Christmas in Kerala

Two nights before Christmas, there was a ruckus outside the house. Baby Ammayi said it was Christmas carolers. Kerala as a whole is about 20% Christian, but Khottayam and Cochin are the center of the Christian culture, and lights and paper stars were strung everywhere. "The local urchins are out," Baby Ammayi said, "Come see." So we went out to the front of the drive to watch, and sure enough, across the road a group of nine or ten preteen boys were "caroling." They seemed to know only one song, more of a chant than anything I had ever thought of as a "carol," and they accompanied their singing with a great deal of slightly arrhythmic percussion on an assortment of plastic jugs and metal cans. One "urchin" was dressed as Father Christmas, in a red suit with a pillow stuffed in and a florid plastic Santa Claus mask. He had balloons tied to the top of his pointed red hat, and balloons at the top of his staff, and thin brown limbs sticking out to all sides, and he danced.

The boys came over to us, once they saw that we were watching, and started in on the song again. The Father Christmas came to the front and started to dance for us and my face nearly split from grinning. What a funny dance he did! Flailing and jigging about from one side to the other, with more enthusiasm and goodwill than talent. His friends banged away and chanted, and gangly skinny Santa flopped and capered about to the best of his ability. I can't remember the last time I saw something so hilarious. At the end of the dance and song, Baby Ammayi went in to find her purse while the leader practiced his English on me. We gave them rupees and they all trooped off to the next house, one of them shouting "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" back over his shoulder, to the giggling amusement of his friends.

(Photo is from the next night's batch of carolers, which were much the same story, with a less floppy and flaily Father Christmas.)