Churchgoers in Sri Lanka recently attended one of the largest Christmas celebrations in the world, the 2016 Catholic Joy to the World Festival. However, instead of honoring baby Jesus and his mother Mary, as most do, they accidentally found themselves paying tribute to late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
As The Independent points out, the major holiday mix-up was the result of incorrectly printed church music programs, which were then distributed to the congregation. Rather than the sacred “Hail Mary” prayer, the lyrics of Tupac’s final 1997 single “Hail Mary” were included. Both are spiritual reflections to a certain extent, but I doubt those at Sri Lanka’s Nelum Pokuna Theatre that night were looking to do some explicit soul-searching on the topics of violence, drugs, and sex. Oops.
Check out a picture of the botched Christmas program below, followed by Tupac’s version of “Hail Mary”.
Of course, The Simpsons did it first.
