Christmas songs bring familiar cheer
FOR Peter Lazaro, celebrating Christmas in Indonesia means eating his mother’s “pastel tutup”, or homemade shepherd pie, surrounded by family.
But this year, he will celebrate December 25 thousands of kilometres from his home town.
“I mean, you can replace all festivities, the churches, the mass. It’s pretty much the same, but I can’t replace my mum’s cooking,” he said.
Mr Lazaro moved to Sydney from Semarang, the capital city of Central Java, in 1982 to study in Year 12 and has been living there ever since.
Plans to travel overseas this year were cancelled due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, but he will still be with his wife, daughters and loved ones.
Mr Lazaro remembers how lonely Christmas used to be in Sydney many years ago.
“When I first came out here, for the first few years, I couldn’t go home every year because the money was tight,” he said.
“I did have a friend that I spent Christmas with but it’s different when you’re so far away from family, and being in a foreign country without any relatives can be very lonely.”
Mr Lazaro is one of eight diverse vocalists featured on what’s said to be Sydney’s first multilingual Christmas album — Sounds of Christmas from Asia Pacific.
It is hoped that the album, which was created during Sydney’s lockdown, will reach “culturally minoritised and marginalised” people who are having “a difficult and lonely time” this Christmas, Kevin Bathman, one of the co-producers, said.
Many people are living in Australia without family, and during the pandemic the lack of financial support and isolation took its toll on their mental health and wellbeing.
With songs in Samoan, Filipino, Fijian, Bahasa Indonesia, Tamil, Japanese, Tongan and Mandarin, Mr Bathman says the album “speaks volumes”.
“(It) gives a sense of familiarity and home,” he said.
Mr Lazaro was excited to be among the multicultural producers and musicians who were asked to be involved in the project, which was supported by funding from the City of Sydney.
He chose to record a song he used to sing in his hometown as a child called Pada Tengah Malam Terdengar Pujian, which translates to It Came Upon The Midnight Clear.