By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
It is Christmas eve in the Himalayas. We sit in our study with an electric fire warming us and allow our thoughts to travel to our favourite destination: History. We enjoy history because we believe in the Dharma Chakra. The wheel of the law moves slowly but with an implacable speed. History always repeats itself but it changes with the passage of time. These changes create what Indic Savants term as Itihas: the truth of the past wrapped in myths and legends which can be passed easily down the generations till they reach a civilisation which can interpret them for the realities they enclose.
This, then is the Itihas of Christmas, partially fact, partially wrapping but, essentially, capturing the truth.
Today, in the translucent green of the palm-hung Backwaters of Kerala, Christmas stars brighten the night. We brought one home to our cottage in the oak woods of Mussoorie, and its ruby glow illuminates our front garden. The original star captures a strange truth. It had led 3 kings from the orient to Bethlehem. The first star of Christmas illuminated the stable in which Christ was born. Three kings from the orient visited him led by the star because they said: “We have seen His star in the east and have come to adore Him.” But when a star is associated with a person it is not astronomy but astrology. Officially, however, the oldest Christian community in the world does not believe in astrology.
This community calls itself the Syrian Christians of Kerala. They say that their ancestors embraced Christianity when they heard the preachings of Thomas, the most cynical of Christ’s 12 Apostles. He, reputedly, was sent to India by Christ himself. He sailed in on a Jewish spice trading ship and arrived in Muziris in AD 52. Apparently, that was 19 years after the death of Jesus. To this day, this ancient community of Christians still follow many of their Hindu customs. Their married women wear the Christian equivalent of a mangalsutra, their church festivals employ traditional elephants, buglers and pipers. Many become vegetarians during the festival of Onam and their oldest churches have niches in their walls to hold ceremonial oil lamps as Hindu temples do. This is an example of the common practice for converts to a new religion to carry with them the ceremonial symbols of their original faith as a reassuring link with the customs of their ancestors.
Surprisingly, however, the Christmas Tree is the most recent addition to the original decorations of this festive season. Queen Victoria’s husband was Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But that title was too much of a mouthful for the impatient British. The Royal Family changed their name to Windsor. And when we had lunch in Queen Victoria’s Winter Estate Osborne House run by English Heritage, we were served only typical English food: CTM (Chicken Tikka Masala). It was in this Estate that Prince Albert introduced his Germanic decoration of Christmas: the Christmas Tree. It was an ancient Teutonic tradition to bring in a branch of a Conifir for the forest spirits to shelter in during the cold winter night. Today, cotton wool replicates snow, tinsel represents frost and the little figurines are the forest spirits.
Finally, there is good old Santa Claus. He is based on a Bishop, St Nicholas, who was reputed to be very fond of children and very generous. He was a 4th century Turkish Christian Saint. His association with reindeer, however, was because of Clement Clarke Moore, the American Poet who wrote the verse “Twas the Night before Christmas …” Now, Itihas begins to jell into reality. In Finland, we visited a settlement of Reindeer herding Sami people. We went through a ritual that made us short-term Sami.
Then we crossed the Arctic Circle and entered the village of Santa Claus. Here, we finally got an audience with the towering and bearded gentleman himself. He surprised us by joining his hands and saying, “Namaste. I have been expecting you.” Now, as the cold wind from the high snowfields, snuffles under our eaves, and there is a distant, hollow hoot of an owl, we wonder if Itihas is the magic that had been. Or, is it the magic that is to come. Or, perhaps, just perhaps it is both.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
