Christmas in other countries

by Frencie L. Carreon

One observation that foreigners have of the Philippines is the nation’s period of celebration of Christmas.

“Your Christmas here starts as early as October, just when we are still looking forward to Thanksgiving Day (in November),” an American once remarked. And I thought he was only considering Zamboanga City, especially when the festivities for the season actually kick off with the city’s celebration of the Feast of the Lady of the Pillar, the city’s patron. (This also drives us to another point—the religiosity of Filipinos, particularly Zamboangue?os.)

“You Filipinos decorate your homes as early as September,” a Dutch photojournalist said. And I remember how department stores busy themselves with their displays just when the ‘ber’ months start.

Well, I’d say Filipinos do exaggerate a bit celebrations on Christmas—but who cares? Definitely, not the children who find great joy and excitement when the season starts. Certainly, not those employed in companies who receive thirteenth month pays, bonuses, and allowances, not to mention the numerous gifts they receive and even those from Kris Kringles.

I started having my Christmas tree last week, simply because I got the pressure from my kids at home. But these thoughts made me wonder, how is Christmas spent in other countries? I started asking friends who are foreign journalists, some of whom are my classmates at InWEnt’s International Institute of Journalism.

Van Anh Pham of Vietnam's Than Nien Newspaper said, “In Ho Chin Minh, people rush out to go shopping in shopping centers or supermarkets with many sale-off as well as decorate their house, especially for Christian families. There are some parishes in Ho Chin Minh City in which many Christian families gather to decorate their houses beautifully for other people to visit, like Binh An, Nam Hai in District 8, and others.”

“Somehow you can see traffic jam there also. Otherwise, HCMC citizens can rush to the center of the city in some main streets like: Dong Khoi, Le Duan, Le Loi, Nguyen Hue, and others, which are decorated splendidly with colorful lights and ornaments by the budget of the city, to take photos. This year, HCMC government has a special artificial snow-ball built in the Central Park of the city to attract more tourists and local people to come for sight-seeing,” she added.

“For me, I will take 3-day off this weekend to join a charity activity of my group, Hand in Hand Fund in Kontum, a mountainous province far away from HCMC. We will give blankets, coats, foods and necessary stuffs for 60 orphans there. Not only my group, but other youth group also do the same things in an effort to share the warmth with unlucky people in the cold season,” the Vietnamese reporter said.

Alexandra Klawitter of InWEnt based in Berlin shares how her family observes Christmas in Germany. “In my family there are also some “traditions”: We decorate our flats with all kind of Christmas decoration and lights. My mother-in-law and I bake cookies together on one of the Advent Sundays. I sometimes continue baking with neighbors and friends. And we all light the candles on our advent wreath,” she shared.

”For us, December 24 is our ‘Holy Night’. My brother, his wife and their kids go to church on Christmas Eve,” she shared. “My husband and I normally visit our parents. We have a ‘modest’ dinner together, like potato soup with sausages and then we unwrap our presents. When I was young we used to sing Christmas songs together, but this is more for children. If the weather is nice, meaning, if is not raining cats and dogs, we go for a walk in Berlin’s ‘winter wonderland’.”

Alexandra, a tall and gorgeous lady, added, “On December 25 and 26 we normally meet (again) with family and friends for lunch. Then we have festive dishes like goose roast, turkey, or rack of venison with red cabbage and potato dumplings.”

”As you can see, for us it is mostly about meeting our family and friends, spending time together and enjoying the holidays,” the German researcher concluded.

From Europe, I turned to Leslie Koh, assistant to the editor of The Straits Times in Singapore.

“Christmas is quite commercialized in Singapore. Shopping centres roll out the Santa Clauses, Rudolph, fake snow, mega-sales, and the like. Having said that, churches also go quite big on it, holding evening services on Christmas Eve and on Christmas mornings. A large part is to evangelize and there is a great effort by many of the mainstream churches to pull together to try to remind people about the true meaning of Christmas--that it's not just a tradition or festive season, but to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ and His arrival on earth to save mankind. Many people do go to church on Christmas eve, including devout Christians, Christians who go to church twice a year out of tradition - Christmas and Easter - as well as non-believers who like the idea of being in a church on Christmas, because it's the "traditional" thing to do.”
 
“For the past few years, we've also been having this mega celebration at Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping street, that is held or organised by the main churches, with dances, caroling, skits--anything to remind people about the true meaning of Christmas,” the Singaporean journalist stated.
 
“As for Christian families, I think most would not celebrate it in a big way, like Chinese New Year. Some people would have just some form of Christmas party/dinner with friends/family... not so much as a reunion or anything, but just as a reason for a get-together. Nowhere near the Chinese New Year feeling, where it's almost mandatory for families to reunite and visit one another. My family for instance, is Christian but we don't really do anything, apart from maybe go to church in the morning, and the rest of the day is just a rest day. But cell groups, church groups and others do take it as an opportunity to have dinner, exchange gifts and so on. Again, more just a chance to meet and catch up, rather than as a real tradition,” the young editor summed up.

I became more curious, so I turned to those in Muslim countries. And where best, but in the largest Islamic nation—Indonesia.

Reporter Herning Banirestu shed light. “ Even though most of Indonesian people are Moslems,
Christians also have the same freedom to celebrate their special moment, not just a Christmas but even other days such as Easter, Good Friday, Ascencion of Jesus Christ, and so on. And the Indonesia Goverment gives Christians two days as official holiday. So for Christmas their off from school or working is on 25 and 26 December. But this year, after Christmas we are also celebrating Moslem New Year on 29 December, so Moslems and Christians have long holiday from 25 until 30
December. And children get more holidays because they have finished their mid semester test.”

Herning also observed, “Christians will go to nearest Church from their home. In Indonesia, Christians have some sects or belief, for example: Catholic, Christian, Protestant, Christian Java which is a name of ethnic group in Indonesia, Christian Batak which is a name of ethnic group in Indonesia, Christian
Baptist, et cetera. So they will celebrate their holiday in the Church that have the same belief or sect with them. Every sect has different sets of rituals in celebrating Christmas. But these differences in belief don’t make them fight each other because they have different belief. Moslem also live peace and harmony with Christian people.”

Also in my neighbourhood, in front of my house is a Christian family, also
a house beside of mine, they are a Christian...Some Moslem give
congratulation to their Christian neighbour for Christmast, but some of
them belief that we are not allowed to congratulate Christmas. So every Moslem has different belief also. It depends on their belief, they have freedom to choose,” she said.

Trufi Murdiani, another Indonesian reporter, said, "Christmas celebration and New Year's Eve are great in my country. Same like Eidl' Fitr' celebration, we all are visiting each other. In big cities such as Jakarta, in Bandung, Moslems go to Christians' family to eat and drink and celebrate together. That's what we call tolerance."

Kittipong Thavevong of Thailand’s The Nation, shares his thoughts. Kittipong is a Buddhist, but he did narrate what he could recall of Christmas in his conflict-torn government.

“In Thailand, Christmas is not a public holiday because it is a Buddhist-majority country. Christian families go to church on the night of Christmas Eve to observe the occasion. Those who have to work late on the Christmas Eve (like journalists) may find it difficult to attend ceremonies at church; so, some devout Christians have to take a leave for the occasion,” he said.

The Thai senior reporter added, “When in Bangkok and other big cities of Thailand, you may see lots of big Christmas trees in front of shopping malls and hotels. That is not because their management are devout Christians. It's for business reasons rather than religious. Large well-decorated Christmas trees create an atmosphere of festive season. And they are a good attraction for prospective customers, many of them tourists.”

I also asked my professor, a German national who is staying in the Philippines. “We celebrate Christmas in Germany with the family. During December we light four candles, always one more every Sunday until all four are burning, a little countdown towards Christmas. Then we set up the Christmas tree on the 24th, not before. In my family the children had to disappear when it was time to set up the tree. The kids would be playing in their room and the parents prepared everything. The door to that magical room remained closed. We always tried to peek through the key hole without much success but full of excitement. When it had turned dark outside we had snacks outside the room and then we listened carefully until we heard the bell of Christ’s sleigh leaving. Then my father opened the door. We entered with big and shiny eyes and saw the room in candlelight, including the tree. We sang Christmas songs, had a glass of juice (or prosecco as soon as we were old enough), and then exchanged gifts which were placed already under the Christmas tree,” said film director Antonia Koop, and Peace and Conflict Journalism Network International Coordinator.

“I remember I most liked the smell of the fresh cut tree, as if a forest has grown into the house, mixing with the wax of the candles, which were traditionally red-colored. We went to church late in the evening and since the gift unwrapping was a long and celebrated procedure we usually had dinner after the church around midnight,” she recalled.

”On the 25th, my father prepared our traditional family Christmas food, turkey with potatoes and red cabbage. It always took him hours and he celebrated the procedure as well. We all dressed up for dinner, although it was only our small family gathering there. Visits were usually postponed to the 26th, the two days before were holy and untouchably reserved for the closest family,” Antonia, who has been learning Ilonggo words already, said.

”The Christmas tree remains at the living room until January 6. That is then the day when all the Christmas beauty was removed and repacked, the boxes with angels and other trimmings moved up to the store room, and my father took his carpentry tools and transferred under sweating and cursing the Christmas tree into the fire place, which gave us some nice warm days in the cold winter time in Germany,” she concluded.

Just an hour ago, I chatted with Khairul Anwar, deputy editor for news of the Borneo Bulletin, and he told me something interesting. December 26 is New Year's Day for Muslims!

Well, Christmas seems to be the same in other parts of the world—except that our observance period is a bit longer and more festive.

Merry Christmas, everyone! (Frencie L. Carreon)