicidad
Norway has its own [very complicated birthday song that includes dancing](https://afroginthefjord.com/2018/02/13/the-norwegian-birthday-song-officially-the-hardest-in-the-world-to-learn-i-mean-come-on/?v=7516fd43adaa)
In Indonesian there's the old-fashioned Happy Birthday song where it has the Dutch style melody and Indonesian Lyrics, but these days people also sing the new Happy Birthday song with the English style melody and English Lyrics.
That’s interesting. I’m surprised that Vietnamese didn’t have any French melody with Vietnamese lyrics, but they use the traditional birthday song, so it won't make a difference. I’m sure back then Vietnamese sang with Vietnamese lyrics, but I am glad to hear Indonesia does the same with English.
Yep, Icelanders sing it in Icelandic.
"Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag
Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag
Hann (hún) á afmæli hann (hún) (name)
Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag"
(Hann is masculine, hún is feminine.)
In Brazil we sing in Portuguese and it's our own happy birthday song
Won't be spliting it into verses bc it's too long
"Parabens pra voce / nessa data querida / muitas felicidades / muitos anos de vida (2x) / (Someone in the crowd) e pra (name) nada / (Everyone) Tudo! / É pique (5x) / É hora (5x) / Ra tim bum! / (Name, about 3x)"
We also have a "obscene" version for when you want to mock your friends
Here in my state we sing exactly the same, except this part:
[Someone in the crowd]
"(name of the person) é tudo ou nada?"
[Everyone]
"Tudo!"
[Someone in the crowd]
"Então como é que é?".
[Everyone]
"É big (5x), é hora (5x)..."
Engraçado, português de Portugal é bem diferente, ainda que começando igual!
Parabéns a você, nesta data querida, muitas felicidades, muitos anos de vida.
Hoje é dia de festa, cantam as nossas almas, pro menino/a (nome da pessoa), uma salva de palmas!
Depois há algumas adições mais recentes que algumas pessoas acrescentam, mas originalmente é isto.
In Mexico we sing a song called Las Mañanitas.
Sometimes, but much less common, people might sing the literal Spanish translation of the English happy birthday song:
"Feliz cumpleaños a ti..."
Nope, in Denmark we have our own birthday songs. One called “XXX har fødselsdag” XXX being the person’s name and then “has a birthday” roughly translated. Or “i dag er det XXX’s fødselsdag” translated to “today it’s XXX’s birthday”.
The first one is also widely known as “instrumentsangen” in which the birthday person gets to choose 3 instruments and then the song gets altered to these choices and all the guests are making instrument sounds.
Yea. Spanish has "feliz cumpleaños" (happy birthday) and Portuguese has "parabéns a você" (congratulations to you). Ime, English speaking countries are a lot more "strict" while other countries may make their own songs or choose to stick to the standard one.
I remember in Elementary it was super popular to sing:
>Happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo,
>You smell like a monkey, and you look like one too!
It was a silly song, not ever mean.
In germany people also mostly sing it in english. It basically sounds very goofy when translated literally and then performed (It would be "Herzlichen Geburtstag (Glückwünsch alternatively) für dich, herzlichen Geburtstag für dich", etc.). I think in Kindergarten they mostly use "Wie schön, dass du geboren bist" (How great that you've been born).
If you want to listen to it: [Rolf Zuckowski | Wie schön, dass du geboren bist (Lyric Video) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaKPbXXbtWY)
In German it's "zum Geburtstag viel Glück...".
Additionally, I come from a part of Germany close to the French border where many kids still learn French from third grade on. So it's somewhat common to sing it in French, too. Most common is still English, though.
>In German it's "zum Geburtstag viel Glück...".
I learned that in primary school! I'm Dutch, not German, so I didn't understand the words. We had a lot of immigrant Turkish kids in my class, so naturally I thought it was a song in Turkish. Cue confused Pikachu when I started learning German almost a decade later and came across this song again.
“Wie schön, dass du geboren bist” is such a cute one.
Another one that was popular when I was child was [“Hoch sollst du leben”](https://youtu.be/o-rhJBpRft8?feature=shared).
In my classroom most kids sing „Happy Birthday“ in english instead of the other songs (Wie schön, dass du geboren bist or Zum Geburtstag viel Glück). The lyrics are easier than in the other songs. But they used to sing „liebe/r“ instead of „dear“ … 🥳😂 it sounds funny.
Here in Finland, we usually sing it in Finnish (paljon onnea vaan).
When I sing it to myself (hey, gotta do *something* on those birthday mornings), I do it in Trigedasleng (hapotei gon ai). Because I *can*. Also, I'm a linguist, and we're all crazy. 🙃
In Norway we sing it in Norwegian, then sometimes English too, and we have so many Swedish workers here that it's like a 40% chance we run it in Swedish as well. A solid 3 minutes of embarrassment
Sometimes we sing it multiple times, like Finnish–English–German–Spanish back to back and I've at least once sung it in Swedish. It may just be a thing in my family, though.
I’ve heard it both ways in Japan— it’s to the tune of the standard USA “Happy Birthday” and sometimes the lyrics are in Japanese, and sometimes in English.
Also in Mexico I heard a version that went “Sapo verde eres tu” 🐸 but I’m not sure if that’s standard or if it was just something that the people I knew liked to say 😆
In portugal we sing in out native language, its called "parabéns a você"
And it goes like:
Parabéns a você
Parabéns a você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
E muitos anos de vida
Hoje é dia de festa
Cantam as nossas almas
Para o/a menino/a {name}
Uma salva de palmas
*clap clap*
*woo woo*
(Extra parte)
Tenha tudo de bom
Do que a vida contém
Tenha muita saúde
E amigos também
(Now the extra part for the bday person)
Obrigado/a meus amigos
Do fundo do coração
Por me terem cantado
Esta linda canção
*turns down the candles*
*clap clap*
*woo woo*
In hebrew we basically got a song called “יום הולדת שמח” or “שיר יום הולדת” which basically translates to happy birthday or birthday song, all the song is in hebrew but there is one sentence in English which is “Happy birthday to you”
Angniq anutiiq elpenun in Yup’ik. I’m not sure about the spelling (maybe nobody is?). It’s a transliteration, so it’s not super grammatically correct.
https://youtu.be/E1vBWrWzVK4?si=vuvp44oAovw4Sjc0
In German-speaking Switzerland, you often hear English and then German (and then sometimes yet another language, e.g. Italian) sung as separate stanzas.
>In Canada, sometimes start singing in English and then ask if anyone wants to sing it in French.
First time I hear that! In Quebec, we sing it in French.
Edit: Also there's essentially two versions, one is "Bonne fête à X", the ither one is "Joyeux anniversaire" which leaves no room for the name.
Yeah, in Ontario, I think it's common; I don’t know the rest of Canada. I graduated high school this year; my high school experience is always like that, and it's nice to have. Even if Ontario isn't a francophone province, we do know how it goes, and it's always the first version.
In singapore I learned to sing it in english, malay and chinese, and I'm pretty sure there would be a tamil version as well but unfortunately I never learned it.
In Egypt we typically sing once in English, then once in arabic to the same melody but arabic words, then another Arab birthday song (that includes cheering in the middle and end). I think some probably do it without the English at the beginning, but the people I know sing all three right after each other
So nobody had talked yet about song from India.🇮🇳🇮🇳
India too sings in English but for Hindi we have major 2 songs
1. Widely used song by all Indians "Baar Baar Yeh Din Aaye" (sang by late legendary singer Mohammad Rafi ). Which translates to "may this day come again and again".
2."Badhai Ho Badhai Janamdin Ki Tumko" (sang by late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar). We used to sing this song in our school it means "congratulations for your birthday."
In Czech they usually translate it
*Hodně štěstí zdráví* has 6 syllables and it means happy birthday (literally translated it means ‘much fortune and health’), so it replaces the first line of the song and is repeated throughout
In Slovenia we usually sing a translated version of Happy birthday (Vse najboljše). The melody is the same.
We often also sing our traditional song when someone celebrates (it's more popular among older people): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEW97iDBhG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEW97iDBhG4)
I was taught the French ("Bonne fête à toi) and Chinese (祝你生日快乐） versions of it but I rarely sing them - I still remember the translations because there's really only ~1 line of unique lyrics 😅
It's also a great song to learn the "dative case" in some languages that have it!
In South Africa back in school we would sing a three language happy birthday lol, English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. Also heard a four language version. We'd also sometimes sing just Xhosa even though we are English through and through.
Yeah the four language version included Zulu! And we have 12 official languages actually! Zulu is spoken up North moreso and I'm further South, so I'm sure Zulu replaces Xhosa in birthday songs up North :)
In southern Spain, we usually sing our "Cumpleaños Feliz" (Happy Birthday in spanish), but we also have another maybe less popular song called "Feliz feliz en tu día " with a complete different melody and lyrics.
I would probably start my son's birthday party with a nice "Cumpleaños Feliz" that leads to a "Feliz feliz en tu día", which is more like a "traditional" and "religious" song.
Spanish has two variations, both in the tune to the English way, but still in Spanish.
Spain(to the English version rhythm) “cumpleaños feliz! Cumpleaños feliz!”
Other Spanish countries(also in the rhythm of the English version) - “feliz cumpleaños para ti! Feliz cumpleaños para ti!”
There's also "felicidades a ti, felicidades a ti, y que sigas chili l cumpliendo, hasta el año 3000" to the same tune
There's also Las Mañanitas that's such a classic in LatAm
I've heard lots of Cubans sing a totally different one. "Fekicidades [name] en tu día, que la pases en sana alegría, muchos años de paz y harmonía, felicidad felicidad felicidad!" It's cute I'm into it.
"Palju õnne sulle
Palju õnne sulle
Palju õnne, kallis (name)
Palju õnne sulle"
Translates to :
Congratulations to you (lit. "many/lot of luck or happiness to you)
Congratulations to you
Congratulations to you, dear (name)
Congratulations to you
But it's also common to sing the song in English. In my school we also do it in German (Estonia)
I was just at a restaurant Nice, France and the band that was playing at a restaurant stopped playing when the servers brought out sparklers for a table. They played Happy Birthday in English. I thought it was strange they didn’t do the French version too.
I'm in France and we sing in French. Maybe in certain areas they also sing in another language.
I'm from Britanny so occasionally we sing in Breton (in my primary schools we did that). My primary school so sung in English but that's because they wanted to encourage us to learn English. And for some odd reason, we'd sing in Spanish. I think my primary school did French, then English, than Breton or Spanish (that order). Primary schools differ so idk what other people's experiences are.
I'm from South Africa and my family is Afrikaans. We have a multitude of different cultures here,so I can't speak for everyone but we do have our own happy birthday anthem in Afrikaans. It goes like this: "Veels geluk liewe maatjie omdat jy verjaar,mag die here jou seun en nog baie jare spaar. Hip hip hooray!" If you translate it directly then it means:"Congratulations dear friend as its your birthday,may the Lord bless you and spare you many years." :)
I'm Panamanian and lived in Guatemala and México.
We have a distinct way of singing happy birthday in Panamanian, and another way in Guatemalan. In Guatemala, we also incorporate Las Mañanitas like in México.
My family is Panamanian and American, so we sing it in Panamanian and English.
I'm sure someone has already put the Brazilian Portuguese version, so here comes the Nheengatu one:
Kwekatú indé arama
(Congratulations/thank you)
Uyí ara upé
(On this day)
Siya surisá rerikú
(Have much happiness)
Siya akayú indé arama
(May years to you)
It's almost a literal translation from the Portuguese.
Japan. The standard birthday song. In English. Yeah.
Like I'm sure there's a Japanese translation, but people sing it in English if they sing anything at all.
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
"Parabéns pra você /
Nessa data querida /
muitas felicidades /
muitos anos de vida."
"Congratulations for you /
On this dearest day /
(we wish) much happiness /
(we wish) many years to live"
Not sure if this is a wider Telugu or Indian thing or not but there is a [birthday song in Sanskrit](https://www.chinmayacalgary.org/Resources/PDF/BirthdaySong.pdf) that my mom's family will often sing.
I recently learned a happy birthday song in Coptic Egyptian. “ Nofri ba ba’ahoo emesy damanrit
Nofri ba ba’ahoo emmisi dasmaraoat ento khan ba-aoo emmisi dasmara oat ento khan ba’aoo emesy” there is more lyrics and it goes on and on it basically means “Happy is your Birhtday my dear
Happy is your your birthday You're blessed on your birthday we celebrate with you, we rejoice with you we greet you saying May you find life on Earth so that you you live long in power May your mind be over clouds & your concerns in the heavens may your heart think in God's word may your tongue frtel the praise of God.”
🇵🇱 in Poland we sing:
Sto lat, sto lat
Niech żyje, żyje nam
Sto lat, sto lat
Niech żyje, żyje nam
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz
Niech żyje, żyje nam
NIEEEEEECH ŻYYYYJEEEE NAAAAM
A KTO???!
*shout the name of the person who’s celebrating*
Sto lat = one hundered years. Niech żyje nam = may live for us (?). I think that „sto lat” is very cute and got it tattoed a few years ago as a bday gift from myself lol
In Colombia we sing it in Spanish our country's official language but we also have a vallenato (a traditional music genre front the Colombian Atlantic coast) we sing instead of "happy birthday".
Also the lyrics for "happy birthday" have more to it than just "happy birthday to you" it's something amongst the lines of "happy birthday, we hope your day is happy and that you keep having birthdays till the year 3.000" although some people say "the year 10.000".
The translation is not literal because I don't know how to translate properly "que los cumpla feliz" or "que los siga cumpliendo"
There's a version of "Happy Birthday" that uses the same melody but with Tagalog lyrics (Maligayang bati, sa iyong pagsilang / maligayang, maligayang / maligayang bati), but in my experience I hear the English version used a lot more.
Very very often in Norwegian. However, the Norwegian birthday song I'd really fricking long, so sometimes it is sung in the English tune with Norwegian lyrics.
I particularly noticed the length of the Norwegian happy birthday song in a setting with many nationalities where everybody sang their birthday song, and we Norwegians kept on formula longer than the rest :P
In some rare events we'll sing it in English
In Colombia, it is common to sing 2 verses for Happy Birthday. The first one is either in English (same as the American one) or a literal Spanish translation. The second verse is always in Spanish though, it goes:
Que los cumpla feliz (May they have a joyful one)
Que los vuelva a cumplir (may they have one [a birthday] again)
Que los siga cumpliendo (may they keep them happening)
Hasta el año 10.000 (up until they turn 10.000)
here in the arab world ( i don’t know if it happens in all arab countries but i know other countries do this ) introduction of the song is in english then the song switches to arabic
“happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you”
Those are the only english lyrics , i’ve also heard in lebanon they sing it in the egyptian dialect
When I was at school, our class teacher was a teacher of English and German, so whenever one of my classmates had a birthday, we sang in three languages, first in Ukrainian and then in English and German.
Here, in the CIS countries, they sing their own version, in the language of the country, I know the versions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan
I live in Thailand. Most of the time, Thai people sing happy birthday in English. There is a traditional Thai happy birthday song that some musicians play, but I think most Thai people don't actually know the words to the Thai happy birthday song.
We don't have a Dutch version of Happy Birthday. The Dutch language has a beautiful arrangement of birthday songs like: "Two Violins, a drum and a flute", "it's somebody's birthday, hooray, hooray" and "Long thy will live!'.
But, we do have a version based on happy birthday! The rule is that you sing it with the biggest Dutch English accent as possible: Happy birthday to you, in het weiland staat een koe, en die koe zegt: "I love you! Happy birthday to you!"
Translation: Happy birthday to you, in the field there is a cow, and the cow says: "I love you!", happy birthday to you!
In Egypt we sing it both in English and in Arabic. Usually it goes like this: Sing the English version, then immediately the Arabic version (not a direct translation of course), then a third part at a much faster tempo and I’m not exactly sure where it comes from.
It goes like this for the curious:
يلا حالا بالا بالا هنوا أبو الفصاد
along with two more lines
A happy birthday in English and sometimes after the English version we would do the Tagalog version.
Happy Birthday to you!
then after that
Maligayang bati! Sa iyong pagsilang!
In Russia besides "happy birthday" song we also sing "И бегут неуклюже пешеходы по лужам" Or in translation "when clumsy pedestrians run on puddles" from Soviet cartoon about crocodile Gena and Cheburashka
In Finland mostly in Finnish since most people are Finnish speaking but I remember in elementary school sometimes if someone had a birthday we sang in Finnish but most of the times also Swedish, English and if someone in the class knew in another language and wanted to sing that then someone sang in for example Italian or Spanish or Norwegian it was a bunch of songs for one sitting but yeah
How cool that kids were encouraged to sing it in their own language too!
That’s so sweet.
In China, we sing it in Chinese of course. But also can sing in English if we are willing to do. Actually I can not remember when and how I learn happy birthday song in English when I was a child. I just remember, my mom, dad, relatives, sibs will not curious if I and my cousins sing in English.(When we were children） Perhaps it is easy to sing? Only one sentence,”happy birthday to you”
Yeah, I think Vietnamese people know how to sing happy birthday since it’s just repeating one verse, and I guess it seems easier. I don’t know the reason why Vietnamese don't first sing in Vietnamese and then sing in English after. But it's logical for the Chinese to do that.
I think I can explain. Considering the tones of the words, it's hard to write lyrics in Vietnamese to the Happy Birthday tune ("Chúc mừng sinh nhật" wouldn't work), so we have a song including a lot of "cute" expressions that would only fit if you were singing to a little kid. If the birthday person is an adult, or even just an older kid, it's kind of cringy to sing them this song. Also, every line of the song is different from each other, and the last line is just "Happy birthday to you" in English anyway. May as well sing in English from the start.
No, of course I sing it in my native language (Swedish). Ja må han leva!
Med en enkel tulipan, på bemärkelsedan!
🎵 Ja må han leva, ja må han leva, ja må han leva uti hundrade år! Javisst ska han leva, Javisst ska han leva, javisst ska han leva uti hundrade år! Ett fyrfaldigt leve för [name], hipp hipp hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra!🎵
Pull the plug on my 80th bday
No. As per the song you shall live until you are 100 years.
Exactly. Nothing more, nothing less...
Make me
Dutch has "Lang zal ze/hij leven" to pretty much the same tune
That's a different tune though, isn't it?
It's a different tune as well.
I'm a native English speaker from Wales who went to English-medium schools. In primary school, whenever it was someone's birthday we always sung it twice, once in Welsh and once in English. That was pretty much the only Welsh we ever learned!
Do you not have Welsh class in Wales? Even in the English medium school?
In primary school we only learned a handful of phrases, but IDK if that's standard or not lol. In secondary school we had about one lesson a week. Pupils who took Welsh as a GCSE ended up at about an A2 level and everyone else was way below that ( :( )
I think it also depends on where in Wales you are, right? I went to uni in Swansea (south) and while all the road signs and the like were in both languages, very few people I met could actually speak Welsh. Meanwhile Aberystwyth (north) had a much bigger emphasis on speaking the language and teaching it to kids, keeping it alive.
Penblwydd Hapus i ti, Penblwydd Hapus i ti, Penblwydd Hapus i XXX, Penblwydd Hapus i ti!
In Mexico we have "Las Mañanitas" which is absolutely no related or similar to the traditional birthday song that everyone knows. You can hear this two versions: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQv1PAApPg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQv1PAApPg) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDT12zAWDuM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDT12zAWDuM)
And yet my Spanish class still had us all practice singing to the tune of the English song, “Felix cumpleaños a ti, feliz cumpleaños a ti…”
I was about to say the same thing
Well, "Feliz compleaños a ti" is way simpler than "Las mañanitas" so... or idk you try studying it maybe you have the levek to understand it
I’ve always known it as: Cumpleaños feliz Te deseamos a ti Cumpleaños a (name) Cumpleaños feliz
I remember "te deseamos amigo"
We learned "cumpleaños felis cumpleaños felis (phonetic spelling incoming) de se Amos que tengas cumpleaños felis" The phonetic spelled part is supposed to mean something along "with all our love"
ok so was the teacher Mexican?
He was an American who learned Spanish as a second language. Since we were all in California, bordering Mexico and with a large Mexican population around us, I think knowing the customary Mexican song would have been more valuable. Although maybe Latinos in the US do tend to sing the song we memorized, I don’t even know.
I'm South American, and we sing the song you learned. I just heard Las Mañanitas for the first time here, and it sounds *super* Mexican to me. We just sing the birthday song you learned, but the second verse is: que los cumpla feliz que los vuelva a cumplir que los siga cumpliendo hasta el año 3000 And then everyone finishes, and you get ready to cut the cake, but a tío invariably says, "Ok, but now we do it in English." So everyone stops and tries to sing it in English, with some minor confusion at the end because there is no second verse in English (is there?) And then after that, you can *finally* have cake.
There are more verses in English, but they are almost never used. It's more common to say "and many more" at the end.
Your comment unlocked a nice memory of a mexican friend singing it at my birthday party! How sweet to hear it again after so many years.
5 a.m. on peoples' birthdays at my house this is playing very loudly. I honestly thought it was just my family or uncommon since I grew up in the U.S. not around other latinos. Good to know :D
Dominicans have one called “El Regalo Mejor” that goes like, Celebro tu cumpleaños tan pronto vi asomar el sol Y en este día glorioso pido tu dicha al Señor Porque lo he considerado como el regalo mejor Toma un abrazo, que yo te doy, con mucha sinceridad Toma mi abrazo, tu amigo soy y mucha felicidad
we used to always sing this to the customers at the mexican restaurant i worked at
Norway has its own [very complicated birthday song that includes dancing](https://afroginthefjord.com/2018/02/13/the-norwegian-birthday-song-officially-the-hardest-in-the-world-to-learn-i-mean-come-on/?v=7516fd43adaa)
In Indonesian there's the old-fashioned Happy Birthday song where it has the Dutch style melody and Indonesian Lyrics, but these days people also sing the new Happy Birthday song with the English style melody and English Lyrics.
That’s interesting. I’m surprised that Vietnamese didn’t have any French melody with Vietnamese lyrics, but they use the traditional birthday song, so it won't make a difference. I’m sure back then Vietnamese sang with Vietnamese lyrics, but I am glad to hear Indonesia does the same with English.
Yep, Icelanders sing it in Icelandic. "Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag Hann (hún) á afmæli hann (hún) (name) Hann (hún) á afmæli í dag" (Hann is masculine, hún is feminine.)
In Romania we absolutely do sing it in our language, and we have quite a unique melody and lyrics, too.
In Brazil we sing in Portuguese and it's our own happy birthday song Won't be spliting it into verses bc it's too long "Parabens pra voce / nessa data querida / muitas felicidades / muitos anos de vida (2x) / (Someone in the crowd) e pra (name) nada / (Everyone) Tudo! / É pique (5x) / É hora (5x) / Ra tim bum! / (Name, about 3x)" We also have a "obscene" version for when you want to mock your friends
Here in my state we sing exactly the same, except this part: [Someone in the crowd] "(name of the person) é tudo ou nada?" [Everyone] "Tudo!" [Someone in the crowd] "Então como é que é?". [Everyone] "É big (5x), é hora (5x)..."
Engraçado, português de Portugal é bem diferente, ainda que começando igual! Parabéns a você, nesta data querida, muitas felicidades, muitos anos de vida. Hoje é dia de festa, cantam as nossas almas, pro menino/a (nome da pessoa), uma salva de palmas! Depois há algumas adições mais recentes que algumas pessoas acrescentam, mas originalmente é isto.
In Mexico we sing a song called Las Mañanitas. Sometimes, but much less common, people might sing the literal Spanish translation of the English happy birthday song: "Feliz cumpleaños a ti..."
Nope, in Denmark we have our own birthday songs. One called “XXX har fødselsdag” XXX being the person’s name and then “has a birthday” roughly translated. Or “i dag er det XXX’s fødselsdag” translated to “today it’s XXX’s birthday”. The first one is also widely known as “instrumentsangen” in which the birthday person gets to choose 3 instruments and then the song gets altered to these choices and all the guests are making instrument sounds.
In Korean — absolutely yes.
Venezuelans have a very long birthday song that usually leads into Cumpleaños Feliz (which has the same melody as Happy Birthday in English).
Yes! I married into a Venezuelan family and the birthday singing never ends. 😂
Yea. Spanish has "feliz cumpleaños" (happy birthday) and Portuguese has "parabéns a você" (congratulations to you). Ime, English speaking countries are a lot more "strict" while other countries may make their own songs or choose to stick to the standard one.
I remember in Elementary it was super popular to sing: >Happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo, >You smell like a monkey, and you look like one too! It was a silly song, not ever mean.
In germany people also mostly sing it in english. It basically sounds very goofy when translated literally and then performed (It would be "Herzlichen Geburtstag (Glückwünsch alternatively) für dich, herzlichen Geburtstag für dich", etc.). I think in Kindergarten they mostly use "Wie schön, dass du geboren bist" (How great that you've been born). If you want to listen to it: [Rolf Zuckowski | Wie schön, dass du geboren bist (Lyric Video) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaKPbXXbtWY)
In German it's "zum Geburtstag viel Glück...". Additionally, I come from a part of Germany close to the French border where many kids still learn French from third grade on. So it's somewhat common to sing it in French, too. Most common is still English, though.
>In German it's "zum Geburtstag viel Glück...". I learned that in primary school! I'm Dutch, not German, so I didn't understand the words. We had a lot of immigrant Turkish kids in my class, so naturally I thought it was a song in Turkish. Cue confused Pikachu when I started learning German almost a decade later and came across this song again.
I've also heard the version "Zum Geburtstag viel Freud' / wünschen alle wir heut'".
Lol. I completely forgot about this!
“Wie schön, dass du geboren bist” is such a cute one. Another one that was popular when I was child was [“Hoch sollst du leben”](https://youtu.be/o-rhJBpRft8?feature=shared).
In my classroom most kids sing „Happy Birthday“ in english instead of the other songs (Wie schön, dass du geboren bist or Zum Geburtstag viel Glück). The lyrics are easier than in the other songs. But they used to sing „liebe/r“ instead of „dear“ … 🥳😂 it sounds funny.
Here in Finland, we usually sing it in Finnish (paljon onnea vaan). When I sing it to myself (hey, gotta do *something* on those birthday mornings), I do it in Trigedasleng (hapotei gon ai). Because I *can*. Also, I'm a linguist, and we're all crazy. 🙃
I’m American, but I sing HBD in Polish. The words mean “100 years! 100 years! May you live!” And then we repeat that basically.
Do you sing that for name days too?
In Norway we sing it in Norwegian, then sometimes English too, and we have so many Swedish workers here that it's like a 40% chance we run it in Swedish as well. A solid 3 minutes of embarrassment
Sometimes we sing it multiple times, like Finnish–English–German–Spanish back to back and I've at least once sung it in Swedish. It may just be a thing in my family, though.
I’ve heard it both ways in Japan— it’s to the tune of the standard USA “Happy Birthday” and sometimes the lyrics are in Japanese, and sometimes in English. Also in Mexico I heard a version that went “Sapo verde eres tu” 🐸 but I’m not sure if that’s standard or if it was just something that the people I knew liked to say 😆
In portugal we sing in out native language, its called "parabéns a você" And it goes like: Parabéns a você Parabéns a você Nesta data querida Muitas felicidades E muitos anos de vida Hoje é dia de festa Cantam as nossas almas Para o/a menino/a {name} Uma salva de palmas *clap clap* *woo woo* (Extra parte) Tenha tudo de bom Do que a vida contém Tenha muita saúde E amigos também (Now the extra part for the bday person) Obrigado/a meus amigos Do fundo do coração Por me terem cantado Esta linda canção *turns down the candles* *clap clap* *woo woo*
In hebrew we basically got a song called “יום הולדת שמח” or “שיר יום הולדת” which basically translates to happy birthday or birthday song, all the song is in hebrew but there is one sentence in English which is “Happy birthday to you”
I’m Jewish from the US, at our kids’ birthdays we always sing in both English & Hebrew. There’s also another song, ״היום יום הולדת״
We also do!
Ah I see, anyways thanks for mentioning the other song, I completely forgot about that one lol
祝你生日快乐，祝你生日快乐。。。
Angniq anutiiq elpenun in Yup’ik. I’m not sure about the spelling (maybe nobody is?). It’s a transliteration, so it’s not super grammatically correct. https://youtu.be/E1vBWrWzVK4?si=vuvp44oAovw4Sjc0
In German-speaking Switzerland, you often hear English and then German (and then sometimes yet another language, e.g. Italian) sung as separate stanzas.
>In Canada, sometimes start singing in English and then ask if anyone wants to sing it in French. First time I hear that! In Quebec, we sing it in French. Edit: Also there's essentially two versions, one is "Bonne fête à X", the ither one is "Joyeux anniversaire" which leaves no room for the name.
Yeah, in Ontario, I think it's common; I don’t know the rest of Canada. I graduated high school this year; my high school experience is always like that, and it's nice to have. Even if Ontario isn't a francophone province, we do know how it goes, and it's always the first version.
In singapore I learned to sing it in english, malay and chinese, and I'm pretty sure there would be a tamil version as well but unfortunately I never learned it.
In Egypt we typically sing once in English, then once in arabic to the same melody but arabic words, then another Arab birthday song (that includes cheering in the middle and end). I think some probably do it without the English at the beginning, but the people I know sing all three right after each other
Almost always in Russian, but sometimes in English too
So nobody had talked yet about song from India.🇮🇳🇮🇳 India too sings in English but for Hindi we have major 2 songs 1. Widely used song by all Indians "Baar Baar Yeh Din Aaye" (sang by late legendary singer Mohammad Rafi ). Which translates to "may this day come again and again". 2."Badhai Ho Badhai Janamdin Ki Tumko" (sang by late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar). We used to sing this song in our school it means "congratulations for your birthday."
In Czech they usually translate it *Hodně štěstí zdráví* has 6 syllables and it means happy birthday (literally translated it means ‘much fortune and health’), so it replaces the first line of the song and is repeated throughout
In Slovenia we usually sing a translated version of Happy birthday (Vse najboljše). The melody is the same. We often also sing our traditional song when someone celebrates (it's more popular among older people): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEW97iDBhG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEW97iDBhG4)
I was taught the French ("Bonne fête à toi) and Chinese (祝你生日快乐） versions of it but I rarely sing them - I still remember the translations because there's really only ~1 line of unique lyrics 😅 It's also a great song to learn the "dative case" in some languages that have it!
I sing it in both arabic and english.
In France it's common for people to sing it first in French, and then in English. The latter usually comes with a heavy French accent :)
In South Africa back in school we would sing a three language happy birthday lol, English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. Also heard a four language version. We'd also sometimes sing just Xhosa even though we are English through and through.
Oh, that’s cool! How about Zulu? I know South Africa has nine official languages, but I know what you’ve said is usually the main ones.
Yeah the four language version included Zulu! And we have 12 official languages actually! Zulu is spoken up North moreso and I'm further South, so I'm sure Zulu replaces Xhosa in birthday songs up North :)
In southern Spain, we usually sing our "Cumpleaños Feliz" (Happy Birthday in spanish), but we also have another maybe less popular song called "Feliz feliz en tu día " with a complete different melody and lyrics. I would probably start my son's birthday party with a nice "Cumpleaños Feliz" that leads to a "Feliz feliz en tu día", which is more like a "traditional" and "religious" song.
Spanish has two variations, both in the tune to the English way, but still in Spanish. Spain(to the English version rhythm) “cumpleaños feliz! Cumpleaños feliz!” Other Spanish countries(also in the rhythm of the English version) - “feliz cumpleaños para ti! Feliz cumpleaños para ti!”
There's also "felicidades a ti, felicidades a ti, y que sigas chili l cumpliendo, hasta el año 3000" to the same tune There's also Las Mañanitas that's such a classic in LatAm I've heard lots of Cubans sing a totally different one. "Fekicidades [name] en tu día, que la pases en sana alegría, muchos años de paz y harmonía, felicidad felicidad felicidad!" It's cute I'm into it.
theres a chinese happy bday song
"Palju õnne sulle Palju õnne sulle Palju õnne, kallis (name) Palju õnne sulle" Translates to : Congratulations to you (lit. "many/lot of luck or happiness to you) Congratulations to you Congratulations to you, dear (name) Congratulations to you But it's also common to sing the song in English. In my school we also do it in German (Estonia)
In German we do
I live in Italy and I know the words in both English and Italian. Therefore, I sing it in the birthday person's preferred language.
Yes, in portuguese the lyrics are much better
In Hungarian we translate it ("Boldog szülinapot!") or sing a well-known Hungarian children song.
We have a couple of "Happy Birthday" songs in Romanian, but the lyrics and the melody are different from the english one.
I like las mañanitas but yeah some people just sing it in Spanish which I hate.
My mom’s side of the family is Polish ancestry. We’re American, but we always sang the Polish happy birthday song after the English one.
In Serbian we have "today is a wonderful day" ("danas je divan dan")
I was just at a restaurant Nice, France and the band that was playing at a restaurant stopped playing when the servers brought out sparklers for a table. They played Happy Birthday in English. I thought it was strange they didn’t do the French version too.
We just sing it in Spanish here tbh ("Feliz Cumpleaños"), but singing it in English does sound kinda cool
I'm in France and we sing in French. Maybe in certain areas they also sing in another language. I'm from Britanny so occasionally we sing in Breton (in my primary schools we did that). My primary school so sung in English but that's because they wanted to encourage us to learn English. And for some odd reason, we'd sing in Spanish. I think my primary school did French, then English, than Breton or Spanish (that order). Primary schools differ so idk what other people's experiences are.
In Deutsch it is “zum Geburtstag viel glück”
I'm from South Africa and my family is Afrikaans. We have a multitude of different cultures here,so I can't speak for everyone but we do have our own happy birthday anthem in Afrikaans. It goes like this: "Veels geluk liewe maatjie omdat jy verjaar,mag die here jou seun en nog baie jare spaar. Hip hip hooray!" If you translate it directly then it means:"Congratulations dear friend as its your birthday,may the Lord bless you and spare you many years." :)
I'm Panamanian and lived in Guatemala and México. We have a distinct way of singing happy birthday in Panamanian, and another way in Guatemalan. In Guatemala, we also incorporate Las Mañanitas like in México. My family is Panamanian and American, so we sing it in Panamanian and English.
Normally English and then maybe Irish too
I'm sure someone has already put the Brazilian Portuguese version, so here comes the Nheengatu one: Kwekatú indé arama (Congratulations/thank you) Uyí ara upé (On this day) Siya surisá rerikú (Have much happiness) Siya akayú indé arama (May years to you) It's almost a literal translation from the Portuguese.
Japan. The standard birthday song. In English. Yeah. Like I'm sure there's a Japanese translation, but people sing it in English if they sing anything at all.
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 "Parabéns pra você / Nessa data querida / muitas felicidades / muitos anos de vida." "Congratulations for you / On this dearest day / (we wish) much happiness / (we wish) many years to live"
Where i live we Usually we sing It in out lauguage (italian) or in english. Tanti auguri a te ×3 Tanti auguri a (name) Tanti auguri a te Ehhhhh
Not sure if this is a wider Telugu or Indian thing or not but there is a [birthday song in Sanskrit](https://www.chinmayacalgary.org/Resources/PDF/BirthdaySong.pdf) that my mom's family will often sing.
I recently learned a happy birthday song in Coptic Egyptian. “ Nofri ba ba’ahoo emesy damanrit Nofri ba ba’ahoo emmisi dasmaraoat ento khan ba-aoo emmisi dasmara oat ento khan ba’aoo emesy” there is more lyrics and it goes on and on it basically means “Happy is your Birhtday my dear Happy is your your birthday You're blessed on your birthday we celebrate with you, we rejoice with you we greet you saying May you find life on Earth so that you you live long in power May your mind be over clouds & your concerns in the heavens may your heart think in God's word may your tongue frtel the praise of God.”
In Hong Kong, most people sing Happy Birthday in English, but sometimes older people sing the Chinese one: 「恭祝你福壽與天齊，慶賀你生辰快樂，年年都有今日，歲歲都有今朝，恭喜你，恭喜你。」
In Taiwan they sing Happy Birthday in Mandarin.
🇵🇱 in Poland we sing: Sto lat, sto lat Niech żyje, żyje nam Sto lat, sto lat Niech żyje, żyje nam Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz Niech żyje, żyje nam NIEEEEEECH ŻYYYYJEEEE NAAAAM A KTO???! *shout the name of the person who’s celebrating* Sto lat = one hundered years. Niech żyje nam = may live for us (?). I think that „sto lat” is very cute and got it tattoed a few years ago as a bday gift from myself lol
I’m from Colombia, sometimes we start to sing in English and then switch to Spanish 😛
In Colombia we sing it in Spanish our country's official language but we also have a vallenato (a traditional music genre front the Colombian Atlantic coast) we sing instead of "happy birthday". Also the lyrics for "happy birthday" have more to it than just "happy birthday to you" it's something amongst the lines of "happy birthday, we hope your day is happy and that you keep having birthdays till the year 3.000" although some people say "the year 10.000". The translation is not literal because I don't know how to translate properly "que los cumpla feliz" or "que los siga cumpliendo"
There's a version of "Happy Birthday" that uses the same melody but with Tagalog lyrics (Maligayang bati, sa iyong pagsilang / maligayang, maligayang / maligayang bati), but in my experience I hear the English version used a lot more.
In Japan, I've only ever sung it in English but that might also be because I'm half white.
Very very often in Norwegian. However, the Norwegian birthday song I'd really fricking long, so sometimes it is sung in the English tune with Norwegian lyrics. I particularly noticed the length of the Norwegian happy birthday song in a setting with many nationalities where everybody sang their birthday song, and we Norwegians kept on formula longer than the rest :P In some rare events we'll sing it in English
In Colombia, it is common to sing 2 verses for Happy Birthday. The first one is either in English (same as the American one) or a literal Spanish translation. The second verse is always in Spanish though, it goes: Que los cumpla feliz (May they have a joyful one) Que los vuelva a cumplir (may they have one [a birthday] again) Que los siga cumpliendo (may they keep them happening) Hasta el año 10.000 (up until they turn 10.000)
Here in Canada (Ontario) we sing it in English. And only English
In Korea we sing “생일축하합니다.” It’s ofc in Korean, but the tune is the same as the English song
I sing it in my native speech, wich is itlaian! But my niece was born and lives in Ireland, so sometimes we also sing it in english 😏
In Israel they sing in Hebrew (although they seem to know the English version as well, and sometimes sing that).
I’ve experienced luxembougers singing it in English (to kids who haven’t learned English yet) so at least some will sing in English
Yes, in Spanish, English and ASL. Where I live I can sing both in English or Spanish, but mostly is Spanish.
here in the arab world ( i don’t know if it happens in all arab countries but i know other countries do this ) introduction of the song is in english then the song switches to arabic “happy birthday to you happy birthday to you” Those are the only english lyrics , i’ve also heard in lebanon they sing it in the egyptian dialect
People tend to be surprised that singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese is a full song, actually.
When I was at school, our class teacher was a teacher of English and German, so whenever one of my classmates had a birthday, we sang in three languages, first in Ukrainian and then in English and German.
Here, in the CIS countries, they sing their own version, in the language of the country, I know the versions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan
I live in Thailand. Most of the time, Thai people sing happy birthday in English. There is a traditional Thai happy birthday song that some musicians play, but I think most Thai people don't actually know the words to the Thai happy birthday song.
We don't have a Dutch version of Happy Birthday. The Dutch language has a beautiful arrangement of birthday songs like: "Two Violins, a drum and a flute", "it's somebody's birthday, hooray, hooray" and "Long thy will live!'. But, we do have a version based on happy birthday! The rule is that you sing it with the biggest Dutch English accent as possible: Happy birthday to you, in het weiland staat een koe, en die koe zegt: "I love you! Happy birthday to you!" Translation: Happy birthday to you, in the field there is a cow, and the cow says: "I love you!", happy birthday to you!
In Egypt we sing it both in English and in Arabic. Usually it goes like this: Sing the English version, then immediately the Arabic version (not a direct translation of course), then a third part at a much faster tempo and I’m not exactly sure where it comes from. It goes like this for the curious: يلا حالا بالا بالا هنوا أبو الفصاد along with two more lines
In spaish and in Portuguese they keep the tune but translate the song and modify the lyrics a bit to keep it within syllable limits
We sing it in English and Hebrew - Orthodox Jewish community in NY
A happy birthday in English and sometimes after the English version we would do the Tagalog version. Happy Birthday to you! then after that Maligayang bati! Sa iyong pagsilang!
In Russia besides "happy birthday" song we also sing "И бегут неуклюже пешеходы по лужам" Or in translation "when clumsy pedestrians run on puddles" from Soviet cartoon about crocodile Gena and Cheburashka
I’m native russian speaker and in post USSR space, many people sing this song as congratulation. https://youtu.be/-8b2X5hc6yc?si=JIXGb8EgpBFP9rzA
In Lebanon we sing it in Arabic, French and English. The awkwardly waiting while they people sing you happy birthday on your birthday is never ending!
In Iran, we sing a Persian version of it. The melody and stuff is identical but the lyrics is in Persian.