When Santa Comes To Town

I used to fall asleep, and sometimes wake up to chanting. Sometimes for days. In a deep night, with the stars of the Southern Hemisphere looking like the ceiling of the universe and the warm, soft lights of my house creating an unobtrusive glow - I could hear the ceremonies and wayang kulit shadow puppet performances of my local village. Gamelan, chanting, sometimes the exaggerated voice of a performing puppeteer.

Sometimes, I felt like Indiana Jones.

Balinese have ritual ceremonies in each and every village no less than once a month - and often more. Nothing is more important in Balinese life. If I had a dollar for every time a Balinese told me he/she had to "go home to my village for ceremony", I would never have had to work again.

Life for the Balinese is togetherness, ritual and beauty. And I was lucky enough to - through no great achievement of my own - bathe in it from the comfort of my Balinese style sofa, in the warm night air.

I was in Bali on two different December 25ths, but a few Merry Christmas signs at a few major tourist hotels was all the sign of Christmas there was. Apparently, Santa and Vishnu aren't friends.

I was fine with that.

In Hsinchu, Taiwan the winter air was damp and cold. Coughs and sniffles everywhere. The cement houses and apartment buildings were so poorly insulated that space heaters barely made a dent and I could see my breath sitting in the living room.

Christmas lived at the department store and mall next door - and at the other two big department stores across town. Soldiers, candles, red and green streamers, tinsel, even a decorated tree. But no Santa. Maybe Santa sided with Mainland China or he didn't speak enough Mandarin to talk with the kids - or both.

But outside of the department stores, Christmas was nowhere to be found - and I worked on Christmas day - as did everyone else. The streets were as busy as they ever were.

Last year, I enjoyed a Joyeux Noel in Cannes, France. Christmas decor was minimal and there was no Christmas music like in America. People were home - with their families. Throughout the period between Christmas and New Year's, businesses were open minimal hours. There were no after-Christmas sales, no New Year's close-outs, and not even major New Year's parties and events. It was a time to be with family and friends.

A taxi driver in Paris told me at 3pm on December 31 that I was his last passenger of the day - he needed to go spend time with his family. I asked if New Year's Eve wasn't a great money-making night for a taxi-driver? He said it was - not only is there a high demand that night, but so few drivers want to work it. Most of them stay home with their families.

The French take Christmas as a time to be social and connected, perhaps closer to its original purpose and meaning than we see in the the United States. And yet, Santa doesn't frequent the South of France either.

This year, in Los Angeles, traffic was backed up a quarter of a mile at the off-ramp past mine the day after Thanksgiving. One of the largest malls in the area - with excellent parking facilities and all the major department stores is on that street.

The first day of the "Christmas Season", Americans get back to errands and efficiency. Buy presents, go to sales, put up decorations. Streets crowd. Several parts of the city were just as bad as the street near me.

What always surprises me most is that Americans - who have perhaps the least vacation time on Earth - are so entrenched in the efficiency and material paradigms, that they don't value the time they have for the connections that matter most.

We have record-frequent divorces. Siblings who live in varied parts of the country and rarely see each other. People sick with depression and loneliness. Singles using on-line dating sites because having a career makes it so difficult to meet new people. Children and teens who no longer get together, but who use live, online interactive video game systems to play the same game from different locations. We stand in one place, but don't experience it because we text, e-mail and call people in another using our wireless devices. Children who spend more time with the people at day care than they do with their parents - because it takes two incomes to raise those children.

And we line up miles away from the mall on one of the few four day weekends of the year.

We spend weeks hustling and bustling about purchasing. Our news focuses on how the retail industry is doing - giving us daily updates as an indication of our security or lack thereof.

At the end, people spend a day - maybe two if they're lucky - together. Opening presents.

I think of Jacques the taxi driver. I think of the many Wayans, Gedes, Nyomans and Ketuts at their village ceremonies. And I wonder...

When Santa comes to town, does he really give?

Comments

[Lisa]

Eric,
Give me a break. Your judgemental comments are offensive.... of course, you are always welcome to your views. Just wanted to let you know that sometimes you take Christmas too personally.