Xmas bonanza decks streets, stores of Delhi - Tribute to India's diversity

[Bl[i]tZ]

The Christmas 'blitz' is a relatively new phenomenon in New Delhi, but it's a big one.

By Rebecca Byerly, Contributor
posted December 23, 2011 at 10:56 am EST

A laborer pulls a cart load of goods as he passes figures of Santa Claus put up for sale at a market in New Delhi, India, Friday. Christmas Day is observed as a national holiday for all Indians.
(Saurabh Das/AP)

New Delhi

After nearly four years living in India, I’m still amazed at what a huge celebration Christmas has become. From the gigantic reindeer that straddles the newly-constructed megamall near my house and hundreds of kids bargaining off light-up Santa hats on the street, to the roadside shops selling all things Christmas, signs of the holiday are everywhere. Though this ancient country of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, and many other religions has a long history of celebrating each other’s festivals, the blitz of Christmas is still a relatively new phenomenon.


“When I was a kid we used to sell real pine trees from the Himalayas and fruit cakes,” says Shareel Goyal, the third-generation owner of Kriti Creations, a magnificent gift shop that brims with human-sized Santa Claus statues and reindeer neck ties in Khan Market, a bustling shopping area. “But after India opened up to foreign imports in the early 1990s, Christmas started booming. We now have everything from custom Christmas trees and nativity straw to every kind of ornament you can imagine.”

Shopping in Mr. Goyal’s little store feels like WalMart on Black Friday. The Christmas music is merry, but the murmurs from shoppers that the place is a "mad house" are hard to miss. However, what makes the scene so unique is that most of the clients are non-Christian Indians. Fascinated by why so many Indians would be interested in Christmas, I ask a mother and daughter who just bought a wreath and big golden horn why they celebrate the holiday.

“We just like to decorate our house for Christmas,” says the mother. “More and more of our friends have been doing this in the last five years so we like to also.”


Outside, Megha Joneja, a bright-eyed mother of two, selects a four-foot-tall Christmas tree. “Christmas is mostly a party for us,” says Ms. Joneja. “But one of the reasons I feel it is so important to celebrate other people’s religious holidays is because I want my children to be exposed to as many different religion’s customs as possible.”

Though it appears the pandemonium so typical of Christmas in the states has now spread to India, essentially, the holiday is still an incredible example of religious understanding and cultural intelligence. Sometimes the spirit of Christmas finds you when you are least expecting it. Such was the case with me this week, when I got a visit from Mr. Singh, a jolly middle-aged Indian man who brings big jugs of drinking water to my house each week.

“This is for you, madam,” says Mr. Singh with a huge smile, handing me a tiny plastic Christmas tree. “Merry Christmas.”

Thousands of miles away from the place I grew up, my family, and the traditions that are most familiar this time of year, Singh’s gift was a reminder of what Christmas is really about.

Christmas bonanza decks streets, storefronts of New Delhi - CSMonitor.com

"Tribute to India's diversity" compliment to this article was given by Syed Akbaruddin the next Official Spokesperson Joint Secretary (XP), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

 

[SinoChallenger]

The Christmas 'blitz' is a relatively new phenomenon in New Delhi, but it's a big one.

By Rebecca Byerly, Contributor
posted December 23, 2011 at 10:56 am EST

Looks like you imported that from my country!

 

[Big Boss]

Looks like you imported that from my country!

Because we believe in the Christmas spirit of sharing we provides jobs to chinese by giving them some work.

 

[Archie]

You can count on the chinese to put there Best troll words forward in every India related thread

You guys should be glad that world buys from china coz if it didnt , then the chincs would be the one asking for Bailout from IMF

By the way Indian import from China is only about 36 billion USD , which is Less than 7% of Indian retail market and less than 10% of total Indian imports

but allas there mind is too thick to comprehend

 

[Night_Raven]

My Indian Christmas

Christmas is meant to be a season of goodwill but each year I find it more and more difficult to feel any sympathy for those in Europe who would like to ruin the festival. I am referring to those who say we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas openly because it is a Christian festival. Some argue that to celebrate Christmas openly breaches the secular principle that religion should have no place in public life. It is also argued that celebrating Christmas offends believers in other religions.

One Christmas I heard a discussion on the BBC World Service about whether we should even send Christmas cards. It was suggested that we send Happy Mid-Winter cards instead.

All this, I am thankful to say, is in sharp contrast to the way Christmas is celebrated in India. On the morning that I heard the discussion about mid-winter cards, I opened my newspaper and found a picture of Gopal Gandhi, then the governor of West Bengal, giving a Christmas party for the Christian children of the state. Every year I am invited by the President of India to a carol service in Rashtrapati Bhavan. The same spirit of open rejoicing pervades the celebrations of the festivals of all the other religions followed in India, and that means almost all the religions of the world.

Thousands of Indians of all faiths gather at Anandpur Sahib to watch Sikh warriors mounted on sprightly horses joust with eight-foot-long spears at the celebrations of the Sikh festival of Hola Mahalla. Delhi is illuminated by millions of lights on Diwali. Everyone likes to play Holi. On my first Christmas here, I was surprised to find Sikhs wearing turbans and other non-Christians in the congregation at Midnight Mass in the Cathedral Church of the Redemption.

Some of those who would like to spoil Christmas are what I would call “secular fundamentalists”, people who can see no good in religion, indeed see it as an evil influence. The militant atheist, journalist and campaigner Christopher Hitchens, who died this month, described himself as an antitheist and wanted all atheists to describe themselves in the same way. He said “the real axis of evil is Christianity, Judaism and Islam” and condemned organised religion as “the main source of hatred in the world”. Biologist Richard Dawkins, an equally militant atheist, or antitheist, went one further than Hitchens. In his bestselling book The God Delusion, he wrote, “Imagine with John Lennon a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7 (the London bombings), no witch hunts, no Gunpowder plot.” He continued in that vein, suggesting that religion is the cause of all wars and violence. That is not only an oversimplification of the causes of those events, it also ignores the violence committed because of conflicts over ethnicity, language and territory. Some of the most horrific violence of the blood-stained 20th century has been committed in the name of atheism by Stalin and Mao Tse Tung.

Another group of those who would like to spoil Christmas take the political concept of secularism too far. There are many in India who speak of the form of secularism adopted by the founding fathers of the nation as if it involved being opposed to religion. Although he was not religious himself, Jawaharlal Nehru had a great respect for Indian culture and understood that the new nation must provide space for its ancient traditions. He was quite clear that India should show there was a middle way between a secular state that didn’t have any time for religion and theocracy, a way which respected religious beliefs and of course atheism or agnosticism. Nehru said, “When we talk about a secular state, this does not mean simply some negative idea, but a positive approach on the basis of equality of opportunity for everyone, man or woman, of any religion or caste.”

There is, of course, another side of this story, and news from the Maldives illustrates that. Apparently the authorities in the islands fear there might be a repetition of the trouble which erupted last year when Islamists protested just because a restaurant had been decorated for Christmas.

Although I dispute what Dawkins suggested, I can’t deny that followers of religions are all too often responsible for violence and that is particularly true of those who insist that their nation should only have one religion.

In India there are those who don’t respect the secularism that is enshrined in the Constitution and spread hatred against other religions. Recently we had another anniversary of the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya and I was reminded of the obscene slogans, filled with hatred of Muslims, that I heard shouted on that day. I remember too hearing Dr Praveen Togadia of the VHP addressing a meeting in Raipur where he warned Indian Muslims to “‘accept Bharat or face what will happen when eight hundred million Hindus become Praveen Togadias”. Dr Togadia also accused the Catholic Church of “training an army of missionaries and nuns to convert Hindus”.

So the answer to observing this Christmas and indeed all other religious festivals is to do as India traditionally does, to enjoy them whatever your faith or lack of faith. That most Indians do quite naturally, and without any questioning.

Every Christmas that I spend in Delhi, friends of different faiths come to visit me. As I write this article I have just been visited by an atheist friend who has brought me traditional home-made mince pies.

But some might ask, why not remove all possibility of creating misunderstandings, or creating offence to non-Christians by substituting a mid-winter festival for Christmas. One answer must be that that would reduce the festival to a crass celebration of consumerism, nothing more than a shopping spree. Many of the traditions associated with Christmas would disappear. What place would there be for Father Christmas in a mid-winter festival? Christians would feel deprived by having their festival taken away. Finally, wouldn’t all other religious festivals have to be converted into what would be called “secular” celebrations. Mind you, I don’t believe this will ever happen in India provided no secular or religious fundamentalist tries to undermine the tolerant tradition of India which for centuries has provided a home where believers in almost every faith of the world are allowed to celebrate their religions.

The writer is a senior journalist and a well-known author. No Full Stops in India is one of his best-known books.

My Indian Christmas | The Asian Age

 

[Night_Raven]

AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS

Half a dozen Hanumans , with a mace in the right hand and a mountain resting on the left palm, dangle from little branches of the fir tree. The orange-coloured plastic toys hang above a few miniature auto-rickshaws with a sticker that reads "Hum India se pyaar karte hain (We love India)." On another branch of the Christmas tree is India's favourite totem against the evil eye - a bunch made of a lemon and few green chilies with a small board that says "Buri nazar wale tera muh kala." Adding another divine dimension are two Ganeshas on two branches. Fighting for attention are also colourful peacocks made in Rajasthani style. A little higher, just below the star, is Santa Claus riding a camel decorated in desi fashion. And on top of the tree, above the Christmas star, is a small Tricolour.

This is a Christmas tree decorated with things that are being sold as 'Indian Christmas decoration' . Florencia Costa, a Brazilian who has been living in India for six years, says she loves the idea. "For me, Christmas is a celebration of life and you should celebrate it with things that you see every day, that exist all around you. There's no point in pretending to be a European and decorating the tree with bells, reindeer and poinsettias. I prefer things that I see on Indian roads," she says. "I also have a cow on my tree. know many persons, including expats, who are decorating their trees with Indian ornaments and objects. When in India, Christmas should be Indian style."

The decorations hanging off the branches of Christmas trees aren't the only things Indian about the festival in our country. The shepherds in nativity plays, too, are increasingly donning local attire . And along with the plum cake, traditional Indian sweets are exchanged during Christmas, like sandesh in Bengal and karanjis gujiya) in Maharashtra.

"Since we receive karanjis from our Hindu neighbours during Diwali, we give them karanjis for Christmas,'' says Dnyaneshwar Soholkar, a Maharashtrian Christian who comes from a Brahmin family in Vidarbha. Meanwhile, a Methodist church in Mumbai celebrates Christmas with a threeday upvaas (fast), a practise usually associated with Hinduism. While Christmas was earlier seen as a Western tradition, it is now as much an Indian festival as Diwali and Holi, celebrated by people of all faith. Christmas stars and cribs are increasingly entering the Hindu household.

The Parsi community, too, celebrates the festival with much gusto. "My son brings us plum pudding from London and my daughter gets a turkey from Abu Dabhi,'' says Mehroo Kharegat, a Parsi from South Mumbai. As a child, Kharegat herself would dress up as Father Christmas to entertain her brothers - a pillowcase pulled over her shoulder in place of a sack and her father's socks as gloves.

That Christians aren't the only ones who believe in Christ is evident from the crowds thronging churches on Christmas day. "So many people of different religions attend service at our cathedral on Christmas that mass continues till 2 am the next morning,'' says the Archbishop of Delhi, Vincent M Concessao, who believes that Christmas is a festival with universal appeal, as everyone loves celebrating the birth of a child.

While Hindus attend church on Christmas, the church conducts special mass for Diwali. "Jesus Christ was born out of light, and since Diwali is the festival of light, we celebrate it, too,'' says Archbishop Concessao. Father Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of St Xavier's College Mumbai, says that the official church liturgy, formulated in Rome and adapted for different cultures across the country, prescribes a special mass for Diwali in which Christians celebrate the festival along with their Hindu brethren.

The Archbishop talks of the inculturation' of Christianity, with the religion taking on the flavour of the local culture. Take for instance Christmas cards in India, many of which show Mother Mary wearing a sari. "African Christmas cards show a black Jesus and Mary while the cards in Japan have Mother Mary wrapped in a kimono,'' says Fr Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Church.

Christian weddings, though held in church, have all the trappings of a traditional Indian wedding . Like Swapan and Anindita Baidya, a Bengali Christian couple who wore traditional Bangla attire while getting married in church. Anindita was quite the Bengali bride, draped in a bright red Banarasi sari while Swapan wore a dhoti and Punjabi suit. They even exchanged garlands and Swapan put sindur in Anindita's hair. Likewise , Soholkar got married in Maharashtrian style, and his wife still wears a mangalsutra.

While nuns are increasingly swapping the habit for a sari, Christian priests are often clad in shawls, much like the Brahmin pujari. In some churches, candles are replaced with diyas. "In remote tribal areas, midnight mass for Christmas is followed by aadivasi dances,'' says Fr Emmanuel.

Archbishop Concessao feels that Christianity has imbibed a great deal of Indian spirituality. Fr Mascarenhas points out that Hinduism is itself a plurality of beliefs and hence it is not difficult for Hindus to accept other notions of God and add Jesus to the pantheon.

Rohini Kapadia, for instance, not only lights a candle and prays to Christ each day but also conducts her daily puja. Like many in India, her interest in Christianity had much to do with the convent school that she attended. "I find it easier to connect with Christian prayers as they are in English, a language that I think in, while I never learnt Sanskrit, the language of most Hindu prayers,'' she says.

Not far from her home, an impoverished neo-Buddhist Maharashtrian slum-dweller , Laxmi Shinde, regularly attends a Methodist church and has a deep-rooted belief in Ishu Prabhu. A widow with an alcoholic son, Shinde believes that Christ hears her prayers.

AN INDIAN CHRISTMAS - The Times of India

 

[AGENT 47]

Looks like you imported that from my country!

baby for u ....
what computer/laptop u r using for this post , whose brain(microprocessor) is designed by indian.

90% of computer in world is using pentium processor which designed by indian.

happy xmas.

 

[shuntmaster]

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND JOY TO ALL...

 

[T90TankGuy]

think this would have been better posted in members club .
any way merry Christmas.

 

[SinoChallenger]

baby for u ....
what computer/laptop u r using for this post , whose brain(microprocessor) is designed by indian.

90% of computer in world is using pentium processor which designed by indian.

happy xmas.

LOL.... just because "Intel" contains "In" doesn't mean it's an indian company! Your education system failed I'm afraid to tell you.

 

[MUHARIB]

LOL.... just because "Intel" contains "In" doesn't mean it's an indian company! Your education system failed I'm afraid to tell you.

Improve your knowledge and come back.

 

[Bl[i]tZ]

LOL.... just because "Intel" contains "In" doesn't mean it's an indian company! Your education system failed I'm afraid to tell you.

Hey SinoChallanged, here is what he was referring to

Vinod Dham is popularly known as the Father of the Pentium chip. for his contribution to the development of highly successful Pentium Processors from Intel.

 

[HZR2011]

LOL.... just because "Intel" contains "In" doesn't mean it's an indian company! Your education system failed I'm afraid to tell you.

OMG....Better understand what other person says and analyze it and reply..

BTW,more info for u ,USB,PCI,AGP(ajay Bhatt),Hotmail, vinod khosla(sun microsystems),vinod dham (pentium)......google it

And what u do ???

Manufacture what Indians have designed...

Come out from ur superiority Complex

 

[SinoChallenger]

If you want to count foreign resident indians in foreign companies, then fact is Silicon Valley is loaded with East Asians.

Nvidia is founded by Jen Hsun Huang and Yahoo is founded by Jerry Yang.

 

[acetophenol]

Happy xmas fellas!