Christmas in India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Commercialisation
The Santa economy in 2019
Ketaki Desai, Dec 22, 2019 Times of India
In the last few years, Christmas has gone from big to huge — pot-bellied men across the country don the red costume at malls, offices, residential societies and even airports. The market has grown so much that Santa rentals have sprouted across the country. Namia Jasuja, who runs Delhibased event company Order Happiness, has employed 33 Santas this year. The demand, she says, is for English-speaking Santas who go to people’s homes to give their kids a surprise. “We also send across a cloth envelope that says ‘emergency delivery from the North Pole’. It’s very customised, so they talk about the ways in which the child has been nice and how they can improve, like brushing their teeth at night,” Jasuja says.
So, who are these people inside the Santa costume? Most of them are aspiring actors, singers, the odd magician, and college students who do it for some extra cash. Ravi Bhatt, co-founder of Rising Balloon, says they choose people who are good actors and don’t come out of character. “The most important thing is actually their eyes since that’s the only thing that’s visible under the costume. They have to be happy and be able to make others happy.” Chief Santa at Rising Balloon is Kevin Fernandes who morphed from being a chubby teenage Santa into the co-founder of a company that supplies Father Christmas. “Santa had always been magical to me, having grown up watching Christmas movies and I liked the whole experience,” says the 33-yearold who along with his crew of 15 Santas are all set to spread holiday cheer at kids’ and office parties across Mumbai.
Jasuja says their costume comes prebellied, and skin colour is no bar since they have makeup artists on the payroll. “They have to have a good voice and be very extroverted,” she says. Most also train their Santas in delivering a hearty ‘ho ho ho’ and interacting with kids.
Co-ordinating the Santas isn’t all roses though. Jasuja says, “We have 7-8 people planning the routes on the backend. Each Santa has a car and driver. We also face the wrath of the police,” she says. “They want so many selfies! So we have extra chocolates and toffees for them.” Last year, they serviced about 16-17 corporates and visited over 75 houses across Delhi NCR.
While there are an increasing number of companies supplying Santas, for others, it’s a oneman show. For the last decade, a certain gentlemen from Delhi has been donning the rather intimidating role. Committed to his character, he insists that he be referred to only as ‘The Santa Claus of India,’ rather than his name.
“It’s not as easy as it appears because you can’t be yourself as a person, you are Santa. It helps that I am a theatre person,” he says. The Santa Claus of India has been working at Delhi’s Select CityWalk mall for the last four years. “Before me, they were only hiring Europeans,” he says. The rest of the year, he does events, mostly as an anchor.
Amit Agarwal runs OckyPocky, a kids’ language learning app, but come December, he gets in the Christmas spirit. His company offers visits from Santa even though it has nothing to do with their core business. “We promise a very personal experience for children. There’s a song and dance routine, we bring decorations and gifts, as well as a Christmas meal, make a video so the family will cherish the moment forever.”
And these personalised grand surprises don’t come cheap. OckyPocky’s Christmas package starts at Rs 5,000 and goes up to Rs 25,000, while Delhi-based Order Happiness charges Rs 5,000. Fernandes says they pay about Rs 1,500 an event, plus food and travel expenses.
Since Santa can’t come too early, nor too late, the Santa business is a limited affair, lasting at most 10 days a year. But even when oddly-timed gigs come up, the ability to improvise is part of the job, The Santa Claus of India says. “Once I was performing on the 15th of December and someone asked me why I was here so early,” he says, then puts on his pitch perfect Santa voice: “It’s snowing so much in the North Pole that I had to come to India where it’s warmer.”
Mangalore-based event company Celebrations hires college students for events and mall appearances. They charge between Rs 2,000-2,500 per Santa, and the students take anywhere between Rs 400-800 based on performance. However, co-founder Sam Pinto is apprehensive that the downturn and prohibitory orders might derail some Christmas events.
For the Santas themselves, while dealing with the occasional snotty brat with kindness can be a pain, it is a joyful experience. Vinod has been a Santa with Jasuja’s company since 2013. He’s not an actor, but an employee at a telecom company who just does the gig for the love of it, even though he admittedly makes not all that much. “When I started, I was really struggling in my professional life, but it left me with a positive feeling, that I was being able to spread joy.”
Goa
In Tiswadi, Bhironda and Guleli
Rajendra P Kerkar, Dec 25, 2021: The Times of India
In Goa’s heartland, Christmas is about communal harmony
KERI: While is celebrated with much pomp and fanfare in urban parts of the state, rural Goa has traditionally opted to mark the much-anticipated Christian festival as a closeknit celebration of communal harmony. This year is no different.
The tribal Gaude of the Tiswadi taluka, who were [converted] during the Portuguese rule in Goa but were later reinstated into Hinduism, still maintain the age-old practice of honouring the Holy Cross in the vicinity of their settlement at Nauxi, near Bambolim.
Called the Nav-Hindu Gaude due to their re-entry into Hinduism through a ‘shuddhi’ (purification) movement by spiritual leader Vinayak Maharaj Masurkar in 1930, they also invoke the blessings of the Holy Cross during the annual Zagor festival and offer garlands to it. At Angodwada, which skirts the Colvale river in Pernem taluka’s Ibrampur, 12 Dhangar families look forward to Christmas celebrations at the 13 homes of their Catholic neighbours.
“Every year, the Catholic families happily take part in our Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations by visiting our houses eating vegetarian food and sweets. During Christmas, we visit their homes and relish nevreos, dodol and others delicacies. We look forward to Christmas,” Chandrakant Shinde, a villager, told TOI.
A similar camaraderie is seen in Bhironda and Guleli in Sattari despite the Catholic population there being much lesser than the Hindus. Populations, however, do not seem to matter. “In our ward, the Catholic families are in majority. There are only eight Hindu houses, but we live in communal harmony. We love to take part in Christmas celebrations and they relish the vegetarian food offered during our festive occasions,” Swapnil Valvoikar from Vazri of Sankhali, said.
Punjab
2023
Sneha Bhura, Dec 17, 2023: The Times of India
The Samuels’ from Chennai take old songs & give them a twistWhen you think of the sound of music, you are likely to think of hits like Elvis Presley's 'Blue Christmas', 'Last Christmas' by Wham! or if you like jazz, the wonderfully atmospheric 'Christmas' (1967) by Ella Fitzgerald. Then there is Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas is you' which is still on the 2023 Billboard Hot 100 chart despite being released in 1994.
Dropping a Christmas track is not a tradition in India, but several choir masters, conductors and musicians have been composing tunes and four-part harmonies with Indian influences, and hoping they resonate as universally as 'Feliz Navidad' or 'Silent Night'.
Going beyond mere translations of old hymns and popular yuletide carols, or cover versions, their music seeks to celebrate the birth of Christ in newer, more relatable and locally specific ways whether it's singing old Tamil hymns in country music style or adding bhangra beats.Alfred J D'Souza, director of Mumbai-based Stop-Gaps Cultural Academy which organises 'A Festival of Festive Music' at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) every December, has composed over 50 carols in which he often compares Christ to Krishna and replaces sleigh bells with the sound of ghungroos.
'Not many know of Xmas music tradition among Punjabis'
Alfred J D'Souza is also releasing his first book of his Indian carols next year. The reason for the desi twist is that in a tropical country, one can't exactly identify with references to a white Christmas and sleighs. "Adding elements like rangoli, sandalwood, jasmine, marigold and mango leaves is better than taking traditional western carols and putting Hindi words with an Indian instrumentation," he says.
Few are aware of the Christmas music tradition in Punjabi communities, mostly sung in the tappe-boliyan style of folk songs. "Tappe were originally sung by camel riders in Punjab and Sindh to the music of camel bells. Boliyan are usually traditional, passed down from generation to generation and elaborated along the way...But entirely new content has also emerged in recent times..," writes poet and journalist Nirupama Dutt in the anthology 'Indian Christmas: Essays, Memories, Hymns' edited by Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle.
A quick search on the internet throws up slickly shot music videos of 'Christmas tappe' with phulkari-clad women celebrating 'the name of the lord' in tunes borrowed from old wedding songs like Baage Vich as well as some original tunes. "My new Christmas geet released on December 1, and I will perform it across Punjab this month," says Romika Masih, a Jalandhar-based singer who gives Christmas a bhangra vibe. Her devotional music has fetched her over five lakh subscribers and invitations to perform live in Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. "Earlier you'd hardly see women step out to record worship songs. Once I started doing so in 2017, several followed," says Masih, who changed her surname after her conversion to Christianity in 2011.
Delhi too has a vibrant choral singing tradition. Rajinald Vijay Milton was in school in the late 1970s when he heard the hit song 'Gapuchi Gapuchi Gam Gam' from the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer 'Trishul'. With his father already a guitarist and organist in a Delhi church, Milton and his brother spun their own little Christmas adaptation as 'Prabhuji, Prabhuji Swagatam'. Today, as choir director at YMCA and Christ Methodist Church choir, Milton dare not borrow tunes from Hindi cinema for congregational singing. "It is considered objectionable inside the church. People say they start visualising scenes from movies," says Milton, who has composed more than a hundred original Hindi worship songs and carols.
His first success was the Christmas song 'Khamosh Raton ki' back in 2009. "Today there isn't a single Hindi-speaking church that doesn't sing this carol," says Milton, who has over seven lakh subscribers. His kids Shaun (27) and Shanon (21) have their own YouTube channel called 'Yeshu ke Geet' where they are often seen singing their father's new Christmas tracks or giving quick-fix tutorials on how to play "Hindi Christian songs in three chords". This year, Milton has released three new Christmas songs. Many singers, aspiring and established, took to creating original Christmas videos and songs during the pandemic lockdown.
Brothers Joel Samuel, Jowin Sam and Johan Paul from Chennai realised how the rich tradition of southern gospel music - from the Cathedrals Quartet to Ernie Haase - and the upbeat tempo of country can be harnessed to spread some cheer in uncertain times. Thus, was born the viral singing trio of The Samuels whose upbeat renditions struck a chord globally. "Our specialty is taking old songs and giving them a new twist. One inspiration was 'Amazing Grace' as sung by The Oak Ridge Boys (an American gospel and vocal quartet)," says Joel, who is studying in the theological wing of Serampore College (University) in West Bengal. The Samuels also harmonize old Tamil hymns. "We started singing these traditional Tamil songs, which people hardly remembered in tenor and bass voices. These catchy versions helped us reach more audiences," says Joel.
Singer-songwriter Rohan Solomon, who is better known as the former frontman of the erstwhile alt-rock outfit Cyanide, has a Christmas chartbuster to his credit. His 2021 song 'It's Christmas' went on to make it to the top 5 in global radio charts. Following its success, Solomon released its video version this month replete with holiday lights, a crackling bonfire and decorations. "It is almost like an uplifting choir. But there are also influences of old Motown records and some Beatles-ish chord progressions," says Solomon.
