On Christmas morning we awoke to the sound of prayer and music. The prayer was coming from a Hindu temple down the backwaters which has a speaker system to send the sound of chanting throughout the area. The music was coming from a lit up stand down the road with electrified plastic statuettes of Mary and Joseph blasting fast-beat dance music. The stand is attached to a church.
It’s Christmas in Southern India.
Twenty-five percent of Kerala’s population is Christian. We’ve seen a few crosses around people’s necks and many people have Christian-Anglo names such as Matthew, Paul, George, and Anthony. But in and around town, the Hindu population dominates the holiday scene.
We’re in the midst of a ten-day festival in honor of Bima, centered around the very large Bima temple in the middle of town. During the day we have seen the arches erected on the main street of town marking the celebration zone as well as the numerous stands selling popcorn, nuts, candies, and other snacks. There’s also a plot of land with carnival rides set up complete with ferris wheel.
Last night we decided to see the celebration at night – when it’s at full-force. The main street of town is closed off to traffic and filled to capacity with pedestrians. The arches are lit up, the carnival rides going. The festival activity seems to go something like this: join the crowd moving toward the temple, hold hands to stay together, push and shove a little, flow toward the temple, pray and honor Bima at the temple, buy and eat snacks, optional carnival rides, join the crowd flow away from the temple, push and shove a little, buy and eat snacks, go home for dinner.
For a festival of a different religion and culture, it seemed very straightforward to us. It also got a little too intense as the crowd got dense and shove-y on the way to the temple. We did a u-turn – literally – in the two lane pedestrian traffic flow and rode the wave back out of the zone.
Emily decided the experienced called for a drink. We found a nearby bar in a hotel. Bars are hard to come by – and this one was packed with locals. We were asked to sit in the area for tourists and not allowed in the main bar. A waiter came and took our order.
We quickly figured out why. Only men go to bars here. And as they came in and out, they looked over and stared at Emily sitting in their local watering hole, wearing a tank top, having a Kingfisher. Not their everyday sight – and this was clearly not a foreign tourist hotel and bar. Odder still, Emily was drinking and I wasn’t. Even the waiter struggled with that.
Dinner was hard to come by given Alleppey’s surprisingly limited number of restaurants. The few we found open were packed.
One restaurant owner saw us peek our heads in and then walk out. He stopped us and indicated he would find us seats. We waited about five minutes until he asked us to follow him. He pointed to two seats at a four-person table that had five people already sitting there, and indicated that we should take the open chairs and join them. We hesitated. As we did, two boys came up and took the chairs. We were too slow and I wasn’t enthused about crowded family dinner. So, we left.
One recommended restaurant was closed for a private christmas party. The one we finally went to was serving only four items – all Dosas (a southern Indian giant, thin pancake with assorted choices of fillings) – because they had already shut down their kitchen and were trying to leave early. We couldn’t tell if they were Christian trying to make it to church or Hindu trying to reach the Bima temple and snacks.
The whole night, locals launched firecrackers making huge bangs with some fireworks lifting up the sky. There was no organized show. Just random launchings from here and there.
Having tapped out what Alleppey had to offer, we headed back to our Keraleeyam where the staff had decorated the place for Christmas with balloons, a sting of lights and some large light-up stars amazingly like the ones at the festival in town. I guess you work with your local resources. It was very pretty and they were very proud to have set up a “Happy Christmas” for their guests.
Our Christmas Eve experience finished with the sound of fireworks exploding like bombs and the blasting music from the display by the church down the road. Not exactly what I would have guessed, but celebratory nonetheless.
Christmas Day feels like any other. Houseboats pass-by filled with both foreigners and Indian tourist who have this time of year off as well.
This isn’t my first holiday season in the tropics far away from anything Jewish or Christian. In Bali, Christmas existed only at some resorts and hotels in a minor way. In Singapore it existed mostly in the malls and other than a few Christians, people didn’t seem to do anything for it personally. In Thailand, again it was like here – some decor at foreigner hotels and restaurant. To most people, it was just another day.
With no chimneys, stockings, bells, Christmas music, sales, ads, TV specials, old movies – or our Jewish tradition of Chinese food and going to the movies when everything else is closed – Christmas is negligible here. What an amazing difference from home where it is the most dominant religious holiday of the year.
Unlike last year when we got together with my cousin Jacob and his wife Diana to spend the day eating appetizers and deserts we made at home, then doing Chinese and movies as all good Jews should – we will go to the beach. Why? Because it’s something we haven’t done here and if you can go to a warm beach in December, why wouldn’t you?
So, to our Christian friends reading this, Merry Christmas! To our families, we hope you get some great Mu Shu. To Jacob and Diana, we miss you.
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