MAJOR
FESTIVALS
CHRISTMAS
Christmas
celebrated to honour the glory of the nativity of Jesus
on 25th December is the most significant and spectacular
of Christian festivals. No other celebration is so enriched
with so many customs and ceremonies. There is an array of
spectacles like Christmas Star, Christmas tree, the Crib,
Christmas cake, Christmas presents and the Christmas Father.
The last named is quite a fascinating personage, who claims
above all to be the very embodiment of the most vibrant
and quintessence of the gayest of all the festivals. Children
allowed to occupy the central stage, in the enchanted company
of Christmas Father, Christmas takes on the look of a festival
of children. The mood is set with the advent of the season
by the twinkling of Christmas stars and there is no home
or shop without the Christmas star, the beautiful pointer
to the Babe of Bethlehem. The Christmas tree is a new feature
in Kerala, perhaps less than sixty or seventy years old.
The crib is a miniature production of the stable where Jesus
was born. It developed from the old practice of giving dramatic
expression to the events and the surroundings of the birth
of Christ. Carols and songs developed from earlier nativity
plays have become one of the most cheerful spectacles of
the festivities.Priests hold mass in churches three times
starting with the first at midnight. Just before the midnight
mass, an image of the Child is brought by the priest, preceded
by rows of Children holding lighted candles that are placed
in the crib. The hymn 'Gloria in exelcis Deo' is intoned
admidst the explosion of crackers. A sumptous lunch with
rate delicacies is a significant feature of the celebration.
Meat forms part of the feast even in rural homes where meat
is rarely eaten. Cake has also become common in the villages
where women have learnt to make it. In Kerala, Xmas retains
its homeliness and expresses itself in the cultural forms
of the country without losing what is native to itself.
