#9: Christmas

In a mystery I have yet to solve, Indians go all-out to celebrate Christmas, despite the birth of Jesus having no real religious significance to Indians in general (besides the ones who are actually Christians). I've tried to piece together any possible reason for the "passion for the Christ," but have come up empty.

Note, this is no casual celebrating either. The entire gamut of Christmas tradition is run - Indians dive right in.

In my travels to Indian households, I've seen:

1. A Christmas tree, complete with angels and Christ representations as ornaments. I suppose the Christmas tree is neutral enough (as they're calling it a Holiday tree these days [damn liberals]), but the ornaments surprised me slightly, especially since I saw a Ganesh painting off to the side. Of course, there were presents underneath, and an angel with a halo at the top. No detail was omitted, apparently.

2. Staying true to tradition, the presents were exchanged the following morning. Santa Claus was also invoked to explain the existence of some of the presents. Now, I wasn't there for this, but three independent sources tell me that one of the gifts was a Nintendo 64, and the child recipient flipped out upon its discovery. Evidently, ALL of the traditions were adopted.

3. That night, a White Elephant gift exchange took place. The Indian household invited all their Indian friends over, and they proceeded to exchange some rather humorous gifts. An older, sari-clad woman talked about the value of "The Christmas Spirit", and how "joyous" she is about it.

4. To the delight of the children, the previously-invoked Santa Claus came to town, and he looked eerily like that jolly older guy who I hadn't seen in the last 15 minutes. Plus he somehow had an Indian accent.

5. This was my biggest surprise - the singing of Christmas Carols. And not the neutral "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls" stuff either. They dove right into the "Jesus is our Lord" variety. That really knocked me off balance.

6. And finally, the religious (haha) watching of It's a Wonderful Life: "Zuzu's petals, Zuzu's petals - there they are!"

So if there's one thing I've learned by observing Indians on Christmas, it's that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.