By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : While most Indian Americans got swept away by the overwhelming festive spirit of the season, Christians of Indian origin in the US celebrated Christmas solemnly.
“More than other communities, Indian Christians here have kept to the true spirit of Christmas,” Abraham Mammen, president of the Federation of Indian American Christians of North America, told IANS.
“In fact, in my Christmas greetings I wished people a ‘Christ centred X-mas’,” he added.
Mammen said Indian Christians – numbering about 600,000 – of various denominations have their own churches where traditions from back home are kept alive and services are conducted in one of the Indian languages besides English.
Mass was held in churches on Christmas Eve, in the evening or at midnight, as well as on Christmas Day. The Mar Thoma church in Merrick, Long Island, saw over 1,000 people attend the Christmas Eve service.
“What distinguishes Christmas celebrations at Indian churches here is a lot of carol singing,” said P.V. Varghese, an office holder with the Indian Christian Forum, representing many denominations in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago.
Varghese also voiced the sentiment that Christmas is all about Jesus and that Indian American Christians don’t have to be told to “Keep Christ in Christmas”, a campaign by some Christian groups in the US.
A particularly worrisome sign to the purists may have been that many people and organisations have started replacing the age-old “Merry Christmas” greeting with a secular “Happy Holidays”.
India born Joseph Thomas, who runs a travel agency in Queens, is a parishioner at the mixed community Our Lady of Matre Church in Forest Hills, where he went for midnight mass Monday.
“We prayed for world peace and the priest conveyed a similar message,” he said.
Thomas hosted a few guests on Christmas day.
“The difference is that unlike India, where friends drop by informally, here people have to be cordially invited, which is a little restricting,” he said.
He said non-Christian Indian Americans too celebrate Christmas with gusto since it has become a universal festival of peace.
“It is similar to the way many Christians in India celebrate Diwali,” he added.
Many non-Christian families here get into the festivities because of their children, who get immersed in the Christmas spirit pervading the air and insist on setting up Christmas trees at home and receiving gifts.
Indian Christians in the US have large concentrations in the New York-New Jersey area, followed by Philadelphia, Chicago and Houston. Many belong to Pentecostal and Orthodox denominations besides Catholic and Protestant.