‘Do you celebrate Christmas as well?’ my daughter’s music teacher is genuinely surprised.
He’d seen the oil lamps and tea lights sitting pretty on our door step and window sills just a few months ago as we’d tried rather awkwardly to celebrate Diwali in a new country sans family, friends and fireworks. We had chatted over tea and some traditional sweets about the significance of Diwali to a Hindu. Now a lovely Christmas tree sits in a corner of our lounge and fairy lights have replaced the tea-lights.
“Yes,’ my daughter replies, ‘we celebrate everything. Diwali, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New year’s eve and all the other Indian festivals.’
‘Really?’ he looks at me.
Really.
As all Indians will tell you, we love festivals. In a rather intense, full -on kind of way. In this case more is definitely more.
Growing up I remember mapping the year by the string of festivals running through it. There are too many to list here but if I had to pick a few key ones this is how the year went. It began with the different harvest festivals in January followed by the Hindu and Sikh New Years in February. Holi, the festival of colours celebrated the coming of spring in the March. In the monsoons the births of Krishna and Ganesha called for some serious pomp and gaiety and come autumn it was time to venerate the autumnal full moon and the Goddesses. This was closely followed by Diwali and then Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations. Somewhere along the way, depending on the Lunar calendar, we’d have the Muslim festivals of Id.
As a child this meant regular holidays and invites to our friends’ and neighbours’ houses to take part in a variety of festivities and traditions, enjoying good food and having fun. And just because we didn’t belong to a religion or community didn’t mean we couldn’t join in. My non-Hindu friends were as much a part of our celebrations as I was of theirs. I have fond memories of my Catholic friend helping me draw colourful rangolis for Diwali and of me helping her build the crib and nativity scene for Christmas.
It seemed only natural then that when we moved to the US we should join in with the local traditions. Hence, Thanksgiving became a time to gather around a feast-laden table with family and friends, not necessarily to thank the native Indians but just to be thankful. A beautiful tradition by all accounts. Halloween was simply a lot of fun. Christmas became even bigger and took on a more personal tone. Stockings, trees, gifts… we had to do it all.
When we moved to London a few years later we carried with us amongst other things these important additions to our long list of festivals. Now they’ve come with us to the Czech Republic.
As for celebrating Christmas here, a few details have been tweaked. We’ve been visited by Mikulas in place of Santa and Baby Jesus not Santa will come bearing gifts on Christmas Eve. My six year old tells me this is how it happens in Prague and so this is how it will be.
A bit excessive you might say. Well perhaps it is. But my daughters being almost Indian love every bit of it. And I believe are happier for it.
