Christmas Season in China 圣诞节在中国

圣诞节 shèng-dàn jié, Christmas

One of the world’s oldest civilization and a non-Christian society, China still manages to celebrate the spirit of the Season with a great celebration.

China does not officially recognize Christianity, but unofficial estimates put the number at almost 10 million baptized Christians living in the country, which makes up almost one million of the entire population. Christian missionaries arrived in China in 625 AD, and set up base in In Xian (an ancient capital). That their base existed is apparent from several specimens of contemporary art found in excavations, art that depicts Christianity related phenomena such as Nativity scenes. One example is a nativity scène which is carved in wood and plaster and has been dated to circa A.D. 780. This was found on a shadowy wall of a crumbling 1,200-year-old pagoda on the windswept hillside of a Tao monastery in 1999. The scene is a fascinating mixture of Eastern and Western spirituality.

It is widely believed that the celebration of Christmas in China has been brought into the country by people who have been out to Japan, wher the season is fast becoming a time for booming business. So the Chinese have also started erecting Christmas Trees, got from Southern China’s Export processing zone. These are affectionately called `Trees of Light’ and are studiously decorated with paper lights, lanterns, paper flowers, chains and toys. Children like everywher else in the world, put up stockings to woo their Santa Claus, the Old man they call Dun Che Lao Ren, often dressed just like Santa anywher else. Large malls and stores have Santa dressers handing out gifts and sweets to kids. However, Christmas feast, whether lunch or dinner, have more in common with traditional Chinese festival banquets than traditional Western feast. However what does not change is the spirit of festivity. The Chinese Christmas cake is different from the traditional cake in that it is steamed, so that makes it like the Christmas pudding of the West.

Over the last few years, the midnight Mass at Christmas has also become a tremendously popular phenomenon, more out of curiosity than anything else. Again, since Christianity is not an officially recognized religion in China, the country makes up for the religious fervor during Christmas by celebrating the New Year. It has been popularized as the Spring Festival, a time to celebrate youth, happiness and life. Children receive new clothes, new toys and great food, and enjoy various forms of celebrations like firecracker shows, fairs and fetes. The sober side of the celebrations is the worship of ancestors (is any celebration in Asia complete without ancestors making their presence felt??? One wonders), when their portraits and paintings are given a place of great respect in homes.

Neighboring Hong Kong, however, celebrates December 27th as a major Taoist festival, Ta Chiu, though not on the scale of Christmas. Ta Chiu is a community occasion of celebration, at the end of which the names of everybody in the neighborhood is written on a piece of paper, attached to a paper horse and burned, in the hope that they will rise to heaven.

It may be prudent to mention here that this sudden interest in things foreign, particularly celebrations not native to a culture as solidly ancient and particular as China, may well be aimed at the business tourist, trying to make up their minds for partnering with China’s economic boom. Whatever it may be, China, today celebrates Christmas as any other Western society.