The earliest Christmas memory for me is from Tom and Jerry, an episode that features a Christmas scene with a lot of snow, candy cane, hot wine and toasted chicken make up a dreamy picture. Unluckily, Christmas is not widely celebrated in China, especially for me, who came from a small town in the south, which means there is no group of people interested in a foreign festival… and snow. But the overall environment back to 2000’s was still very tolerant, and both adults and children regarded the Christmas as a normal festival just for fun. Thereby, with limited conditions, we still celebrated this special day in our own way.
Every year when Christmas was approaching, stationery stores next to our school would start to sell snow-spray, a kind of toy able to spout fake snow made of foam. Children liked to spout it on the street while running, like there’s real snow. When the Christmas Eve was coming, we’d buy exquisitely packaged apples and send to classmates and teachers, because in Chinese, “Christmas Eve” has the same pronunciation with “apple”.
Things changed slowly but sharply. From one year – I can’t remember which one – the snow-spray was forbidden to sell to children, and of course this product disappeared from stationery stores, because it’s harmful to eyes and flammable, so too dangerous for children. This ban surely took away a lot of our joy, but it was just a beginning and the most insignificant change.
When I stepped into my junior high school, around 2012, a new regulation was published in our school that students and teachers were not allowed to celebrate Christmas, and “for security reason”, students were also forbidden to attend the Christmas party at the town square after school.
Also from this period, there are some statements spreading that Christmas is a tool used by western countries to damage our traditional cultures. Therefore, in my memory, Christmas developed from a festival just for joy and happiness to a cultural representative. Although this transition indeed took away our chance to celebrate Christmas, I won’t say it’s bad, because it brought me a chance to know Christmas better – a festival related to western culture and religion, not a random holiday for no reason.
In the following years, the debate about whether we should be allowed to celebrate Christmas in China was escalating, and same topic will go viral every year on the internet when Christmas is approaching. In this kind of arguments, Christmas and the Spring Festival – the most important traditional Chinese festival – are put on the opposite sides. When we already have our own Spring Festival, why to celebrate a foreign holiday? Christmas is just a way to brainwash young people. This opinion dominated at the beginning, and many people with different ideas did not speak out due to not willing to confront mainstream view.
But with time passing by, especially in recent years, Christmas doesn’t lose its popularity in China, and some confronting ideas appeared on the internet, such as “If we are happy to see the Spring Festival popular overseas, we won’t reject Christmas, or it’s double standard” and “Celebrating Christmas doesn’t mean converting to Christian, nor accepting western values. We do it just for fun, and don’t make it political”.
There are decorations and some activities using the topic of Christmas in the city, but because of trying to avoid arguments, celebrations of Christmas remain personal or business, while the official still keeps silent on this topic. Only the most open megalopolises, like Shanghai, might have big celebrations about this festival. It’s the same with what I observed during my work in Pakistan that although many people are enjoying the happiness of Christmas, in this Islamic country Christmas-related factors only appear in big malls as a commercial mean.
Thus, the first real Christmas I have experienced was in Lisbon, where I saw the Christmas market for the first time, and knew that the celebration begins more than a month before 25th December.
Back to that time, I just moved to Lisbon for 1 month, and on 1st December, my flatmates organized a group activity that night, so we all went to the Christmas market at Baixa Chiado and Rossio, which really fascinated me, and scenes of Christmas atmosphere which I watched for past 20 years on TV presented in front of me. But pitifully, most of my flatmates were students, so they either went back home to celebrate the Christmas with family members, or booked a trip. It turned out to be that I spent my first Christmas in Lisbon alone.
My second Christmas in Lisbon in the last year became amazing. I knew better about Lisbon, and I was familiar with more people, and most importantly, I had some friends here, which means I had more time to explore different Christmas markets and events in the Christmas month, and I did not need to spend this festival alone. On the Christmas Eve, I got the invitation of my best friend here, and we had dinner and celebrated Christmas together.
Now I will spend my third Christmas here in Lisbon, and I don’t know how it will be. But for me, the accompany of friends or family really touches an exciting point. As a Chinese person, from my childhood, Christmas simply means happiness with friends, just like how Tom and Jerry spent the Christmas Eve together, and how my classmates and I chased each other with snow-spray and sent each other apples.
O jornalismo que a Mensagem de Lisboa faz une comunidades,
conta histórias que ninguém conta e muda vidas.
Dantes pagava-se com publicidade,
mas isso agora é terreno das grandes plataformas.
Se gosta do que fazemos e acha que é importante,
se quer fazer parte desta comunidade cada vez maior,
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