CHRISTMAS in TALESHWARGURI
A STUDY OF CHRISTMAS IN TALESHWARGURI PRATISHRUTI ESWARARY UG_GD_ 2013-14 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
JANUARY 2016
INTRODUCTION: The generic term ‘Bodo’ was applied to all people speaking the Tibeto-Burman group of language. Ethnologically, the true Bodo race exists, in more or less pure state all over Assam proper, in Koch Behar and Northern Bengal and in the Surma valley. The Duars is the part of West Bengal in which the Bodos or Meches live, along with many other tribes and castes. The religion of the Meches is distinctly of the type commonly known as ‘animistic’. Implying that to them non-human entities—such as animals, plants, and inanimate objects—possess a spiritual essence. The popular Bodo deities fall in three classes namely the household gods or ‘noni madai’, the ‘doini madai’ or river deities, and ‘gamini madai’ or village deities. Bathou, however, the chief god of the Bodo is not elemental, but he is clearly and indisputably identifiable with something tangible. The advent of Christianity in the Eastern Duars among the Bodos began from 1870, with a planned missionary work. The actual evangelical work in the Eastern Duars among the Bodos was done by two Germans, Revd. Bechtold and Rev. Beutel, affiliated to the Church of Scotland. There has been a large impact of the Gospel on the lives of the Meches. Many old customs and habits have completely changed and they are of new order, both spiritually and materially. The gospel has given the Meches spiritual freedom. For centuries their spirit was under the bondage of the fear of malevolent spirits. But the Gospel of Christ has given a death blow to this evil spirit concept. With Christianity the Bodos have opened themselves up to modernisation in form of clothing accessories and even in the customs of marriage. Discarding their old religious rituals and concept completely, along with various traditional instruments which are directly related to Kherai/ Bathou worship. The way Bodos celebrate Christianity reflects their culture and lifestyle by a large scale. The birth of Christ is celebrated among the Bodos much differently than the generic way of going about the occasion. From the kind of offering to decorations, everything maybe be different, how ever the cause for celebration is the same.
Preparation for Christmas for the dwellers of Taleshwarguri starts a day or two before the 24th with Decoration in every house and the churches. There are three churches in the area under three different missions: Church of North India (CNI), Free Church and Little Flock. In a timeline, celebrations continue to occur in the span of 4 to 5 days from the 24th and onwards. Greeting the arrival of the occasion with a short night service on the Christmas eve, followed by a grand morning church service on the 25th. Where heartfelt offering of rice from their very fields and many other homemade christmas edibles are made to the church in the name of Christ. These rituals are then followed by a 25th night function where all the christian families including the three missions participate together, a total of 250 christian families. The next few days are followed by each mission conducting a tribal dance and feasting visit in the homes of every church family member, similar to ‘carolling’ in the western culture. The last dance in the CNI mission was conducted on the 29th visiting 17 families and dispersing after a dance around the church and an ending service. There is a reflection of life based primarily on agriculture and self sustenance in the kind of food and the decorations that are prevalent during Christmas in this village. The timeline visualises the cultural elements and rituals of every event that takes place in celebrating Christmas.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The following information was documented in the span of 24TH to 29TH of DECEMBER, 2015. The document was made with a purpose of documenting the visual culture of Christmas celebrated by the Bodo’s of Taleshwarguri. Introduction to the advent of Christianity among the Bodo’s was provided by REVD. HIRACHARAN NARJINARY. Special thanks to him. Information from his document submission for Theological Degree, “The Impact of the Gospel upon the Religious, Social and Economic life of the Meches (Bodos) of Eastern Duars” has been shared here in the Introduction and the map. I would like thank MONA PRABHU for her strong guidance, support and supervision for this documentation. I would like to express my gratitude to DR. TRIDHA GAJJAR, the coordinator, of Graphic Design, for giving me the opportunity to explore my roots and my skills through this course of Visual Culture Documentation. I am grateful to my family, DAVID ESWARARY and TRIPTI ESWARARY for being the biggest support. HARISH PRABHAKAR and SHATAKSHI SHUKLA for their participation and encouragement.
CONTENTS: 24th
DECORATION CHRISTMAS EVE
25th 26th 29th
MORNING CHURCH SERVICE EVENING FUNCTION TRIBAL DANCE (KHAJI JABAINAI)
LAST DANCE VISIT AND END SERVICE IN CHURCH FOOD
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DECORATION Preparation for Decoration begin a day or two before Christmas. Various colourful kite papers are bought from a market and cut into “bibar”s which translates to the word “flower”. These paper cutouts are pasted on a wire with natural homemade gum made of “maibra inkhaam” (sticky rice). These wires or “shutli” are mounted around the house and on bamboo handmade structures around the tall wooden structured houses in various decorative manner. Framed structures are made early in the mornings out of bamboo chopped off from the bamboo forest or “baash bagan” available in and around the vicinity of the village. These structures are found around the house mounted for decoration. The christmas tree is essentially a baby banana tree which is chopped out of the forest in the morning, mounted in the centre of the house on the mud floor, decorated with streamers and candle stands of bamboo which will be lit at the evening. Christmas trees are not given much importance in every house, it is treated as just a regular decorative item. Use of tiny wired lights and star lamp shades from the market is also prevalent. You will find a lot of agricultural influence in the way the decorations are handled, the use of farming tools in making bamboo structures, and natural homemade gum out of rice.
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The use of bamboo is prevalent in the decorations during Christmas. Early in the morning fresh bamboo is chopped off a bamboo garden in the village for this very purpose. Wire is tied around the bamboo fence structures to the trees by the entrance of the house to be decorated by streamers or “bibar�s and fairy lights. Bamboo arch like structures are made with two fence sized cut bamboos. A tall split bamboo is cut long enough to form an arch like structure supported by the fence sized bamboos. Spliting the bamboo, gives it the flexibility to be bent into an arch for the gateway of the house.
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“The christmas tree is essentially a baby banana tree which is chopped out of the forest in the morning, mounted in the centre of the house on the mud floor, decorated with streamers...” Agricultural tools as shown in the images are used for such purposes. wire or “shutli” is tied around the top of the tree to the wooden stilts of the houses around it, for streamers to be hung on it.
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A small bamboo flat stick like structure is made out of bamboo and struck into a small indent on the bamboo fences, to be used as candle stands in the evening. After the making of the bamboo frames and setting up the wire, streamers are stuck on and around the frames and wire with a homemade adhesive made of boiling water with sticky rice flour.
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CHRISTMAS EVE On the eve of Christmas, all the finishing touches to the decorations are added, and a small gathering of a short night service takes place in the respective village churches at around 7pm for an hour. These services are usually short sweet and simple, as according to habit, people in the village turn in early, as it gets dark faster and also it gets cold at night. The Service is conducted with revisiting the story of christmas, birth of Jesus Christ (“yeshu mashi�) and singing songs of praise and translated christmas carols. Songs are sung in hindi, bengali and bodo. Upon returning, people sit around the fire place in their respective homes, and as the clock strikes 12, christmas is greeted with wishes and lighting fireworks, going off to sleep shortly after as 25th is going to be a busy day.
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On the eve of 24th, the candles are lit and the fairy lights are set up, to greet the Christmas evening. By around 7pm, people of the village are ready to leave for the church for a short Christmas eve service.
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On the night of 24th, a short Christmas eve service is held in the respective churches. This service is short sweet and simple, as it gets colder at night and people need to return to their homes. Men and women sitting on either sides, songs are sung in bengali. hindi and bodo. Translated carols too. Upon returning, families gather around a bonfire, and wait till 12 am, to cheer on the arrival of Christmas and lighting up firecrackers.
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CHRISTMAS MORNING The Christmas morning celebration is done in a grand manner. Waking up as early as 4 am to prepare the offerings that are to be made on the church service. Everyone is bathed and dressed in their best. The morning service begins with a bell for a call and people gather in front of the church led by the lay leader (a member of the laity in any congregation who has been chosen as a leader) with a guitar, singing hymns, parading around the church three rounds and at the end of a song or two they all enter the church together and settle down on either side of the hall, men and women separately. Offerings are made as people approach the altar and place heaps of rice decorated with flowers and leaves, fried “maibra shithao” which is a small sweet chapati made out of the sticky rice called,”maibra inkham”, cake, sweets, oranges and fruits decoratively placed along with money. As kids play with firecrackers outside the church, the ceremony of the christmas service commences and continues on for about 2 hours. The immediately edible items in the offering, such as cake, ‘shithao’, fruits, oranges etc are distributed on the church field among all the attendees, while the rice (later exchanged in the market for money) and money is kept as church fund.
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25th Morning CNI church visit. Church bell is rung to commence the morning grand service. To commence the service, the lay leader leads the mass around the church, singing songs and playing the guitar, three rounds before entering the church. Offering is made in the form of field rice, decorated with flowers and money. At the end of the morning service treats like “maibra shithao� (sweet sticky rice chapati), cake etc given as offering is distributed amongst the morning mass in the church field.
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EVENING FUNCTION A pandal stage structure is constructed with bamboo and covered and completed with coloured cloth on the final day. On the evening of 25th around 250 christians families including all the three missions get together to participate in a grand Christmas programme. After a few hours of sound check and setting up the music systems and microphones an announcement that is audible all over the village, is made for people to finish their meals and make way to the programme, The programme starts at around 6-6:30 with a prayer, inauguration ceremony distributing ribbons to sponsors and elders as special guests and the inaugural song (bodo christmas carols and hymns). The programme is rich with cultural and christmas related performances practiced by members of various families and church missions. This is an Annual Taleshwarguri Christmas Programme. Group or single acts of cultural dance, carols, and cultural or christmas skits take place all over the evening. Food like steamed momos are sold around the pandal, while kids burst firecrackers on their parked cycles and all around the rest of the open field. The program goes on till about 10-10:30pm. Cultural clothes like “Dokhna”, similar to sarees are worn by the women while performing. Colours like yellow, red, green and pink are common for “Dokhna”s. Dokhna’s are smaller than sarees and are traditionally wrapped around at chest height and knotted on the waist. The Dokhna is over a blouse, accompanied by a “odna” or “dupatta” cloth.
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The 25th function starts with a grand inauguration. Distributing ribbons to special guests. Cultural performances, single acts, skits, carol singing, all kinds of performances are prepared, practiced and performed by the dwellers of the village.
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TRIBAL DANCE (KHAJI JABAINAI) On the following days, much like carolling, the Bodos follow a tradition they call “Khaji jabainai” which literally translates to “to eat treats”. Each church mission visit home to home of the families that are a part of their church, to have a gathering of celebrating christmas with food, offerings and tribal dance. Like in Christmas of 2015, the Church of North India (CNI) visited 50 family members at a span of three days (27th being a Sunday break). The occurrences in this gathering is same, home to home. Upon arrival, and before beginning the dance, cheers are made in declaration of celebration, “Yeshu Masi ni Jai! Shaitan ni chhai” which translates to, “Praise to the lord and down to the devil”. The drummer then proceeds to enthusiastically beat on to the drum, on the centre of the front yard summoning people to begin the tribal dance. Depending on the amount of houses to visit, and the mood of the dancing crowd the dance goes on till a point. There are various chants and songs in bodo the dancers sing and they dance around the drummer in broken circles, joined hands. After of during the dance, all the offering like rice and oranges and money along with treats for all the visitors is brought out for the church lay leaders to stand around in a circle and pray over it for blessing. The “khaji” or treat is then passed around by the hosts and church volunteers amongst all the visitors. Depending on the time of the day and after some discussions amongst the hosts the “khaji” is prepared. Varying from sweets and samosas, to “maibra shithao” to beef curry and puffed rice, which was prepared for the CNI church group on the last house visit for the year. This concludes the visit in each house.
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Families of each mission visit their respective mission member homes to celebrate. As the dancers dance, the lay leaders pray upon the offering for the church and treats for the dancers for blessings. As the lay leader writes the family name into his list, the treats are distributed amongst everyone.
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Drumsticks are made out of wood wrapped by cloth and split bamboo, both giving a different sound effect, meant to synchronise. The sound of these drums echoe the spirit of the tribal dance throughout the village.
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LAST DANCE (END SERVICE) On the last day, the last dance is done with much enthusiasm and lasted much longer than the others, these dances vary from 15 minutes to 45 minutes or even an hour. After covering the last house, the crowd moves on to the church field, where the drummer and the lay leaders parade around the church along with the dancers and the mass, three rounds and have a short conclusion service, where a few songs of praises and hymns are sung in bodo, hindi and bengali. The spirit of christmas is exchanged and a final prayer is made for the blessing and peace of all those present in the mass, the church is then dispersed with hopes of a blessed new year.
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An evening meal is prepared for the dancers in the last house. The last dance is done with the most enthusiasm. An evening snack of beef curry and puffed rice was prepared for the guests. The dance continues till dark. After the feast, the mass head to the church and dances on the church field and around the church, thrice to attend one last service of Christmas.
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The Christmas banana tree before the last tribal dance.
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The Christmas banana tree after the last tribal dance.
FOOD Rice or “mairong� is an important element in bodo culture, in Taleshwarguri rice and coconuts from the very fields are used to make special treats and delicacies particularly on Christmas. Amongst rice like Kalanunia, Maibra, Phaijam, Basmati, Shorno , which are given as offerings, Maibra (sticky rice) is the most common in making Christmas snacks. Maibra rice is also ground into flour which is also further used to produce homemade adhesive. Boiling the flour with water and making a sticky substance. Other common feasts involve pork, beef and poultry.
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PHETTA (RICE CAKES), MAIDED KHAMA These two snacks are made primarily out of ground Maibra rice, mixed with sugar and coconut shavings fried with sugar. ”Phetta” or rice cakes are cooked in steam emitted from an earthen pot boiling water. The sweet rice flour and coconut mixture is filled into a flat container lid like metallic structure, covered in a cloth and placed on top of the steaming pot, until solidified and cooked. “Maided khama” translates to “elephant ear”, this term is only coined because of the dry flat appearance of the snack. The sweet rice flour mixture is mixed with some water and are made into flat chapati like forms folding some fried sweet coconut shavings. The entire snack is made without any oil and solely through heat.
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Sticky rice (‘Maibra’) is poured into the “uaal” and beaten with “gayen”s for making flour. This flour is used in many of the main snacks made during Christmas.
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Fresh coconut, from the trees are cut and scraped to be fried with sugar and mixed with the sweetened sticky rice (‘Maibra’) flour for making of “phetta or maided khama”.
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scraped coconut is fried with sugar to be mixed with the phetta flour, and form as stuffing for the maided khama.
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“‘Phetta’ or rice cakes are cooked in steam emitted from an earthen pot boiling water. The sweet rice flour and coconut mixture is filled into a flat container lid like metallic structure, covered in a cloth and placed on top of the steaming pot, until solidified and cooked. “
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“Maided khama” translates to “elephant ear”, this term is only coined because of the dry flat appearance of the snack. The sweet rice flour mixture is mixed with some water and are made into flat chapati like forms folding some fried sweet coconut shavings. The entire snack is made without any oil and solely through heat.
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MAIBRA SHITHAO (STICKY RICE CHAPATI) Maibra shithao translates to sticky rice chapatti. These are small elliptically shaped chapatis made out of Maibra rice dough. The dough is made by mixing and kneading maibra flour, sugar and some salt. They are fried in hot vegetable or sunflower oil and are slightly chewy, sweet and crunchy in texture. They form as a very important snacks for christmas and are given out as offering and distributed during the time of celebrating christmas very commonly.
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“...small elliptically shaped chapatis made out of Maibra rice dough. The dough is made by mixing and kneading maibra flour, sugar and some salt. They are fried in hot vegetable or sunflower oil and are slightly chewy, sweet and crunchy in texture.�
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