On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:07:11 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
Post by Mike Lyle[...]
Post by Amethyst DeceiverPost by Athel Cornish-BowdenHaving said that (and having just emerged from our Christmas lunch,
to which any typos can be attributed)
Ah, you too, huh? I shared a table with a Jewish woman and a Muslim.
And three Chinese people. My share of the wine seems to have been
larger than usual...
Gosh! I bet they were really offended to have been invited to a
Christmas lunch.
Today the Times (of London) has a feature about the celebration of Christmas
by four British familes of non-Christian faiths.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5370051.ece
THE HINDU FAMILY: Mahendra Dabhi, a project manager, lives with his wife
and two children in Solihull
It has become a family tradition that my wife, Jay, dresses up as Father
Christmas on Christmas Day. We don't make her wear a beard, but she's got
the hat, a sack and a red outfit, which she wears when she is giving
presents to our daughters, Heena, 16, and Urvi, 13. There are normally 24
of us celebrating. My five sisters, their children, my wife's brother and
four sisters and their children. My sister starts making the Christmas
pudding in October. She adds brandy regularly and when she unseals it on
Christmas Day you can smell it from miles away! On the day we eat a
traditional vegetarian Indian meal, but with a Christmas turkey and all
the trimmings on the side.
....
When I first came here from Uganda 30 years ago we didn't have special
holidays for Diwali so we used Christmas as a chance to get together and
made it more Hindu. ...
The first Christmas I spent here was when I was 16, in 1972, just after
Idi Amin had expelled us. I was in a resettlement camp in Devon and some
locals invited us to celebrate Christmas with them. It was a massive
relief after the stress of leaving Uganda. That's where I learnt about the
Christmas spirit.
THE SIKH FAMILY: Sathnam Sanghera, a Times writer, spends Christmas with
his brother-in-law ... in Wolverhampton
Looking back, the question that should have really troubled me was why a
religious family of Sikh Punjabi immigrants would want to celebrate
Christmas in the first place. Instead, all my childish anxiety went into
worrying why there was such a gap between Christmas as it was on telly and
Christmas as it was in our home, in Wolverhampton.
....
Christmas Day begins with me trying to make lunch. And I say trying'
because my mother is getting increasingly religious and correspondingly
more vegetarian, so much so that she claims to be made to feel ill by the
smell of cooking meat. Last year I had to roast the turkey at my brother's
house in Dudley three miles away before driving it over at 1pm.
By this time all my siblings and their children will have arrived, and
lunch is eaten in Royle Family[1] style: plates on our laps, the Top of
the Pops Christmas special blaring on TV. Occasionally my brother and I
will risk a furtive glass of wine - furtive because, Mum, as another
element of her increasing religiosity, won't allow alcohol in the house.
After food, there will be the Queen's speech, which I will translate for
Mum, while the rest of the family mock me for my bad Punjabi.
THE MUSLIM FAMILY: Ghazhala Nizam, account manager, and her two sisters,
in Streatham, South London
We do the works for Christmas dinner. We'll begin with a nice starter,
something like smoked salmon, and then we have a capon and a leg of lamb
for the main meal - there are up to 20 friends and family helping us
celebrate, so we need a lot.
We used to do turkey, but then we realised no one liked it. Everything
else is traditional - stuffing, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots,
Brussels sprouts - I insist on Brussels sprouts! We have vegetarian
Christmas puddings, not because we are vegetarian but because the animal
fat in the suet is probably not halal. You can get halal turkeys from our
butcher, but you have to order them. We have mince pies but no brandy
butter because drink is forbidden for Muslims, so it's a dry Christmas.
When we were young we decorated the house for Christmas, but as we've got
older they've gone up earlier, to coincide with Eid ul-Fitr. I started
doing this about five or six years ago when Christmas decorations were
going up really early and everyone was complaining. I thought actually, I
do have something to celebrate... And now I always put fairy lights up
during Ramadan because it's a really festive time of year for us.
....
Although we celebrate Christmas, we don't celebrate it in terms of a
Christian festival. For us it's the opportunity to spend quality time with
friends and family.
....
THE JEWISH FAMILY: Jacques Cannon, company director, his wife Amanda and
son Noah, in Northwood, Middlesex
We love Christmas. We send cards, decorate the tree, put a wreath on the
door, go to Midnight Mass and make the dogs wear Christmas hats. On
Christmas morning when Noah, 3, wakes up, the first thing he sees is the
mince pie Father Christmas has taken a bite from and the fake snow
footprints he has left on the carpet.
I'm Jewish, my wife is Jewish, my son is Jewish and will have a Bar
Mitzvah, but we don't go to the synagogue every week and we're not kosher.
I think Christmas has got the feelgood factor whatever your religion. We
have about 16 people for lunch. We buy a kosher turkey, but only because
we think it tastes better. Then we cover it in bacon.
[1] Royle Family:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royle_Family
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)