The emerging trend of celebrating Christmas

When malls and restaurants are decorated with strings of electric lights, figurines of Santa Claus, and colorfully embellished X-mas trees, one simply knows Christmas is here. Unlike in the past, when Christians were the basic celebrators of this festival, Christmas, now, seems to appeal to a larger audience in Nepal, resulting into a widespread celebration.

“In the past, commercial celebration of Christmas was limited within restaurants, which were feasible only to the wealthy population. However, with malls aggrandizing the celebration of Christmas through free concerts, gift hampers and artificial snow fall, Christmas now seems to be a piece of cake for everyone,” opines Sandeep Hirachan, the Managing Director of United World Trade Center, Tripureshwar. The shopping center delighted many excited visitors by organizing a live (artificial) snowfall on Tuesday afternoon.

Similarly, the policy of Nepal government to declare public holiday on Christmas has also promoted the celebration of this festival. December 25 has now become an excuse for people to have family gatherings and outings. This is also perhaps one of the reasons for the surge in consumers in restaurants during Christmas.

“For me, Christmas is all about spending quality time with closed ones. On this day, I opt to visit restaurants as their ambience is jolly and full of lights,” says Akhil Vaidya, who is a Hindu by religion.


Christmas tree at United World Trade Center, Tripureshwar. (DIPESH SHRESTHA)

Apart from celebrations, Christmas has also been an opportunity for charitable organizations to raise funds for their projects. One of such organizations is Community Development Program Nepal (CDPN), which has been selling Christmas accessories at CTC Mall in Sundhara, Kathmandu.

“We will be using the sales profit to aid a school construction project in Baitadi,” informs Ramila Singh, Project Manager of CDPN.

However, the widespread culture of partying on the Christmas Eve has drawn concern amongst some individuals, who believe the notion of partying has overshadowed the actual significance of Christmas.

“Youngsters barely know that Christmas is the commemoration of the birth of Christ. Instead, they consider Christmas to be a reason for partying, which rather promotes alcoholism,” says Hari Yadav, who is rather unhappy with the trend of restaurants organizing cocktail parties.

Despite having some drawbacks, the emerging trend of celebrating Christmas has become one of the indicators of religious tolerance in Nepal.

source: PRITI KHAREL,republica,24 Dec 2013