Food, family and nostalgia: Here’s how Mumbaikars are bringing in Christmas 2021

"Being able to visit church on Christmas morning will be the best part this year. It will refresh our soul and bring us the most awaited joy we missed last year due to the lockdown," says Sherin Jacob, a resident of suburban Mumbai's Santacruz.

As the city glows deeper with bright yet warm Christmas lights, the heightened festive spirit among Mumbaikars is noticeable. Together with family or away from home, many have been occupied with preparations for one of the most thrilling festivals of the year; not to forget the arrival of the New Year, which adds to the vigour. From customary home decor and church rituals to cooking authentic Christmas recipes, Mumbaikars are all set to make up for the subdued celebrations of the last two years due to Covid-19 restrictions. Moreover, the annual Christmas traditions of visiting church, midnight mass, hosting carols and prayers at home and enjoying dinner with close family members are back on track.

For Jacob, attending carols and skit performances, picking up the best gifts made by little kids at the church this year, will bring back memories of the pre-pandemic Christmas events. While she would be missing her elder sister, who got married during the lockdown, continuing with the tradition, the family has planned a private get together to avoid crowds, on December 25 evening.

Doodle by Alistair D'Souza, a part of Christmas preparations for this year.

A prolonged lockdown has largely changed the approach of many towards festivities. Amid free and easy celebrations, this year many are also mindful of the Omicron variant fear in the city and are consciously avoiding large community gatherings.

"Family is all one can ask for during this time. Fellowship with one another has reduced and spending time with people is valuable. Festivities can no longer be enjoyable with the fact that social distance is still encouraged," says Alistair Savio D'Souza, who looks forward to a high-spirited gathering with family and close friends after a comparatively calmer Christmas last year.

‘Acknowledging privileges and sharing joy'

"This year's Christmas is all about being kind to myself, so I'll be heading out on a trip to meet a friend whose ideology is similar to mine. It's also about acknowledging my privileges and unlearning things that directly or indirectly lead to discrimination," says 23-year-old Priyadarshani Yuvaraj, who is a Christian by choice and a staunch believer of the anti-caste movement in India.

Priyadarshani Yuvaraj's previous year's Christmas celebration with friends. Image credit: Priyadarshani Yuvaraj (Third from left)

As someone who had voluntarily and courageously taken a decision to change her faith from Hinduism to Christianity right after her secondary school, Yuvaraj has been staying independently for two years now. Since then, her friends, colleagues and community kids have been her only company during Christmas.

For Yuvaraj, her Christmas trip to Wardha and Nagpur's Deekshabhoomi, the sacred site of the Navayana Buddhists where Dr BR Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and embraced Buddhism, is the most important highlight of the festival.

"Nagpur is all worth it for my Christmas and the start to the new year. This Christmas trip for me is to particularly find joy in little things, like visiting the lake side, watching the sunrise with my friend, and going on long walks to try local food, interact with locals and walk by foot to long distances and share joy," says Yuvaraj.

She will also be visiting a few kids from a club that she is part of and heading to a city beach to catch the sunset and do a little writing exercise about prayers to the lord to end the day.

Memories of a Christmas night in Mizoram

Nostalgia takes over Rosangliani Vuangtu, Lalthanpuii Khupngai and Simon Vanlalhumliana, residents of Santacruz's Kalina, as they talk about Christmas festivities in their hometown in Mizoram.

Having lived in Mumbai to earn a living for more than three years, the three friends yearn for warmth of their home and village surroundings during December. Christmas in their hometown Pangkhua, as they reminisce, is a big affair and is usually celebrated together by the entire village. Back in her town, wearing Mizoram's traditional attire, Vuangtu would offer midnight prayers, enjoy Christmas carols all night and have a feast together with all the community members.

"When it's Christmas, we wish to be with family. We miss our childhood friends and wish we could somehow go back to our young age when we could rely on our parents. We feel homesick here, especially during Christmas," says Vuangtu."If we take an off, our salary will be deducted. So even if we want to visit church we can't do that, so there's a lot of difference from the celebrations in our hometown," she adds.

This year, Vuangtu, along with her nine other friends and roommates from Mizoram, will have to miss church due to work and will have a small party at their room with Christmas cake, food and music at 12 am after offering prayers together. Though video calls from siblings and parents will make the group miss family, they are relieved to have each other's side, giving them a sense of belonging away from home.

Feasting on traditional food

One cannot discuss a festival without mentioning the traditional food of the communities engaged in celebrations, the only factor that has remained unchanged even during the pandemic. From exclusive meat dishes to customary Christmas sweets, there's a variety of items on the Christmas platter for all this year too.

Traditional Christmas dish of Mizoram, Chhang ban. Image credit: Lucy Hranglung

While Jacob is certain of her mother cooking the community dish, appams and chicken curry, to offer it to children and people from orphanage and old age, Yuvaraj, on the other hand, will take over the kitchen to cook the delicious, south-style mutton biryani and meat dishes native to Tamil Nadu such as mutton sukkah, payasam and wadas.

"I'm going to visit a few of the kids from our kids club that I work for, and spend the day making nice mutton biryani to have a meal with my friends who don't have a Christian family like me," says Yuvaraj.

With no time to prepare traditional Christmas dishes, Vuangtu and their friends will be cooking spicy noodles, chicken fried rice, vegetable soup and other meat dishes. However, there's certainly a dish they miss eating at home on the night before Christmas - the "Chhang ban", a preparation specific to Christmas and Good Friday events in Mizoram.

As explained by Lucy Hranglung, Vanlalhumliana's sister who recently shifted to Mizoram, "Chhang ban is bread made out of sticky rice. Sticky rice is pounded as a coarse powder and wrapped with plantain leaves and steamed to make it glutinous. Chhangban has a secret flavour and it is best with molasses or pounded sesame and it really goes well with tea."

For D'Souza, indulging in beef and pork dishes such as the sorpotel, vindaloo, beef chilly and pork ribs among others is an annual affair. The traditional sweet platter includes a host of items, the most common being neuries, chaklis, milk toffees, marzipan, etc.

"For me, food is important. It doesn't matter which community it is from, as long as it's nourishing. I look forward to sweets. Many share their sweet boxes and it's ‘YUM'," he says.

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