Merry Christmas!

Often I face this question in the western world – do you celebrate Christmas?  That question, can not have a short answer, if I am to answer. I try explaining, so that it does not come back again.

Being a British colony until 1947, many British traditions stayed on in India.  Christmas is a state holiday in India, although Christianity in India is a minority with only 2.3% (of 1.237 Billion) of the population. Most of the Christians in India attend the church services. Many Christian houses in India decorate Christmas cribs and distribute sweets and cakes to their neighbours. In many of the schools that are run by the Christian missionaries, the children actively participate in the programmes. Also in many non-religious schools, there is tradition of Christmas celebration. Christmas is also increasingly celebrated by other religions in India. Christmas is known as "Badaa Din" (Longest Day of the year) in North, East and North-West India. Father Christmas or Santa Claus indeed delivers presents to children from a horse and cart.

There are some localization as well  , where instead of having traditional Christmas Trees, a banana or mango tree is decorated (or whatever tree people can find to decorate!). Sometimes people use mango leaves to decorate their homes. And instead of Turkeys, we manage with large size Chickens for our roast or curries on the Christmas day.

In our household, as far as I can remember, during my childhood days in India, we waited for Christmas day,   for two reasons.  From Christmas day onwards, the day gets longer, hence we get more time to play cricket  and also on  Christmas day, there are lot of good foods cooked at home.  There used to be a family get-together as well  , which meant no studies in the evening. Practically impossible to study with so many people around, you see! It has always been happy times for us Indians nevertheless, as much it is for Christians across the world.

YES; WE ALL LOVE CHRISTMAS!  And tomorrow. My IPHONE will be singing Christmas Carol all day for me.  And I can't wait for the evening because  I KNOW there will be some really nice food. :)

The Blessings of Peace, the realization of Hopes, the Spirit of Love, the Comfort of Faith & beauty of your Smiles.  May these be your gifts this Christmas Season. Merry Christmas!   Here are some of my favorite songs (One for the day and one for the evening), for all of us to enjoy.