Kolkata's diverse Christian communities share unique Christmas traditions and celebrations

Christians in Kolkata—Chinese, Anglo-Indians and Armenians—discuss X’mas celebrations in a city well-known for its all-encompassing holiday spirit

For us, the 25th of December is like any ordinary day. Some get invited to their friends’ places or go to church. It all depends on the individuals,” Marie Stephen, one of the last remaining Armenians of Kolkata, tells us from her home in Chowringhee. The Armenian Church celebrates the birth of Jesus on January 6th, in accordance with the Julian calendar, a day which also commemorates His baptism by John the Baptist through the ceremony of the “Blessing of the Water”. 

Davit Gevorgyan 

Marie tells us of the church services held on the 5th and 6th, which are “very ritualistic,” of the use of the holy anointing oil of the Armenian Church called the Holy Muron which is composed of olive oil, rose water and 48 herbs and flowers, and of how as part of the service, a Godfather is designated for the Cross which is dipped in water, and drunk later from small cups. “In the early days, when there was a large community of Armenians, there would be a luncheon at the Bara Club in Queen’s Mansion on Park Street and a tea party later at the Armenian Sports Club on Mayo Road. When there were a lot of children, we would also have 
fancy dress competitions and magic shows, and then they would put on Armenian music, and the boys and girls would dance right up to eight o’clock. We would also have food items like kuku pulao and dolma, and there were Armenian bakeries such as Minas bakery, specialising in traditional Armenian sweets like gatha. But now most of the women who used to cook have died, others have sold out and immigrated to countries like Australia, so there is catered food from outside serving regular fare.”

Johanne Mantosh, who runs restaurants like The Scoop New Empire and whose family owns the iconic single screen theatre New Empire in New Market, celebrates Christmas with family 

Marie and her brother Saco, who were born in Kolkata and studied at the 200-year-old Armenian College & Philanthropic Academy on Mirza Ghalib Street, tell us of how their father—originally from Baghdad—emigrated with his family to Calcutta in the 1920s and later married their mother, an Armenian nurse from Jerusalem. The Armenian community, which invested in the building of schools and chapels in the city and was known for its entrepreneurship and mercantile interests, has now dwindled to less than 200 members. Davit Gevorgyan, who has lived in Kolkata for the past 21 years and has recently acquired a sports management degree from the George Telegraph College in Sealdah, speaks of how the older people in the Armenian community in the city are very small in number and celebrations are resultantly low-key. “They just come for Christmas service on the 6th and to the Sports Club after and then return to their homes. But there are refreshments, dances, and games, and we get gifts from Santa too.”

Marie Stephen and her brother Saco, a freelance journalist, are one of the few remaining Armenian families in Kolkata. Their great grandparents were victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Pic/Pritam Sarkar

For Miranda Wu, a fourth-generation Chinese Catholic mother-of-three, the Christmas eve dinner is focused on family with an elaborate home-cooked meal consisting of continental dishes like asparagus bacon wrap, glazed spareribs, chicken with apricot stuffing, baked fish in chimichurri sauce, radish pomegranate salad, and blueberry panna cotta and home-made ice cream. On Christmas day, Wu, whose family has been involved in community service over the years, organises an Indo-Chinese breakfast for about 250 churchgoers at the Mary Immaculate Chapel in Tangra, with items like momos, prawn chips, sandwiches and samosas. “When I was younger, it was the Anglo Indians and the Christians celebrating. But now everyone celebrates. Everyone is in that Christmassy kind of mood. That’s a huge change,” she shares.

Daniel Johns 

For Josephine Huang, owner of Eau Chew, Kolkata’s oldest surviving family-owned Chinese restaurant, the years have brought on many changes. “When we were younger, we used to go visit relatives on Christmas. Now all that has stopped. Nobody comes visiting.  Younger people now have their own groups and want to do everything on their own. Everybody has their own work. Everybody is very, very busy now.”

Josephine Huang with guests at Eau Chew, Kolkata’s oldest surviving family-owned Chinese restaurant, originally started as an eating house for Chinese immigrants working in the city

Johanne Mantosh, who runs restaurants like The Scoop New Empire and Miss Ginko in Kolkata and whose family owns the iconic single screen theatre New Empire in New Market, speaks of lavish Christmas meals with turkey and honey-glazed pork, walnut cakes, kalkals and rose cookies. For her, Christmas in Kolkata has always been about the spirit of celebrating together. “There was the Christmas bazaar in the heart of New Market where you could hear Bengali people, you could hear Muslim people crying out ‘Christmas tree lo!’ And I used to just stand in the corner and admire that sense of unity because it wasn’t about a religion, it was about a tree and how adorably you could decorate it and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. Now I see more awareness of what Christmas is, more amplification. Everyone has a Christmas tree, everyone is playing secret Santa. The Bengal Rowing Club, whose members are primarily Marwari, has one of the biggest Christmas carnivals in the whole of the city.” She also mentions the popular Allen Park celebrations in the city where the entire stretch of Park Street, Allen Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and other adjoining areas remain illuminated till January 1, and there are carols, parades, live music and food stalls for locals and tourists. 

Miranda Wu, a fourth-generation Chinese Catholic in Kolkata, celebrates with family with a dinner on Christmas Eve comprising continental dishes. On Christmas day, Wu and her mother organise a Indo-Chinese breakfast for about 250 churchgoers at the Mary Immaculate Chapel in Tangra

Daniel Johns, an Anglo-Indian from Kolkata who has recently moved to Chennai and will spend his first Christmas away from home reminisces about Chinese sausages from Kolkata’s Chinatown, the Kalimpong choir which comes down every year, the Assembly of God Church’s annual Christmas production Songs of the Season, traditional Christmas lunches at the various clubs, cakes from Nahoum’s and Saldanha’s, and the celebrations at Bow Barracks. “It is possibly the most unique thing about the city where a community comes together in their area to celebrate. They set out chairs, make a stage, put up lights. The performance is also all local. It’s from the community and for the community. That’s unique because the Bow Barracks community isn’t the most affluent but it doesn’t stop them from really celebrating Christmas,” says Johns. 

“Calcutta is unique in the sense that when you walk down its streets, you have that feeling of Christmas in the air. Everybody sort of wears Christmas on their sleeves. There’s a tree, there’s holly, there are carols playing if you pass by the shops. I feel that as compared to other cities, there is a louder declaration of the fact that we are celebrating Christmas. It’s a small city, which is closer knit—so, that’s why that warmth is a little more in Calcutta.”

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