Christmas
Christmas the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ, is celebrated in India with great fervor all over India by the Christians.
People decorate their houses, erect Christmas trees, make cribs with figures of baby Jesus, Mother Mary, Joseph, the three kings who come to visit the baby and shepherd boys and their herds grazing around depicting the scenes of Jesus's Birth in the Bible. They decorate the Christmas tree, hang stars, gifts and illuminate them. On the Christmas day, people enjoy a sumptuous Christmas lunch. Christmas cakes and wine are served to visitors and exchanged as gifts among friends and relatives. Christmas celebrations vary in different parts of India. In some parts, small clay oil-burning lamps, mango leaves etc are used as Christmas decorations and mango and banana trees are decorated. All the major Indian cities wear a festive look. Shops and bazaars are decorated for the occasion and offer attractive bargains.
Carol singing, get-togethers and the exchanging of gifts enhance the Christmas spirit. Christmas parties launch off celebrations for the New year, thus retaining the festive mood for at least a week. Christians all over the world celebrate the birth or Nativity of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, on 25th of December every year.
This is the most important and the gayest festival of the Christians. Other communities in India also look upon it as a festival of goodwill and greetings. During the British period it was celebrated on an All-India basis and the ten days from the Christmas Eve i.e. the evening of 24th December till after the New year were declared as public holidays. Children and youngsters looked forward to Christmas holidays when they enjoyed themselves to their heart's content. It was also during the British period that the Christian missions penetrated to the interior of India even to the tribal regions, resulting in the number of people who were converted to Christian faith.
This resulted in the Christians becoming the third most important community in India. After India achieved independence from the sovereignty of the British, this festival lost much of its official importance; yet the tradition of celebrating it that was left behind by the British continues even to this day specially in metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay and Madras where Christians as well as non-Christians celebrate it on quite a grand scale.
Vasant Panchmi :: Baisakhi :: Buddha Purnima :: Cristmas :: Desert Festival :: Diwali :: Dussehra :: Easter :: Ganesh Chaturti :: Gangaur :: Good Friday : :Gurupurab :: Holi :: Id-Ui-Fitr :: Id-Ul-Zuha :: Janmashtami :: Kumbh Mela :: Muharram :: Nagaur Fair :: Navratri :: Onam :: Pushkar Fair :: Ram Navami ::Shivaratri :: Teej :: Vishu