“History of the Birthday Dirge.” Punkie’s Web Page – Lyrics for Viking/Barbarian Birthday Dirge, 2019, /cybertusk/viking_birthday_dirge.html. In addition to the thump or lack thereof, I found that the lyrics are slightly different from those recorded in the article I found the only commonality being the line “People dying everywhere.” This thumping aspect has not followed into KB’s Birthday Dirge which I find extremely interesting as it is a quite prominent attribute to the Russian rendition. It is said that after each refrain of “Happy Birthday”, often in Russian tradition, the noise “HUHN”-like a grunt, or a thump on the table or floor is produced. The Dirge often varies in lyrics based upon who it is being sung to and often is comprised of only 2-3 verses. This Dirge is sung to the melody of a Russian folk tune known as, The Volga Boatmen” (a 1926 American silent drama film). I've never heard this song before but during spring we 100 put sticks in our helmets to avoid being attacked by magpies. After going into a deeper analysis of this text I found that the song or refrain is a variation of the Birthday Dirge a/k/a “The Barbarian Birthday Song”, “The Viking Birthday Song”, “The SCA Birthday Dirge”. It's basically a law that if someone makes up some crazy lie about Australia, all Australians just have to go along with it. Interpretation: My initial reaction of hearing this dark and dreary birthday song was the thought of “ Who would want to hear this on their Birthday?” Often when celebrating a birthday we are trying to ignore the fact that we are growing a step closer to our impending deaths and this song seems to capitalize on this fear.

Location: the South (transitioned into west coast) This depressing nature, however, is not how KP sees the song, he states they “sing it just to be funny and change up the traditional happy birthday song, and never sang it to be mean just to have fun.” Happy Birthday to Children or Friends When addressing children or friends, you can say (zDNYOM vaRYENya). The conversation was brought up after overhearing this song at a family birthday celebration, where he states the song is traditionally sung at since others cultures may not approve of such dark and depressing nature. The most popular birthday song in Russia is called (Crocodile Gena's Song). KP notes that the birthday song was originally passed down orally by his mother. KP resides in northern California, and his family has been in the states since the second ship after the Mayflower.He also states that he doesn’t know its exact origins, but assumes they are from the South (where he and his ancestors grew up). Background: The interviewee, KP, is an American man nearing his mid-fifties.

Russian happy birthday song lyrics