Holiday celebrations started here in Southeast Asia on Christmas Eve, with our church celebration. On one hand, this was quite different from home (we’ve never really had lines of dancers or loud music), but in other senses it was quite similar. Children performing? Check. Larger than normal (church-filling) turnout? Check. Cold weather? Well, not that one. But still, it did actually feel to an extent like Christmas.
That celebration was lots of fun, and I liked the upbeat approach (it IS a celebration, after all), but that wasn’t the end of the celebration.
The city-wide Christmas celebration started at 4 a.m. the next morning. The Christmas Eve celebration had ended at around 10 p.m., and I got to sleep at maybe 11 p.m., so I was fairly tired when I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare. However, when I heard that many of the people there (including the lead pastor, who also preached at the Eve service) hadn’t even slept, I decided I probably shouldn’t whine.
The celebration was very interesting, and I really enjoyed it. Contrary to what I’m used to, the service started with the candle-lighting, as opposed to at the end of the Christmas Eve service. I was struck by the metaphorical nature of candle lighting. Of several metaphors that came to mind, I was interested that the spread of fire through the candles makes an apt comparison to how Christianity spread in its very early days. A single source (Jesus) lit the fires of a few (the early disciples) and they went out into the world and spread the word. However, once the word went to the world, it didn’t have to be spread by a single person (or even a few). Person to person, the movement spread across the world until we are where we are today. The movement of religion is an interesting topic, one I may discuss in a later blog. However, right now, I am very sidetracked. Back to Christmas.
After the candle-lighting service, there was some singing, a message, and then a traditional dance. At first, I was surprised that a dance that had nothing to do with Jesus would be a part of Christmas. Then I considered the irony of my surprise and decided to just enjoy it (it was quite interesting!).
