love to celebrate occasions<\/a> and often all faiths \u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e join in.<\/p>\nA walk in the neighborhood<\/h2>\n
Therefore if one were to walk down the street in a predominantly \u092e\u0941\u0916\u094d\u092f \u0930\u0942\u092a \u0938\u0947 Christian or Catholic neighborhood, one can see bright icicle lights hanging from roofs \u091b\u0924 or balconies \u092c\u093e\u0932\u0915\u0928\u0940 and paper-lit stars from the porches \u092c\u0930\u093e\u092e\u0926\u093e.<\/p>\n
It is also quite common to see large nativity \u091c\u0928\u094d\u092e displays at the end of streets in predominantly Catholic towns like Bandra, Mumbai.<\/p>\n
Fake and flocked Christmas trees also adorn \u0938\u091c\u093e\u0928\u093e homes with baubles and little figurines. Before readymade \u092c\u0928\u093e \u092c\u0928\u093e\u092f\u093e clothes, tailors would get busy creating outfits for the ladies \u092e\u0939\u093f\u0932\u093e to wear.<\/p>\n
Before the Christmas break, Catholic-run schools would host nativity plays. Weeks of practice and a flurry of costume \u092a\u094b\u0936\u093e\u0915 rehearsals and the day dawns right before the end of the term.\u00a0 Local choirs also get together and go down streets caroling at night. People invite the carolers inside to have hot chocolate and Christmas sweets. Yes, it is a big deal for Indian Christians.<\/p>\n
In some communities a sweet making tradition arose from the multinational \u092c\u0939\u0941\u0930\u093e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092f conquests –\u00a0 the Kuswar.<\/p>\n
So what is Kuswar?<\/h2>\n
The Portuguese and the British especially introduced specific sweets like the plum cake, figgy pudding and other coconut based recipes. Today, the Goans, Mangloreans and East Indians create wonderful delicacies \u0935\u093f\u0928\u092e\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093e from the beginning of December. Cousins and large families gather together to make these delicacies. They sit around the kitchen table and trading stories \u0915\u0939\u093e\u0928\u0940 while trying out the recipes handed down by their grandparents.<\/p>\n
What happens on the Day?<\/h2>\n
On Christmas eve it is customary \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0925\u093e\u0917\u0924 for people to go to church. Everyone gets dressed in their finery \u0938\u091c\u0927\u091c and goes early to reserve a seat to hear the carols. After the midnight mass or service, people usually go over to friends for fruitcake and wine.<\/p>\n
On Christmas day, people greet one another in different languages. In Hindi it is ‘Bade Din Ki Mubarak’. Mother’s send children scurrying to the neighbors \u092a\u0921\u093c\u094b\u0938\u0940 with sweets. Everyone waits for the bada khanna or big dinner in the afternoon.\u00a0 On the table are certain traditional \u092a\u0930\u0902\u092a\u0930\u093e\u0917\u0924 dishes such as pork vindaloo, sorpotel, pulao and beef rolls.<\/p>\n
In the evening, people attend the large Christmas dances or balls around the city. People dance to\u00a0 great bands which play all the favorite Western classics from the Beatles, Elvis etc<\/p>\n
In India, Christmas is more of an event made for gathering, eating and merriment. The focus is not so much on gift giving. However, slowly the west’s ways are intruding into the simplicity of these traditions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2021\/12\/3-350x350.jpg\")
People tend to forget that the Christian Apostle Thomas went to India to spread the Christian message \u0938\u0902\u0926\u0947\u0936. The Indians killed him for his efforts. But, his message remained \u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0930 \u0930\u0939\u093e and is still thriving today. Christianity spread throughout India and there are stories of many devout \u0927\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092e\u093f\u0915 Christians martyred for their faith, even today…<\/p>\n
Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":9803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[556409,2213,556410],"class_list":["post-9797","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-holidays","tag-christians","tag-india","tag-thomas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9797"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9818,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions\/9818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Christmas](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2021\/12\/2-350x350.jpg\")
<\/p>\n