Christmas in Chengdu.
Christianity has only recently in the last few years been allowed to make any inroads in China. There are not many signs of its existence. Occasionally there will be an article in the Hong Kong newspaper (much more open to Christianity than the mainland), but locally, I just don’t find that much.
But that doesn’t seem to stop the commercialism of the holiday!
I am now seeing Christmas trees being erected, wreaths popping up on some doors, colored lights and even a few Santa Clause pictures.
Last night, the hotel had the “Lighting of the Tree.”
Until then, it just stood in the center of the room decorated, but dark.
We had not planned on participating in the ceremony and in fact, didn’t even know it was a planned event until that morning. But the party was just beginning when we arrived to the hotel after dinner, so we hung around to watch. It was a very elaborate process ...
Step 1 - Change the player piano in the lobby (the one BADLY in need of tuning) to play Christmas Carols.
Step 2 – Somebody plug in the tree
That was it. Total Ceremonial Time was maybe about 10 seconds. In my mind, I guess the hotel manager turned to one of his people and said “Go plug that thing in.”
Not exactly Rockefeller Center but I guess they tried.
What WAS pretty fun was right after that a crowd of little kids came pouring in. I have no idea if they were supposed to be part of the process or just coming to watch, or what – but here they were. All crammed into the revolving entry door and then it stopped with them inside. It only stops for a moment and then restarts, but they thought that was the funniest thing. They came charging and began running around the lobby and squealing and giggling and having a general good time.
Once they saw me and my friend, they all had to run over and say “Hello” – over and over and over again. Then we took their pictures and they had to crowd around and look at them and say “Hello” some more. The ladies with them seemed to enjoy their enjoyment, but the scrooge men with them looked like they would rather be somewhere else. Too bad. It was cute.
Though the local Chinese don’t do much in the way of Christmas Morning as we enjoy, they, I would venture to say, enjoy the general spirit of Christmas in their own level of fun!
Christianity has only recently in the last few years been allowed to make any inroads in China. There are not many signs of its existence. Occasionally there will be an article in the Hong Kong newspaper (much more open to Christianity than the mainland), but locally, I just don’t find that much.
But that doesn’t seem to stop the commercialism of the holiday!
I am now seeing Christmas trees being erected, wreaths popping up on some doors, colored lights and even a few Santa Clause pictures.
Last night, the hotel had the “Lighting of the Tree.”
Until then, it just stood in the center of the room decorated, but dark.
We had not planned on participating in the ceremony and in fact, didn’t even know it was a planned event until that morning. But the party was just beginning when we arrived to the hotel after dinner, so we hung around to watch. It was a very elaborate process ...
Step 1 - Change the player piano in the lobby (the one BADLY in need of tuning) to play Christmas Carols.
Step 2 – Somebody plug in the tree
That was it. Total Ceremonial Time was maybe about 10 seconds. In my mind, I guess the hotel manager turned to one of his people and said “Go plug that thing in.”
Not exactly Rockefeller Center but I guess they tried.
What WAS pretty fun was right after that a crowd of little kids came pouring in. I have no idea if they were supposed to be part of the process or just coming to watch, or what – but here they were. All crammed into the revolving entry door and then it stopped with them inside. It only stops for a moment and then restarts, but they thought that was the funniest thing. They came charging and began running around the lobby and squealing and giggling and having a general good time.
Once they saw me and my friend, they all had to run over and say “Hello” – over and over and over again. Then we took their pictures and they had to crowd around and look at them and say “Hello” some more. The ladies with them seemed to enjoy their enjoyment, but the scrooge men with them looked like they would rather be somewhere else. Too bad. It was cute.
Though the local Chinese don’t do much in the way of Christmas Morning as we enjoy, they, I would venture to say, enjoy the general spirit of Christmas in their own level of fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment