* christmas mood in bangalore
Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Alex. Filed under Abroad.
In 10 days is Christmas. How can it be? Usually it should be cold and frosty outside, the night should become longer and longer, the shop windows and houses have been decorated months ago and the customer browsing for an gift idea and attracted by the latest offers, is lulled into the spheric melody of Christmas songs. The smell of mulled wine and cookies from the Christmas fair is in the air and everybody is busy looking forward for the festive season.
This year I missed it and was quite surprised when my aunt called from Berlin and told me about the preparations. I was distracted not only due to the work, but also the non-festive mood, the sunny days and the pleasant temperature of about 25°C which did not make me think about the upcoming season. Although the Indians usually celebrate everything regardless of the religious origin, all occasions of non-Hindu (In India the majority belongs to Hinduism) festival seasons are given the same importance. This degrades the huge festival of Christmas in Europe to a one day holiday on the 25th of December. The idea of baking cookies for the office and friends is somewhat strange. Having an ice cream in a coffee shop is a more attractive one.
I should get used to it, but currently it looks as strange as to expect the Santa Clause at the beach in e. g. Australia.
Merry Christmas