I have had to spend the past two Christmases at Houston away from my family. I have been reminiscing quite a bit about my childhood Christmases in India. Below is an account of how Christmas in my part of India used to be.
First, about the festivities in the culture in general. We do not have radio stations playing Christmas songs all of December. We do not have ‘Happy Holiday’ bill boards or TV ads. Shops don’t have Christmas lights unless the shop is owned by a Christian. Some non-Christian owner will also have lights if he wants his shop to appear cool and trendy to his customers. The Human Resources managers in some Multi-National companies in cosmopolitan cities use the Christmas opportunity to have X’mas parties and spread some cheer among the employees to make them ‘feel good’ about the companies they work for. Of course, who wouldn’t like the Santa and chocolates and gifts. Shops and malls in bigger cities which have huge Multi-National corporations try to catch in on the trendiness on the celebrations.
Now, about the festivities within the Christian circles. When we were kids we lived in a residential area. During Christmas season, the Church choir will come singing Christmas carols to each of the Christian homes after 10:00 pm. They go knocking on each of the Christian houses in the locality and sing a carols, receive a contributions and then move on to the next house. They have a Santa and chocolates and huge portable halogen lights… so kids in the houses would really enjoy it. The choir would go on from house to house till 3:00 am in the morning. It is done this way because Jesus was supposedly born at night, secondly because this way they can make sure that there is someone at the house to answer the door. It doesn’t matter if someone looses a little sleep one day a year during Christmas season, after all it is CHRISTMAS. I remember when I and my sister used to be kids, we would hear the carols being sung at some house at the other end of the street and will eagerly wait by the window. And when the carol comes to the house adjacent to ours, our hearts would be thumping. They would come to our house, we would open the door and stand there. Everyone will be looking at us, we will be looking around shyly, the Santa would shake our hands and dance. When the song is over, the Santa would give us chocolates and someone would extend an offering box and my sister or I would place the offering. Each Christian social/work/church community will have a Christmas carols at a Church or party hall.
One such Christmas season, the Hindu lady adjacent to our house told us that she too would like for the Santa and the Carol Choir to come to her house, but that they never did that. Suddenly, my mother had an idea. She asked me to get all the kids in the Street, Christian and non-Christian. We got one of the taller non-Christian kids to wear my mother’s red night robe and we had a Santa mask that came handy. We tied a pillow around the belly under the robe so that the Santa looked, rightly, fat. My mother gave us chocolates and told us to go to all the non-Christian homes in our street to sing carols. We were to give chocolates, but not collect offering. I can’t forget how the Hindus were overjoyed. At the end they would come to give offering, but we would say, “No, we don’t take offering”. I can’t forget that night. Of course, we were sensible enough, we started at 7:00 pm and were done by 9:00 pm. There are some ‘compassionate’ Christian carol groups that go to poor villages and sing Carols in each of the non-Christian homes, they too don’t take offering. These involve quite a bit of charitable giving as well. Going for Christmas carols around the poor villages were awesome experiences.
Then there are some committed Christians who’ll have a Christmas party at their house or party hall and invite a Christian speaker to share the gospel so that the Hindus will have a chance to listen to the gospel at the excuse of the party. In fact, the Christians in my company at India had one such party, you can see the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com.hk/wilsonjust/EkkattuthangalPrayerFellowshipChristmasCelebration?feat=email. It was conducted in a Church near our company. The ones sitting in the pews are Hindus, you’ll notice that some women wear the kunkum on their foreheads.
Then there are the Church festivities. Most Christmas services aren’t Christmas eve services, the Christmas service starts at 4:30 am on the Christmas morning. So to get a place in the Church one has to be in Church by 3:45 am. Churches have massive decorations, lights all around, along the edge of every wall, along the ridges of every section of the roof, all the way up to the Church spire. Some Churches have huge lighted stars hanging all along the way from the residential colonies to the Church. It is symbolic of the Magi following the star. Most houses have stars too. They are generally huge colored paper stars with light bulbs within that make the star glow beautifully at nights. All Indian Christians wear a new dress for Church on Christmas day. During Christmas service, the amount of gold the Indian ladies wear to Church would be more than any Bank would have in its lockers. Of course, in some sensitive areas there is police protection as well. Church service would get over by 6:00 am.
Then there are the festivities within the Christian homes. Of everything else, it is these that I miss the most. On Christmas day, as soon as we come home, we would have a brief family prayer. As soon as this is over, at about 7:00 pm, my sister and I, when we were kids, would run to the street to burst crackers. No, in India we did not have to get city permission to burst crackers. Like folks in the US have ‘gun rights’, Indians have ‘cracker rights’. My mother would have started planning for Christmas meal more than a week prior to Christmas. ‘Biriyani’ is a South Indian delicacy that is very rich in spices and tastes great to the South Indian pallet and it takes lots of preparation and a long time to cook. On Christmas day we would give Biriyani and Christmas cake to the non-Christian homes in our neighborhood and social friends circle so my mother would prepare Biriyani in a 5 gallon cooking basin. We usually have a Full-time servant who stays at our home and a part time servant who works for a couple of hours each day. On Christmas eve, both of them will work full-time assisting my mother in preparing the Biriyani.
When we are still playing with crackers on the street, my mother would call us and give us parcels of food to go and give to the non-Christian homes. My sister and I run to each of the houses, to give food, the sooner this done, the sooner we would get to have our Christmas lunch. In fact, the non-Christians would be eagerly awaiting for my mother’s special Christmas Biriyani. I loved this part of my contribution to Christmas festivities, because it was the simplest and more importantly because it was more rewarding, I got to see their happy faces. They would chit chat about where we got our new dress and what crackers we played with and so on… So by the time we are done with this it would almost by 2:00 pm. Then we would have the most tasty meal of the year. I would patiently eat for about an hour. Then have a peaceful sleep until evening. Christmas would be done. J
I miss those good old days…
Oh, the irony of life that when good times pass-by
We know them only after they have past-by.
But the gift of life – the sweet memories
And the reminiscences of the good and the real.
Ironies of this life are Truths of the next.
Past-taste is the irony. Past-tastes
Of the good and the real, in Truth,
Are Fore-tastes of the next world.
All that is good and real are godly.
For all things good and real are subjected under Christ,
After Christmas ushered in a new Kingdom
Making Christmas a celebration of all things good and real.
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