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Back home to roost
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Festival An Anglo Indian Christmas is very special, with old traditions intact. Vidhu John discovers that most of them settled abroad come back to savour Xmas
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Photo:H.Vibhu
Togetherness for Christmas An Anglo Indian family gathering at Fort Kochi. Some of them are in Australia and are home for Christmas
Back home”. This is what people say, even if they have lived in their adopted land for half a century. The feeling that the land of their birth, the land that they grew up in evokes is difficult to express. And that is why the Anglo Indians who have settled elsewhere all congregate in their hometown during the Christmas season. For the Anglo-Indians in Fort Kochi and Vypeen this season is a very special time- a time meant for family, a time to share. The magic of the traditional festival triggers this spectacular phenomenon, of flocking back to the land of their birth, no matter how far away they may reside now.
Weddings too
“Many of us are normally home for Christmas. The pull of the land we belong to, where we have grown up is strong. It’s a season to spend time with your family, a time for love and closeness,” says Godfery Lobo, who is in the Merchant Navy. Usually weddings are also timed for this period, when relatives and friends are back home for Xmas. There are wedding anniversaries and parties when the houses are full of kith and kin.
But Christmas weddings are few this year.
The Lobos and D’Souzas are here from Australia to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. It’s been nine years since they visited. Says Louella D’souza, “The entire family is going to be here this year to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. I’m thankful to my lovely family who had everything organised for the function, from decorations to invitations, by the time I arrived. Where else would you find this kind of love and support? I look forward to enjoying the season, the dancing, the Midnight Mass and the rest of the celebrations.”
She says that though her brother’s and her families get together on Christmas eve, when in Australia, ‘it is not the same as celebrating it here’.
Marita D’cruz who has been living in Dubai for the past 18 years, declares, “This is our place and Christmas here is unique. When you are abroad you are all to yourself. But here families gather together, you meet friends and people you have known all your life. The spirit is different here, especially this part of the year.”
“This is a great time,” feels Lester Manuel who settled in Australia 17 years ago and visits Vypeen every two or three years, “Our loved ones all come around, you catch up with everyone and invariably have a good time. Even the climate is good. Celebrating Christmas in Australia is not half as much fun as it is here, and doing so, with a house full of family members. Even the no-holds-barred celebrations are different from the gathering of a few family and friends there. Our roots are traditional. When we’re there we tend to sit back and think of the old times, the way we were brought up, the loving relationships, Christmas carols and more. I’m proud to be from this part of the world.”
For those who belong to the younger generation, like Maria Desouza, who left for Melbourne two years ago, Christmas is the time when you miss your family and reminisce about past holidays, if you are away from home, and a time to celebrate if you are here! “You go back with a lot of memories.”
Unique traditions
Christmas is also a time for the community to remember Christmases gone by and traditions of old. There are so many traditions unique to the Anglo-Indians that are being followed to this day- the X’mas Tree celebrations (the function when Santa hands out gifts to the children is a much-loved one), followed by the Xmas Dance, attending Midnight Mass, Christmas lunch, the New Year Dance! There are many traditions, however, that have been forgotten over time. Cake-making and Conswad, for instance.
“Cake-making used to be big part of the celebration, but it’s mostly forgotten now,” says Gerelyn Jeoffrey who has come down from Auckland, New Zealand to spend the season with her ailing mother. “No one has the time to make them and the cost of living has become so high. But we do have a friend in that part of the world who is basically from Fort Kochi, who follows the custom religiously.”
In the old days, around 25 cakes- stuffed with plums, currants, ankurs, kismis, cashews, almonds and more- each weighing one to one and a half kilos would be made in some household. It was a tradition to send out trays full of sweets, coconut, ghee and ginger biscuits, jam tarts, cakes and other savouries to other households and receive such trays in return. It was also a chance to exhibit each family’s cooking talents.
The exchange of sweets called ‘Conswad’ would take place on December 23 and 24.
Remembers Ivan S. D’costa, vice-chairman of the governing body of All India Anglo-Indian Association, “There were no parties in the old times, though the X’mas Tree (featuring Santa) was organised. But the ‘visita’ was a tradition.” Families would come together to visit and wish close relatives, starting with the eldest. “Failure to do so amounted to slight,” he adds.
Christmas then was one long celebration stretching from the weeks before December 25 to the Epiphany. The Chinese lanterns, casuarina trees decked with homemade decorations added to the magic of clear, crisp star-studded nights. Today Christmas celebrations have lost some of its lustre, many feel.
Yes, for the Anglo-Indians much has changed, yet a lot remains the same. The magic of Christmas and its message of love and togetherness remain undimmed.
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