Merry Christmas!!

As today is one of the happiest days for Christians across the globe, let us talk a bit about Christmas. Christmas is actually celebrated as the birth of Jesus across globe and by billions of people. It is told that this festival is celebrated when the days are lengthened which is exactly what happens in winter. There is a strong belief among thousands of people that Christmas is actually a Pagan festival or as they say the festival where they worship the Sun but was been adopted by Christians. The gift giving was happening first in between the emperors but then later adopted by the families that were living in the dynasty too. They worship Sun to remember themselves that Sun is the reason for all the prosperity of the earth because in those days agriculture was the only primary resource of a family’s wealth.

It is been also said that Christmas has been commercialized by business companies to satisfy their greed and make people believe that decorations and gift giving are the main essence of the festival. They make you spend your hard earned money on their over-priced goods by showing a discount tag. There is always an overshadowing on the fact that festivals are actually celebrated as a part of traditions and family bonding.

However, no matter what the controversy or adoption is, there is no denying that Christmas is loved by millions of people across globe. They all do prayers, eat delicious food and have a lot of fun together. Most importantly, we all can learn the importance of giving and receiving in this season and also how to show true gratitude towards each other. In countries where the family meets only on special occasions, you can imagine how important this festival could be. This the reason why I totally support the commercialism even I find it is wrong because at least because of this reason, we get to meet our blood and exchange wonderful goodies across each other.

My background to this festival:

I’m born and live in India and in a town where there lives 90% of Hindus and rest are other religion. I still wonder in India, how there are thousands of religions living without frequent fights among people that claim the superiority of their religion and caste. I guess our country’s slogan “unity in diversity” derived from the same. I used to go to my school on a bicycle and I had to pass a huge and famous Church on the way. Not that I went inside it ever, Christmas is the day I remember from it every time I hear the words Jesus or anything related to Christianity.

They used to install so many speakers and used to sing carols and prayers all day. The music was so nice to the ears and they used to serve juice to everyone that went to pray and participate. They even installed centers on roads to serve poor people with water and food until the season is over. Don’t even need to mention how the whole place looked at nights with all that Christmas lights. They used to take down those lights when the celebrations are over and oh God, I wished they always kept the lights intact. They had every color in the lights and the whole place looked like something belonged in a distant fairy tale.

There was one time when I couldn’t stop myself but have a halt and just keep looking at the lights when a father saw me from a distance and came out towards me. I awkwardly smiled at him and he said “why don’t you come inside Child? do you want to decorate the tree?”. I didn’t know what to tell and being a stupid kid of course, I replied him “sorry but I’m a Hindu. I do not celebrate Christmas. But I like your lights”. The father smiled and trust me, that was one of the kindest smiles I have ever seen. he replied to me patiently, “It’s okay if you’re a Hindu. Every kid on the earth belong to the God. You have all the rights to come inside and help us. You can do if you want to. I will not insist you child”.

I thought about it and also almost scolded myself for not accepting a kind invitation and went inside to decorate a tree. There were several trees and so many kids were jumping in joy while picking up crystal balls and stars to decorate the trees. The father then put his hands on my head as a blessing and addressed the entire group saying “this is a special kid. Show her your love”. They all came near to me, introduced themselves to me and took my hand and made me decorate the trees. I was given the chance to put the biggest star on top of the main tree and it was so special to me.

I thanked all of them through my heart and left that place with a biggest smile. I told my parents what happened and surprisingly, they were happy. Huh, obviously this religion/caste thing is just among us as a barrier and people don’t have such complexities are actually happy internally. I realized it when my parents smiled and approved my act. That day I have decided to respect all the religion and participate in their festivals without any second thought. That Christmas indeed changed my way of thoughts and thanks to that father who was very sweet and broad minded.

When I finished my post-graduation, I went to another city to work and Christmas there was more special because I shared my room with not one but three Christian girls who were very sweet. Well, one of them were actually once possessed and was almost killed by a spirit or demon and her Bible saved her. I already posted about it during my Halloween month. That definitely got me more to believe on God and the power of that holy book. On the Christmas day when I finished my work and went back to my hostel room, the nice people kept me a cake and also gave me some holy water to drink. Such nice people. Whenever I had issues at work or home, they used to include me in their prayers too. It made me develop my gratitude towards others more.

Christmas holds a special place in my heart now too because a couple of years ago when I joined in the gym that I work, Christmas was the first festival they celebrated. I’m about to rejoin my gym membership this year and of course Christmas is the last festival I saw before my farewell the last time when I left from them. They invited me by sending me chocolates and asked me to bring my daughter to the same because they all love her. They asked her to participate in a coloring competition last month and they gave her the prize on this beautiful occasion. The dress code was either red or white. I wore white long gown and I dressed up my daughter in a complete Christmas trend. She wore a top that had a printed Santa Claus all over the top and green leggings as bottom. She wore a Santa’s hat. She was very excited and was jumping since morning to attend the same especially when I told her that they are going to give her some cake and her prize. She just couldn’t wait for the smiles and pride.

I wore the suggested color white and chose to wear a simple makeup and with the classic Christmas themed makeup that contains no makeup on eyes but red color on lips. Oh man, I just loved how it turned out. It was like the festival was on my face. Well, moving on from the lame joke, they celebrated the whole place with lights. In India, we do not generally use the electric lights but we put oil in small pots and light it. These lights will fade off any negativity or evil from the space and are more powerful when it comes to spirituality. Even though this is a Hindu adaptation, most of the religions in India follow the same because its ultimate purpose is light and wisdom.

The staff welcomed us with smiles and hugs. We mutually thanked ourselves for both inviting and attending the celebration. We had more than 50 participants and all of us were so excited to see what the evening held for us. They gave us the grape juice and ahh!! typical Christmas party start I thought. But the hypocrite in me drank 2 glasses of it and it was wonderful. The party started by welcoming speech and introduction of the staff and attendees. We had a special guest who came from Saudi Arabia. The staff sung carols and we all joined when we heard the famous “Jingle bells” song and you had to seriously look at my daughter’s and other kid’s face and man that jingle lighted out the whole room with a fantastic vibration and we busted out in laughter when it was finished.

They conducted a small game for kids where the tied balloons to their belly and asked to move around the room. On one hand, they have to break other kid’s balloon and on the other, they have to save their own. When I heard the rules, I told them this won’t work because which kid love to break the balloons. They said they will try and initiated the same and soon enough all the kids started crying once they said they have to break the balloons. My daughter came close to me, hugged and cried when I laughed and told her no need to participate in it if it hurt that much. Ultimately when the staff saw all that mess, they stopped the game and introduced one more game called the “freeze game”. The rules were simple enough. They played music and when music was stopped, the kids had to sit immediately on the floor. My daughter was just 5 and she was in the age that they do not understand or care about the rules and keep playing. She kept dancing even after the music was stopped and that was hilarious. Obviously, having fun rather winning is the motive of any sport.

Then it was my turn to participate in a game they conducted for adults. It was the same old “Musical chair” game and I actually felt so bored to participate. There were 20 people and my daughter and her friend insisted me to participate in the same. I told them no so many times but she kept pushing me to. So I finally accepted and participated. The rules are same as the freeze game. There was 19 chairs for 20 people and chairs are placed in a circle form and you need to go around the chairs and when the music stops, you have to sit in the available chair. So obviously the person that was left out would be the loser. Initially, it seemed boring but then when the game reached at the end when there was just one chair and one person, the tension rose. They made me and the other girl run around the chair for a minute and I was almost losing my mind lol. The music stopped suddenly when we weren’t like expecting at all and wow, luckily I won. The one who said no to even participate won the game. What are the odds? It was like an irony.

Finally, they cut the Cake and gave it to all of us to eat and it was so delicious. The ultimate surprise was when Santa showed up without no one even talking about it. the room filled up with a huge excitement to see the Santa and we all took selfies with him. My daughter danced along with Santa and all the kids were given chocolates by Santa. Santa wished us the best things to come in our lives and we all thanked the staff for organizing such a beautiful evening for us. The party was so special and reminded me of my day when I decorated the tree. We came back home with a biggest smile on our face which is the ultimate goal of Christmas isn’t it?

No matter who you are or where you are, I wish all of you have a fantastic festival filled with joy and happiness and I wish all of you never run out of peace in your lives. Merry Christmas everyone!!

That's all for now folks, hope you are having an amazing festival including my spons mentioned below

Yours bloggingly

@Theblackdoll