Baba Christmas

By Tarquin -- The best way to escape Christmas and all those surreal perfume ads on TV is to go to an Islamic country. Which was why I headed to Delhi airport on Christmas Eve to get on a flight to Afghanistan. In Kabul, I knew I would be safe from
'Jingle Bell Rock' and the urge to eat my body weight in plum pudding and brandy butter.
    So there I was at the Delhi departures gate thinking I'd got clean away, when good old Indian Airlines canceled their flight, citing bad weather. I had to retrieve my bags and head back to New Delhi.
    On the way home, I stopped off to visit some friends. They're a Hindu family but their children have embraced Christmas. Or rather they know a good thing when they see it Apparently 'Baba Christmas' - as one of the little boys referred to Mr. Claus - fills the stockings of all children regardless of their creed.  What's more, these middle class Indian kids have discovered that if they get a tree and stick it in the sitting room with a few decorations hanging from the branches, presents miraculously appear on December 25th.

Christmas is catching on in many other Indian quarters as well.  Many of the shops here in South Delhi are lit up with lights. In the markets you can buy made-in-China fireproof synthetic trees. At the roadsides, the beggar children are all selling Santa pom-pom hats.
    Another friend told me over Christmas lunch today (we had Afghani chicken pilau) that he has received dozens of SMS text messages wishing him a Merry Christmas from non-Christian Indians. One, he said, was sent to him from a member of Shiv Sena, a Hindu party that is virulently anti religious minorities. It read: 'Wishing you God's blessing this Christmas.'
    When I asked my friend why he thought Christmas was catching on even amongst Hindu zealots, he told me that it has to do with the commercialisation of Christmas coupled with the growth of the country's wealthy middle class. He added: 'We Indians like festivals and Christmas is a nice celebration so we have adopted it.'
    But of course the Christian tradition is nothing new to India. Christianity spread here long before it reached the West. According to the 3rd century Acts of Thomas, the first Christians in India were converted by St Thomas the Apostle, who arrived at Kodungallur on the Malabar Coast of India in 52 AD. After evangelizing in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Apostle is believed to have been killed at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai and buried on the site of San Thome Cathedral.
    Today, Christianity is India's third largest religion; Christians number about 24 million.
    In one of Delhi's parks this morning, I came across some Christian women celebrating Christmas.
At first I couldn't be sure they were Christians. They wore bindis on their foreheads and brightly coloured saris. Their songs sounded nothing like 'Oh Come all Ye Faithful'. The music was very Indian -- a lot like the songs I heard sung at my wife's marriage henna party.
    I asked them what else they did on Christmas and they explained that cake plays a big part in their celebrations. After church, the congregation cuts a cake and they share it. They also exchange presents and give alms to those less fortunate than themselves.
    They asked me what I like to eat for Christmas and I told them that I love turkey. But this year I have had to go without.
    Not that turkeys aren't available here. I found a few for sale today in Delhi's INA market. The only problem was that they were alive and gobbling.
    Squeamish Westerner that I am, I couldn't bring myself to have one of them slaughtered. 
    Here's a picture of the one who got away...at least from me.

Merry Christmas!

Comments

[nijher]

my daughter anusika goes to a st:bernadetta school in surrey canada and she is in grade 1 and she got 02 weeks holidays for christmas and i studied in st:joseph's school at kanpur in india and we always had one MONTH christmas holiday,so my daughter thinks it is not fair as she is missing extra two weeks of fun had she been in india.in india christmas was always we look forward to though i am sikh

[Roberto Alvarez-Galloso]

For Anu and Family: Your article was great. Happy New Year from Miami. Roberto and Family.

[ayesha]

yay! another blog to read! :) please, take this stay-at-home-mom to all the places you go!
the pictures are wonderful. are you both in kabul now? can't wait to read and see more. love from me and of course from the mooster, who is now standing everywhere he can and correspondingly getting into everything that is now within his reach...