By Rons Bantwal

The Christmas festival which is celebrated throughout the world with harmony is back. This is a great festival for the Christian community. In India, this festival has its own procedures. This has been celebrated throughout the country with devotion, diligence, faith, rituals and snacks, thereby preserving its speciality and celebrated as a festival that aims for the development of humanity and spreading the messages of co-existence.

CHRISTMAS SWEETS AND ATTRACTIONS

Christmas is a festival which is celebrated by family and friends together. When the festival is nearing, Catholic families will be busy in preparing sweets and snacks for the celebration. Rice laddu, plum cake (rich dry grapes), Nuris, cookies, etc. are some of the major snacks prepared by the coastal Karnataka people for Christmas celebration. But, slight difference can be seen in the dishes of other parts of the country like Kulkuls or Kormalas, Perad (Gava Cheese) Dodol and multi-layered Bebinka, etc. In Goa, Christmas is incomplete without the following items – Sarpathel, Spicy Vinegeri meat stew of Portugeese, Christmas meals and Customery Plotter sweets.

CHRISTMAS IS A SIGN OF HAPPINESS – PROSPERITY

Christmas festival gives us happiness, gifts, cakes and a pleasure-filled atmosphere in winter along with everlasting happiness. “This world is getting old day by day by carrying the burden of responsibility. But Christmas is ever young. Life is refreshed with the celebration of Christmas throughout the world. Learning is an infinite process through this” says a supreme pastor. When we think of Christmas, the picture of Mother Mary hugging baby Jesus comes to our mind. Christmas songs give the pleasure of evening breeze and happiness. A Christian believes that the stories of Jesus Christ, prophet, Angel and Santa fulfills the heart with love, sacrifice and charity.

PREPARATION OF CAKE

Christmas celebration doesn’t have any meaning without the preparation of cake. Christmas celebration is meaningful only by preparing cake. Cake is the major item that makes Christmas celebration a perfect one and plays an important role in creating happiness during its celebration. During Christmas, most of the snacks are prepared with rice and egg cakes are also prepared. Coconut and rice are mostly used by the people while preparing snacks during this festival. Instead of buying all those items from the bakery, preparation of atleast two items with the help of the family members as a whole is the speciality of this festival. The three weeks of Christmas is the period that indicates the arrival of Christ and it is important to note that during this period, the Christians are not supposed to hold any celebration.

Because of this, the process of preparing special snack items (Kuswar) starts from three weeks before Christmas itself. Each member of the family takes the responsibility of preparing each variety of snacks. This makes the preparation process livelier with unity among the members of the family. Before frying certain sweets like Kulkuls and Nuris, a little piece is fried because of their faith that this is for the blessings of God and good fortune. The snack Nuris resembles the item Karanjis or Gajjia prepared during Holi, Ganesh Chathurthi and Deepavali. Kulkuls (Kideo in Konkani) means worms. Since they are in the shape of worms, they are identified with that name.

DIVERSITY OF CHRISTMAS SWEETS – CHRISTMAS BELLS

The Christmas sweets of Goa region are well-known throughout the country and the same style is followed in Mumbai too. East Indians follow similar style in their sweets and prepare Kulkuls, Jujubs, Nuris and Marjipans, etc. The only one difference that can be seen in the snacks of the States is that the people of Goa are much influenced by Portuguese and East Indians have the influence of British. Usually bells (Christmas bells) are the processes that are used in nature. Ringing the bells is also a significant feature. It means bells are capable of dispelling the evil spirits. They are also compared to the significance of the start of spring.