A Different type of Christmas!

December 25, 2009
You know the drill. Everyone in the family puts on their best clothes, bundles up, and heads out to the Christmas Eve service (or Christmas day service; whichever it may be!). Then, you sing a few carols, read Luke 2, if you’re really blessed the children act out Luke 2, light a few candles, sing some more songs, and then head back home to a roasty toasty home with a tree bursting with presents! Well, something like that :). Here, we do things a little different...

To start, our service is on Christmas Day. This is only the second year that Christmas has been recognized as a national holiday, making it all the more sacred! It’s not enclosed by a convenient winter break, so it’s a lone day off in the mist of weeks and weeks of Hindu holidays! Christmas morning, we all woke up at our varied times, and the tumbling up and down the stairs began as the Christmas preparations were in full swing! The church service started at 8 a.m. Nepali time (meaning, 9, 9:30, or 10... basically whenever everything was ready!), so kids were running about, putting on new sweaters, jackets, hats and mittens!

I found out that we were eating breakfast at church, so around 8:15 I headed over there with some kids, only to find them just starting on the food. About a half hour later they were still working diligently on the food, so I headed back home, to see if the rest of the kids were ready to go. Well, I got home and Didi had a four course breakfast ready for me, which I gladly accepted (my stomach still isn’t used to getting up so early and eating so late!), and when I finished eating, I headed back to church with some of the girls. We arrived, and people were sitting here and there, enjoying the breakfast.

Around 11, the service started, and people crowded inside! There were many of my students from school as well as Hindus from around the area who were invited by friends. For a small church, there were over 20 visitors for the service! We sang song after song after song for about an hour. Then, Uncle preached over Luke 2 (some things are the same worldwide!), and then we sang and prayed for another hour or so. Some of the kids danced to Nepali Christmas music in traditional Nepali dresses while others sang songs. Probably the best part was when the kids acted out Luke 2!

Isha played Mary and when she and Joseph arrived at Bethlehem (aka center stage) after checking in with Caesar Augustus, she collapsed quite convincingly on the ground and began moaning like a goat with its head partially severed (yes, I do know that that sounds like now...). The two angels there, Rupa and Asha, held up a sheet for modesty reasons of course. More wailing and howling and about 30 seconds later the sheet dropped, and Mary sat up holding a brown haired, very large headed puppet. If you’ve ever worked on Caraway Street, think of those puppets! All head, no body. Well, Joseph, wrapped in a sheet himself, took the baby Jesus and placed him in the litter box and swung him in the air.

Meanwhile, two shepherds began herding their sheep, who were none other than Raju, Darshan, Rajkumar, Joshua, and several other boys from the church. They were all dressed in their white Karate uniforms and they made some of the best bleating sheep that I’ve ever heard! Suddenly, up popped Shiva as a messenger from God, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket (angels might look different here!), telling them to fear not! He sent them on their way towards Mary and Joseph (who was still swinging Jesus in the air). They arrived and awed over the baby for a few seconds, before turning back to corral their scattered sheep with their bamboo rods! It might have been the most interesting acting of the Christmas story that I’ve ever seen!

Afterwards, we headed outside to eat a feast of fresh goat, curry, rice, spicy pickles and vegetables. People milled about, here and there, meeting friends and encountering new faces! “Merry Christmas” rang through the air as people laughed and talked in the huge tent set up for the party. We ate and ate and ate some more, and then people began heading back inside. People began singing and dancing as everyone gathered back inside! We had some more dances, and the kids did a Bible quiz competition against Krishna’s brother’s hostel kids, and there was more dancing! Finally, we wrapped things up, with a resounding “Merry Christmas!” At this point, it was almost 4 in the afternoon. We had been going for a good 6 hours!

But wait, as the adults headed for safety, the youth and young adults cranked up the Nepali rock Christmas music, and the real dancing began! I felt like I was at one of my friends’ weddings, jumping around, laughing, sweating in the cold air! The Electric slide is a rather versatile dance and if you move your arms right and have enough hop in your step, you almost look Nepali doing it! And then we started the fastest bunny train around the room that I’ve ever been part of. We were literally leaping around the room, music blaring, laughter just peeking over the noise of the music! In and out, up and down, Nepali’s dancing like American’s and vice versa! We danced and danced and danced until we were all out of breath and sore and ready for bed.

About 5:30 we turned the music off and cleaned the church, inside and out, so that it would be ready for church tomorrow! Sweeping, gathering, and burning the trash, close the windows, draw the curtains. Slowly we trickled outside, tired but happy, glistening with sweat! As we headed out, the fading sounds of “Merry Christmas” filled the air for one last time!

Soon after arriving at home, like clockwork, the line went, basking the house in an eerie blackness! This amidst the cries of hunger from the kids (whose metabolisms worked through the afternoon feast far faster than us older people!) and no Auntie or Uncle (they went somewhere after the Christmas “service”) meaning no emergency lighting and no food. So, I rounded up Manisha, and we headed out to a local shop that is open pretty much always. Like a little roadside WalMart. Except not at all. Anyway, we bought currah (dried flakes of rice with no taste), dal mot (a spicy mixture of noodles, small chips, nuts, and lots of flavor), and 4 packages of chow-chow (Nepali Ramen noodles).

Returning home, we crushed the noodles in the package (they’re far better dry in my opinion!) and then mixed everything together in a big bowl. There were 21 kids to feed, so we had to be creative as I have yet to make it to the bank after all the Christmas shopping! Then we scooped it onto the plates with a helping of American Gold Fish on the side, thanks to the generosity of some people from my church (bet you never thought the Gold Fish would become the entre on Christmas, did you?!), and voila, Christmas dinner! I have to admit, it was an unusual Christmas dinner, but everyone was fed, and is now pugio (full), so it worked out! Quite an unforgettable Christmas!