Thought I’ll write on the Christmas tree decorations as a follow up to yesterday’s post. It is not commonly seen in Indian homes, but is extremely popular in countries with a more temperate climate. I am guessing mostly US, Canada and Europe although I have been told it is popular in Taiwan as well.

The tree is set up within the house a few days before 25th and is kept inside until first week of January. It is decorated with lights and trinkets to give a very colourful feeling to the scene. Usually, the presents received at the time are placed beneath the tree to give it an extra touch. We used to place the greeting cards we used to get on it. Even that gave off a good show effect. A star is placed right on top as can be seen in the picture above.

The custom itself does not have an indisputably clear origin, unlike for that of Christmas cribs. There appear to be some evidence in favour of a person called Boniface to have started the custom. But at that time it was not connected in a specific way with Christmas season. Martin Luther also appear to have influenced the way in which the tree was set up in homes.

Mass adoption of the tree as an interior decoration at Christmas time appear to have gained popularity around the 16th century. There are clear accounts of some trees being set up in cathedrals of the time. It seems to have become popular in Germany to start with and spread slowly outward. For instance, Britain did not adopt it until the 19th century.

I must say that this sort of decoration has parallels with other festivals I have seen celebrated in India. In that festival also, people celebrate by using a tree (not the evergreen fir tree though) which is adorned with decoration and baubles. Will write about that some time in January.

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It’s that time of the year again. Christmas is round the corner. My advance greetings to everyone

Am going to talk about a uniquely Christmas activity - the making of cribs. For those not in the know, the ‘crib’ is prepared in most homes at the time of the festival - it represents the circumstances surrounding Christ’s birth. It holds special symbolic significance to Christians as Christ is supposed to have been born in a manger - an open box used for holding feed for livestock (a picture is shown below).

So kids at most homes have a gala time preparing the crib. When I was young we used to have an elaborately choreographed crib making. We used to first spread charcoal on large papers to make it resemble rock formations and then arrange them so that they appear in the form of a cave on the mountainside. The actual crib would then be placed inside this decoration with the associated figurines - usually some cattle and the baby’s parents. Think the picture below would make the final outcome clearer. Man, how I wish I had photographed those self made cribs in the earlier years

The custom of making cribs is one of the few activities with clear starting points. It was first done by a person called Francis of Assisi (same person who founded the Franciscan Order which continues to this day) in the year 1223 AD at an Italian town called Greccio. The arrangement proved very popular and was copied widely from then onwards.  

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As part of our theme of home related topics, we will be covering most of the festivals celebrated in India. After all these are rare occassions when people get together as a family at their homes.

Tomorrow is the Muslim festival of Bakrid. Unlike the Christian festivals, Muslim festivals do not occur on a specific date of the calendar that is familiar to all of us (Gregorian calendar), they follow a lunar calendar and hence, the festival dates will keep shifting from year to year.

This festival is known as Bakrid only in India. I was amazed at the number of names it has all over the world. I stopped counting after I reached a dozen names. I am serious Its most popular name outside India is Eid-al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice.

Bakrid name probably derives from Baqra-eid, which means that a goat/lamb sacrifice was usually involved as part of the ceremony. Mostly though, it is supposed to be a time of sharing with poor, friends and relatives; the meal that your family is to have that day. I find its message very similar to the Thanksgiving festival celebrated in America, which is also based on the sharing and giving thanks theme.

So a happy Bakrid to everyone from our side.

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