Christmas under the African Sky

Nothing gets me into the Christmas spirit like singing “Hark the Herald Angel” in a beautiful church lit by candle light and a hot chocolate to warm up after the service! So when I heard about a Carol Concert in Sandton, I marked the day big in my diary, cancelled all other dates and got out my Santa hat! I was right to be excited – I was in for a truly memorable experience!

After spending all day by the pool drinking sangria, I swapped bikini and flip flops for a more suitable Carol outfit: white linen trousers, a Santa hat and – of course – sunglasses!

Rushing through crowds of shoppers in Sandton City (Johannesburg’s biggest mall) I arrived at Mandela Square just before the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, the Symphony Choir and Freshly Ground started the concert with one of my all time favourites “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” (or “Adeste Fidelis” for the Latin buffs among us).

Hundreds of people – black and white, old and young - had gathered together under a giant marquee, sitting on plastic chairs, drinking wine and beers while singing along to “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “Joy to the World”. The conductor really tried to involve the audience and asked us to sing along and make the background noises: during “Jingle Bells” we rattled our keys to imitate bells and when the orchestra played the “Sleigh Ride”, we clapped our hands to create the sound of a whip.

One of the highlights was when Zolani from Freshly Ground sang the last Carol for the evening: “Silent Night, Holy Night” with one verse in English, one in Afrikaans and one in Zulu - wonderful!

The audience was mesmerised and demanded an on-call. And so – to complete my first African Carol experience – I got to enjoy “Silent Night” followed by “Waka Waka”. Awesome!