《快乐的节日》是下乡后最早抄录的一首老歌，由管桦作词，李群作曲，创作于1953年“六一儿童节”之际，描绘了节日里小朋友与毛泽东一起过节的图景。
几代的小朋友们都曾经唱过这首歌，只是歌词改了又改。中国人有“篡改”歌词的习惯，时过境迁就会改动那些不合时宜的歌词——歌曲结尾倒数第二句的歌词最早是“亲爱的父亲毛泽东”，那个时候，作为“革命第二代”的小朋友们是有资格直呼毛泽东为父亲的；但到了后来，新一代的小朋友再称呼毛泽东为父亲就有些不合适了，于是那句“亲爱的父亲毛泽东”便改为了“亲爱的领袖毛泽东”；毛泽东去世后，不能再和我们一起过儿童节了，于是又改为了“亲爱的叔叔阿姨们”，也就是今天的小朋友所唱的版本，但主角不见了。
其实，作为历史歌曲，歌词没必要改来改去以适合当下处境。最失败的例子就是对“国歌”的改动了——文革后一度对“老国歌”进行过修改，将那句“不愿做奴隶的人们”改为了“各民族英雄的人民”以适应“新时期”的需要，并且在“五届人大”上获得了通过。但很快，四年后又重新恢复了旧歌词，原因是新歌词在文学性和感染力上存有争议，未能获得广泛的认同。
翻看下乡时的日记，所抄录的都是文革前的老歌，每一首都刻着岁月的痕迹。一首老歌就如同一栋历史建筑，看着不够新颖，却展现了历史的原有风貌，没必要去翻新改造。
I remember this song. I was at elementary school in the early to mid 80's. We had a music teacher who liked singing. He could play the accordion and taught us many popular songs from Taiwan. This song was in the official textbook. "Dear uncles and aunts", that was actually from another song, "They are like the bees brewing the sweet life for us." I remember how we loved to sing with him, the lanky young man with the accordion. But retrospectively, I suspect him to be a pedophile. Why would a young man like him work in elementary school, where 99% were female teachers?
The PE teacher was definitely a pedophile, 'cause once I saw him fondling a girl in the equipment room. No one would question his behaviors, though.
