christmas abroad

Anil, I think you missed one very big point: Christmas = the Western Way. It is everywhere: movies, TV, the Internet. With proliferation of satellite TV and the Internet in the past decade, and Hollywood and mass produced Western literature shoving up the Christmas Tree up everyone for the better part of the last half century; the concept of Christmas has been pretty much secularized in large chunks of the non-Christian world. It's everywhere. It's on MTV, on channel [V], CNN, BBC, StarTV, even on Al Jazeera. You simply can not escape it. The Wall St. Journal ran an article on Christmas Eve about Christmas in China with a rather interesting photo of a man pedaling home a Christmas tree on his cycle rickshaw. To him, it is not a symbol associated with the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ; but a home decoration to sit under when he munches on his Big Mac and sips his Coke. In a post 9/11 world celebrating Christmas is aligning yourself with the Western modernity.

One interesting observation in cross-cultural acceptance of religious celebration is the increasing popularity of Holi in the UK. Considering that Holi is not even celebrated with as much fanfare outside of Northern India, (or at least it wasn't about a decade ago), I credit the Bombay movie industry juggernaut and the growing English interest in Bollywood movies for popularizing Holi.

At the end of the day, it's not proselytizing by the religious zealots, but the pop-culture, the movie industry, the constant marketing and repackaging of religious celebrations as secular symbols of modernity, ad infinitum, is what "converted" India and China.

A few years back while researching information on a related topic, I found that Christmas day, Dec. 25, is a national holiday in more than 40% of the Muslim-majority countries. This probably is a remnant from the colonial days and not necessarily a sign of respect for "Prophet E'sa," as Jesus is known to the Muslims. How many countries with a single-digit Muslim population do you know that has a national holiday on any Eid?*

*In case someone is not reading that as a rhetorical question, the answer is 2 in Asia, less than 3 in Africa and none in Europe, the Americas or Australia.

Thanks for a great, thoughtful, post as always, Tamim. The consensus does seem to be that Holi is Hinduism's most marketable holiday. I'd love to promote it, but I realize that doing so will make it another St. Patrick's Day or Cinco De Mayo, a day for trotting out a culture's stereotypes that we Americans might have a pretense to get drunk.

>>In a post 9/11 world celebrating Christmas is aligning yourself with the Western modernity.

I've lived in Vietnam for 7 years. There is essentially a riot here in HCMC on Christmas Eve now. (The 25th is nothing.) Absolutely insane. A few million scooters driving about, people wearing Santa hats, really crazy. Downtown is completely closed down. The biggest party of the year now.

Why?

It certainly has absolutely zero to do with 9/11 (most have little sympathy for the US on that issue), and little to do with aligning with "modernity." It is fiercely propagated in Western media and that has a small role, but extremely few see satellite TV here. And nothing to to with the Christian church, of course, except for pretty lights on a few buildings.

Basically, I think, the holidays here are associated with family traditions and duties. New Years (in Feb.) is very rigid and quite boring. Pay respect to your teachers, to your elders, to your ancestors. Your normal days are spent working and living up to your duties and Christmas Eve is like Valentine's Day here. Shops promote it for their own interest, but it's a chance to have fun with your friends, go out late with a good conscience (a rarity!), go crazy, buy your girlfriend a present, be out with your girlfriend and get a kiss (you can't be at home with her, after all), etc. No traditions, no duties, just fun for one night, and back to work the morning after on the 25th.

(It is the same when people here wear Doc Martins. They're absolutely not buying rebelliousness and authenticity, as Western consumers are. You don't see scuffed Docs in most of Asia. They're buying obvious "money" and "buying power" and "we'll-never-live-in-the-street-if-you-marry-me", things that people here respect.)

Personally, I would never celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it's actually nice to be here for it where it is stripped of all moral hypocrisy and simply enjoyed as a party.

I'm no expert on Hinduism, but isn't it characteristic of that religion to absorb the most compelling aspects of the other faiths it encounters?

"Hindus make up about 3% of the U.S. population"? That sounds a bit high!

According to this: sidebar, they're 1 million out of almost 300 million Americans.

That's 0.3% and, according to another statistic they quote, it's only 2% in New York City.

(The US Census, AFAIK, does not tally religious affiliation.)

Here are some other estimates: 1.5 million, 1 to 1.3 million -- both a far cry from the 8 or 9 million you claim.

Joe
http://josephgrossberg.blogspot.com

Hey, then why don't you stop fucking whining about a country where people are allowed to burn the flag, and to not have to pay taxes to support idiotic nativity displays on government property, and where even those scary "multiculralists" are allowed to vote and express their opinions, too?

I wasn't whining about the U.S. I was bashing bashing flag burners and multiculturalists for being anti-American.
Who said anything aboyt nativity scenes?

Political Correctness (or, having manners, as I prefer to see it) is a uniquely American invention.

No it's not. It's basically thought and speech control. It has nothing to do with manners and everything to do with groups and people trying to tell me how to think and speak. Parents are supposed to tecah manners. PC is un-American.

If you see fit to complain about it, why don't you go to one of these dictatorships where it doesn't exist?

You have no point here. In fact, what your suggesting makes no sense at all. You have to be extremely PC in a dictatorship or you will go to prison, be tortured or executed.

Works both ways, which you don't seem to understand. When you insult liberals, the left, and people with whom you're in disagreement, you know what you're being? Anti-American.

No - It is pro-American to be able to criticize feely with no fear of death or jail. I was simply saying that the left's rants are disgusting, anti-American in nature and that they were whining. So let me get this straight - You're saying it's okay for the left to criticize and demonize all they want, but when a rightie exercizes his right - he's un-American?

Because those terms describe half of this country, and you haven't seemed to grasp that yet. So start packing, since you seem to be a whiner who despises Americans and American ideas.

Half of this country is really a stretch. It's more like 20%. And I say 20% of the country are un-American whiners...including you. The left stands for socialism and socialism is un-American.

As a purely technical christian it strikes me that Christmas as celebrated has less and less to do with the religious aspect of it all, which is a good thing.

If someone chooses to celebrate the 'birth of christ' knock yourself out. If you want to get caught up in the consumerist frenzy, good for you too! There's nothing wrong about taking something you enjoy, of think you'd enjoy and making it your own.

I end up getting crazed by people these days deciding that 'cultural traditions' dictate and are unchangeable, that by taking an aspect of a tradition, you're obligated to adopt the entire thing. Make new ones Damnit! Give future generations something to puzzle over.

Next year I'm thinking about setting up a Chanukah bush covered in Christmas lights and topped with a Shiva figurine. Maybe I'll throw in some easter bunnies and a voodoo doll or two.

As a hopefully more-than-technical Christian, I'm pretty sickened by the way the holidays have been taken over by the retail juggernaut, and I'd like to see that separated from the religious holiday completely, so I almost don't mind when they refer to the "holiday" instead of saying Christmas.

Wud I be wrong to say dat we ppl here in IN are more acceptable to adopting cultures and sharing their JOY.. contrary to the public image in general.

I've recently taken in interest in world religions and comparative religion, which unfortunately were sparked by the event on 9/11/2001. I wish my interest could have come about through a happier medium.
I think this is right, in my Intro to religious studies class 2 years ago, I thought I remember reading that christinaity is the world's dominant religion. Because of this, I find it to be one the world's less interesting religions. It's too commonplace for me. Yet, I do celebrate Christmas and with much excitement. I do think that Christians are also very narrow-minded in their recognition of other religions/cultures/traditions. But isn't that what religion is, being so deeply involved in one faith or one culture as so not to celebrate the traditions of other cultures. Granted, each religion has it's own set of beliefs and traditions, but probably the most important rule in religion is that you follow these traditions and beliefs strictly, while not celebrating other religions beliefs.
Well, growing up in a family that doesn't practice is definitely enlightening...and from my view it seems as if lots of religions are very narrow minded and closed to new traditions, sharing, and being supportive or anyone who is not involved in their faith. I realize that most faiths and churches/temples/mosques etc... are welcoming, but their strict traditions prohibit your support of two faiths, or your open-minded stream of thought. I would love to celebrate Hindu traditions, and Jewish traditions, and Muslim traditions, not so much to feel accepted in each faith, but to learn about everyone... If I'm Jewish, why should my curiosity of the Hindus be stifled because I'm Jewish. I believe it should be the other way around. If you are truly Jewish, go and learn about other cultures, experience different lifestyles and traditions, if you decide to convert then fine, if not, it's because you feel that much stronger about your rooted position.
One might argue that Religion and not Politics are shaping our global village. Unfortunately, while strictly celebrating our own religions, we are being narrow-minded, and unthoughtful of others...

That post, and the following comments, are the most jaw-dropping deconstruction of Christmas that I've ever read in my life. The fact that in your years here "Every single person I've talked to in the U.S. who identifies as a christian has asked why our culture can't unapologetically accept "christian traditions"" is completely and totally unbelievable on the face of it. I don't have any earthly idea how many Christians you've talked to, or where you've found them at, or under what circumstances you've discovered them -- but not one single Christian? As a 42 year-old Christian raised in a Christian household in the middle of the Bible Belt, I can't remember ever raising, or hearing the question raised, about acceptability of our traditions to members of any other religion. Honest to (my) God, it has no bearing on my celebration of the holiday whether you or anyone else celebrates it or enjoys it.

"It's somewhat telling that today's Christmas advocates are demanding more of their countrymen than Europe's early explorers did of the people whom they conquered."
I would honest to Pete like to know who in America is demanding that you celebrate the birth of Christ? Who are these demanding advocates of which you speak? Are you sure they are not just figureheads from one of the many branches of Christianity in this country that have the ear of some media outlets?

"Why is it that all of the people who yesterday were suffused with the Christmas spirit are unable or unwilling to see that it might be just as useful for them to adopt some of the traditions of another culture?"
Who, where, says that we can't or won't? I will never be Hindu, or Muslim, or even Catholic. That doesn't mean that I can't or won't learn from them. "all" is a hugely sweeping term that I find offensive, not that you should care. I daresay that the actual descriptor should really and truly be "a few", and that the all-inclusive hyperbole you employ throughout is necessary to avoid diminishing whatever point it is that you were trying to make.

Bravo again, Anil!

Anil, I apologize for my part in brining undue wrath on you for this post. Didn’t really mean it, nor could I foresee it. I’m sorry.

Anyhow, just to clarify my point, I feel compelled to share the Wall St. Journal article I mentioned in my comment for those without a WSJ subscription or without access to WSJ either online or off. I am sure the Dow Jones & Company will treat this, strictly for educational purpose copy, as reasonable and within fair-use guidelines. I strongly urge those with means to subscribe this fine newspaper to do so and support their excellent brand of journalism.

Selling Christmas in China
Holiday's Commercial Side Makes It a Hit in a Country That Once Decried Yuletide

By DAVID MURPHY

Beijing.

Lu Wei is a businessman. He sells Christmas. Sitting at his market stall in downtown Beijing, where he stocks framed pictures of Jesus and Mary with electric cords dangling from them, he says business is good.

The wiry young vendor makes a confession. "I have no idea who they are," he says while plugging in Jesus and Mary. Their pictures start to spin psychedelically in their frames. "Do you know who they are? They're $25 each."

This is Christmas in China, 2002. Santa Claus's cherry red face is plastered in shop windows in major cities, tinny tracks of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" play in an endless loop inside high-end restaurants, and there have been some department-store sightings of Chinese-looking Santas. Christmas fever is gripping China's newly rising urban middle class as an excuse to shop, eat and party.

If Americans complain that the holiday has been commercialized beyond recognition, then many Chinese don't know it was ever anything else. Christmas appeals in large part because it is seen as international and modern, not because it's a traditional Christian celebration. The now-hip holiday is just another benchmark of progress in this fast-developing country. Along with China's membership in the World Trade Organization or its selection to host the 2008 Olympic Games, Christmas signals the nation's new role in the world. And all the ordinary Chinese citizen needs to take part in Christmas is a little spare cash to spend.

Bars in Beijing's fashionable Sanlitun district—where there is normally free admission—charges up to $25 entrance on Christmas Eve. Foreign businesses also get a slice of the cake. In Shanghai, Mark De Cocinis, who manages the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, says all four hotel restaurants are fully booked tonight and 350 more people—almost all of them locals—will pay $180 each to attend a Christmas Eve function at the hotel ballroom. "It's my fifth Christmas in Shanghai and each year it gets busier," he says.

Like another recently adopted foreign celebration, Valentine's Day, Christmas gets its warmest embrace from the young people curious about what's cool. "We're learning about this from you foreigners," says Chen Ling from rural Anhui province, who works as a waitress in a Beijing bar, "but we don't copy everything. Chinese New Year is a family time. Christmas is for fun." That means eating out with friends or work colleagues, drinks and karaoke. Incessant cellphone messaging of Christmas greetings are part of the festivities.

Curiously, the business of Christmas may be a key to the holiday's political survival in China. Just a few years ago, the official media was attacking Christmas as foreign and un-Chinese. But in its current commercial guise, Christmas poses no threat to the Communist Party's rule. Indeed, a shop-till-you drop spirit appears to be a welcome new wrinkle in a country where government creates national holidays in an effort to boost consumer spending.

Thus, while China's authorities continue to launch police campaigns against religious groups that are not officially approved and keep a close eye on those that are, Santa is no longer on their black list. "Religion? No, that's got nothing to do with Christmas. It's about having a good time with your friends," says Wang Xiaolin, a 40-year-old employee of a state-owned company, while standing in a Beijing department store as her friend waited in line to buy a battery-powered Santa Claus.

The country's embrace of Christmas internally compliments what it is selling overseas: China has become an export powerhouse of plastic trees, tinsel, twinkling lights and other yuletide trinkets. In the first 11 months of this year, China's exports of Christmas products topped $1 billion. It also exported $7.5 billion worth of toys last year, so there's a fair chance that something on—or under—many Americans' trees this season was made in the heaving factories of coastal China that are the largest suppliers of Christmas paraphernalia to the U.S. market.

The Wall Street Journal.
Tuesday, December 24, 2002. Page B1.
© 2002 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photo Caption: A vendor delivers a Christmas tree on his tricycle. The holiday's commercial potential has made it more acceptable in a country that once considered the day foreign and distinctly un-Chinese. (Credit: AFP/Corbis)
[Corbis: FT0023130 (Rights Managed). GOH Chai Hin. © AFP/CORBIS.]

So Christmas is "overpowering, relentlessly ubiquitous." Looks like someone's got a big ole' Plank of Entitlement in their eye. Buildings! They're everywhere! And flush toilets! And oxygen -- so common! Why, Bog, why?

Proof positive that for every opinion, there's someone else holding the diametrical opposite: here's a piece from the Ayn Rand site titled "Why Christmas Should be More Commercial".

Them Randroids, they're something else.

I live in India, I am a hindu, and I used to light up my very own rather small christmas tree and hang the stockings for christmas, long before the western influence started. As did a lot of my friends.

There always has been acceptance and celebration of Christmas here in India, just that now it is being highlighted and marketed as a product here.

About the "extremist hindu nationalism" you refer to, it really isn't that bad as you may tend to think. Hinduism is a religion of tolerance and the extremist elements do not hold enough say in national affairs.

Some of the customs and paraphernalia associated with Christmas are not really Christian, so I like to break it down; in the middle of winter the aroma of fresh balsam or evergreen is refreshing and the custom of bringing evergreen branches into the house is nice. Also the days are very short and dark, and I enjoy the lights decorating a lot of houses and trees. These customs are not really connected to anything specifically Christian per se. And I don't find them objectionable. I am amused by the recent promotion of 'festivus,' the alternate holiday at this time of year 'for the rest of us.' But I'm unclear as to specifically what it entails.

Anil, Americans do adopt other cultural traditions and make them their own...we are basically a society of culture vultures.

"all" is a hugely sweeping term that I find offensive, not that you should care

Good point, Scott. I was sloppy in being so unspecific with my criticisms. Put in a "many" there and it would more accurately reflect my opinions.

This discussion, while moderately interesting, has spun in a direction away from the point I was trying to make. I think the simpler way to state it might have been, what makes people see a situation where a majority adopts the practices of a 3% minority as justification for the exact opposite in our culture. I think it's a uniquely american form of self-regard.

And the reason it's surprising that people draw a conclusion that's exactly backwards is because, as Karan said above, "Americans do adopt other cultural traditions and make them their own...we are basically a society of culture vultures."

Back off topic, I find this to be sadly false:
About the "extremist hindu nationalism" you refer to, it really isn't that bad as you may tend to think. Hinduism is a religion of tolerance and the extremist elements do not hold enough say in national affairs.

I think there are a few thousand dead muslims in Gujarat who would disagree with your assesment that fundamentalist extremism doesn't have much of a hold.

Gujarat Massacre was a shameful event for Hindus, and Indians in general. It made us hang our heads in front of the international community, as infact, did the happenings in Ayodhya few years back.

I was about to say that these feelings do not penetrate common households, but I just heard that Narendra Modi, the man who was the Chief Minister of that state at that time, and had a large hand in letting the miscreants run riot, has been re-elected as the Chief Minister again.

I rest my case.

On the hindsight i quote this muslim man who said this on national TV after he had lost his wife and daughter in the attacks -
" They weren't hindus. Hindus are my brothers. They were demons who have no religion. "

I'm writing this from my hotel in India where they have 5 Christmas trees in the lobby. I was in India in 1989 for Christmas and saw no trees or lights at all.
I did have Christmas forced on me as a child. We had to sing Christmas carols in school. One year we had to make ornaments. One year I had a Catholic teacher who had us make stained glass windows out of construction and tissue paper. I don't mind the commercial aspect of Christmas, but I will sign whatever permission slip that I have to so that my kids don't have to sing about baby jesus.

Great commentary on the ubiquitous December holiday. This is how I dealt with it one year: Xmess 2001