A South Indian Christmas

Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal

This means "Happy Christmas" in the Tamil language!

ADVENT

The Christmas season begins with a flag hoisting ceremony which will take place on November 25th (or, in a handful of pastorates, December 1st).  This ceremony takes place only in the Dioceses of Vellore and Madras (Chennai).  The flag is made of white linen with a simple red cross on it.  Most churches will have their own flagpole.

Eight months before, or even a year earlier, people will start asking their pastor for the privilege of being the family to finance the flag raising service and actually raise the flag.  The pastor makes the decision who will be given this hotly contested honour, and the successful family then take on the costs of the refreshments at the service (which could be fried rice, coffee and snacks for several thousand people).  The head of the family will carry a processional cross at the head of the procession which begins the service.  The families see this opportunity of serving the community as a way of  making a vow of thanks to God for all the good things He has given them.

In the town churches the ceremony takes place early in the morning, before people leave for work, while in the villages it will take place in the evening when the day’s work is over.  There will be a long and noisy procession to the church, led by drummers.  There is a service of worship at the flagpole, and the food is distributed – Christmas has begun!

The young Christians of the church community then lead the worship of the church from 5th to 22nd December.  The young people (14 to 30 year olds) sleep in the church, and every evening and early morning will go around the area singing Christian worship songs (bhajans – or carols).  Over Advent the bhajan singing group, accompanied by their pastor, will visit every Christian home in the pastorate to sing.  As well as the singing of the hymns, there will be a Bible reading, the pastor will be invited to pray for the family, gifts of cards and a church calendar will be given to the hosts, and the group will be offered refreshments.  In this way the carol groups in the towns will usually visit about twenty homes in a night (about 550 homes in all!), while in the villages the group will tour all the streets of the village every night!  The group also collects donations as they go round, and raises many thousands of rupees – the money is used to create decorations for the churches over Christmas, and, if enough money is collected, it will be spent on an outing for the young people later in the year.   The singers usually get back to the church to sleep at 2.00 in the morning, and may be up again for another carol round at 5.00 in the morning!

Of course Christmas is a Christian festival, but Hindus also enjoy the celebrations, and Hindu neighbours will often invite the carol singers to their homes to sing.  For Christians this is a time when they can share the message of the Christian faith.

Throughout the Advent and Christmas period Christian families will hang a large star decoration on the roof of their house or in their entrance.

Lights are important at Christmas time, as they remind Christians of Jesus coming as the Light of the World. Christians will make small divas (clay thumb-pots which are used as lamps) and stand these lights on the corners of their flat topped roofs or walls, where they will burn to show that this is a Christian house. The lamps are lit for the whole of the month before Christmas. Hindus burn the same kinds of oil lamps at Divali, so if a Hindu neighbour asks why the Christians are burning lamps at Christmas instead of Divali, it gives them a chance to share the Christmas message.

The second Sunday of Advent is known as “White Christmas”, but this has nothing to do with snow!  White Christmas happens only in the town churches and is a special day for charity.  Christians bring gifts to the Sunday service of brand new clothes, towels etc, and sometimes of money.  These gifts are sorted by members of the PC (the Pastorate Committee – like a PCC in the Church of England ) and the pastor.  The following Sunday the gifts will be distributed to poor people in the neighbouring villages, or any poor in their own parish.  (These gifts are given to poor people of all faiths – not just to Christians.)

In some of the town churches White Christmas is also a day for children and called ”Children’s Eve Sunday” with a very special service at 6.00 p.m. in the evening.     The service includes drama and songs by the children, the children recite Bible memory verses they have been given, and the pastor gives a children’s talk.  A gift for every child will be bought and placed on the Christmas tree for distribution at the service.  Sometimes the PC will have to buy as many as five hundred gifts to make sure that everyone receives something!  Usually these gifts are a piece of Christmas cake and a silver or steel drinking tumbler.  The children need to know that they should give as well as receive, so they will bring a small gift of money for the church.

On the third Sunday of Advent the members of the Women’s Fellowship in the town churches will bring in food and materials and cook a huge curry which will be shared with the poor of the neighbourhood.  The food is not just for poor Christians, but is for anyone who comes – street dwellers, people with leprosy etc.  The same thing happens on Christmas Day itself when a huge vegetable biryani is cooked and shared with the local poor.  Sometimes a church will feed as many as five hundred people in this way!  The Church of South India is a Church which feels it has a real mission to the poor, whatever their caste or faith. The meal served will be vegetarian not because Christians are vegitarian, but because they know that many of their poor Hindu neighbours will prefer vegetarian food.

Throughout the Advent period many different church groups meet for fellowship and a celebratory meal together.  Here are just some of the services which take place:

• The members of the Women’s Fellowship will meet with the pastor’s wife for a programme of entertainment, a meal together and a blessing.  Everyone will receive a Christmas gift – this can be 200 -300 ladies in the larger churches.
• The Youth Fellowship meets and has a similar programme.
• The Diocese of Vellore is divided into four areas, and there will also be celebrations at area level which the bishop will attend.  Each area consists of about 18-20 pastorates, and the people invited to the service will include: the pastors; the heads of church institutions (church school headteachers for example); church officers such as Pastoral Committee members; catechists (these are the lay worship and congregational leaders in the villages).  Many of the rural churches have a poor Christian widow who acts as the church cleaner, and this area meeting is an opportunity to thank them and give them a gift of a new sari for their service.  It is the task of the senior pastor of the area (“the Chairman”) to gather enough donations of money to buy gifts for all of these people – this will include cassocks for the pastors as well as those 250 saris for the church cleaners, and, in addition, presents for the bishop and any diocesan officers who come with him.  The total can be as much as 50,000 rupees for 150 gifts.  Of course, the service will finish with biryani for everyone.
• There is also a huge gathering at diocesan level which is organised by the bishop and his team of officers.  To this the bishop invites: the pastors and their families; the headteachers and correspondents from all the church high schools and the heads of other church institutions.  This is the occasion on which the bishop distributes money gifts of between 2,000 and 5,000 rupees to the pastors, most of which is spent on buying Christmas gifts for their own congregations!  Much of this money has been sent by Christians from the Diocese who are working abroad in the Gulf States or the UK.  In fact most pastors will have to raise about 10,000 -20,000 rupees for each of their village communities at this time to pay for Christmas gifts – and some pastors have as many as ten villages!  As usual, there is food and gifts for everyone at this service.

CHRISTMAS DAY

On the 24th December in large towns like Chittoor and Vellore itself the church members borrow a lorry, set up a stage on the back and drive around the town with church members acting out the nativity story.  This tour lasts from 7.00 p.m. to midnight, and is an opportunity to tell the Christmas stories to Hindu neighbours who love watching plays.  The church members give out tracts, and in Chittoor they also give out chocolate – Chittoor is famous for chocolate making!

Throughout Advent the churches have been bare, without any decorations at all.  On the evening of 24th December the young people return to the church building to decorate it. The decorations are all hand made, usually long tissue paper strips cut into a variety of interesting shapes and stars, as well as a decorated tree.  In some town churches there are so many decorations that the decorating team spends two evenings on the work.  The decorations stay up in the churches until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.    Often the church will also hire huge tube lights and a sound system for the special services which are to come.

Churches and homes are decorated with paperchains and huge paper decorations such as stars. A lot of people like to make their own special decorations and often Christians will make huge paper star lanterns and hang these on the outside of their houses so everyone can see. Indians do have Christmas trees too, but of course they do not have fir trees in India, so they will have to use other kinds of trees or bushes instead (and sometimes artificial fir trees), they decorate the trees with stars, tinsel, toys, plastic fruit and colourful streamers. The favourite decorations in the houses and churches will be mango or banana tree leaves, and also poinsettias because the beautiful red leaves of the poinsettia remind people of the shape of the Star of Bethlehem.

Families buy new clothes especially for the Christmas celebrations.  The head of the family prays over these, to bless them, before they are put on.  Some people like to put a spot of yellow tumeric powder on their collar – yellow is a sign of happiness and celebration.

On Christmas Eve in England people often like to go to a "Watchnight Service" which is on at midnight. In Vellore Diocese there are similar services in the evening on Christmas Eve, and when everyone leaves the church at the end of the service they take with them a lighted candle or diva lamp. It is very dark by the time they leave and you would be able to see great processions of lights going through the town as the people make their way home. This shows people how the story of Jesus, the Light of the World, is taken out of the churches and into the world.

In the village churches the first service of Christmas Day will be the one which begins at midnight Christmas Eve, when the ladies of the village will process to the church holding candles and singing bhajans.  There will be a second service at 10.00 a.m.  In the town churches the first service will be at 5.00 a.m. and this will be a Holy Communion service.  People begin arriving at the church from 4.30 onwards for community singing, and they will all be dressed in their new clothes.  A second service will follow at 9.00 a.m. and this will be a general worship service of bhajans and praise, often in the form of a service of nine lessons and carols – Hindus who like to celebrate Christmas will come to this service.

Children enjoy taking part in nativity plays. Sometimes the school or church will organise a nativity tableau - this is when the actors who a in the play just pose together around the manger (as if they were a picture in a Christmas card) but do not act or say any words. The main celebration consists of traditional Indian dancing and singing which all takes place in front of the tableau while the children stand perfectly still.

Later in the day families with new babies will return to the church once more for a huge baptism service. Lots of babies are christened on Christmas Day, as it is seen as a good day to welcome children into the light of God's family.

People give each other Christmas presents, but they also make sure that they give charity money to the poor at this special time. Servants and workers may give their employer a lemon as a gift, because this is a special symbol of long life and prosperity.

In Chittoor the church is open in the afternoon of Christmas Day for the Hindus from 4.00 p.m. onwards.  They come to leave candles and money offerings, and the pastor will pray for them and, if they wish, sign them with the mark of the cross on their foreheads.

On 28th December the churches are whitewashed inside and out.  Some Christians also whitewash their houses on this day.

Christmas Day is a national holiday in India, and Hindus enjoy celebrating Christmas with gifts and parties as well, and, as we know, some join in the Christian celebrations. You will also see Santa Claus decorations in the shops, and some of the large stores in the cities will have a Santa's Grotto and be playing western carols!