Sneak peek into the Christmas tale of a Bong Home
Hello and welcome back. With Christmas round the corner, I wish all my readers a very happy Christmas. Hope all your plans and preparations are almost complete and just a few last minute updates are left.
Well, due to several historical reasons, Christmas is celebrated worldwide, transcending all geographical, cultural and religious barriers. And, with creative minds, the celebrations have taken a variety of forms in different communities.
Today, I will take you into the Christmas celebration stories of a traditional Bengali Household. All it happened that one friend of mine invited me to help her with the preparations of this winter festival. And being a Bengali myself, I decided to share the story with everyone of you. May be you decide to take a few tips and add them to your celebration plans.
1. Creative Pandals ( altars ) - Jingle Bells Jingle Bells, and Christ the Messiah, our Father and Friend is born to Mother Mary and Father Joseph, in a stable in Jerusalem. And during winter, a lot of material is available in the market to make an alter resembling the time of birth of Jesus Christ. Making pandals is an art - very closely associated to the Bengali heritage. Almost no festival is complete without a proper, very decorative altar with images of deity or dolls within.
In Bengal, a winter fest is celebrated by a large community of people, which is called - Maera maerir Ghor. Two clay dolls - one resembling a boy and other resembling a girl is made and placed inside a hut made of straw and hay. And then, the hut is burned, signifying burning off all the negative energies in our lives. And, people gather around the burning hut, and have sweet dishes prepared at home. That apart, there is also the tradition of making alters during Jhulan poornima, depicting the various phases in the life of Shree Krishna. Indeed art is held in high esteem in our society.
Taking a cue from this, my friend's family prepared two altars - one resembling the stable where Christ was born. And, the other alter is decorated with clay masks painted to resemble - asuras or negative spirits. An open lantern is erected inside, which will be burnt on Christmas day, to mark - the Birth of Christ and end of All troubles surrounding the world, esp. their lives. The altar of Christ is decorated with bells, fabric painted wooden boards, pine trees, candles, gifts, Santa Claus and candy sticks. In place of Easter eggs, sweets made out of condensed milk, shaped as egg will be placed in front of Christ, which would be served as prasad, after puja is performed ,and hymns are sung.
2. Bengal is the land of culture, literature and the most important of all - Food. This is why, we are often termed - Bhojon Roshik Bangali. So, even my friend's family have a full menu set for the Christmas day. Before the puja, all they would have is rosomalai and water. Since many cannot or do not wish to fast, having food without salt is an alternative in Bengali society. Once puja is done, they would have prasad, and then, the feast begins. Cakes would be cut. A sumptuous lunch menu is on their agenda. This would be followed by snacks - filled evening. And, everything would be made at home. Below I share four recipes from their kitchen -
a. Rosomalai Cake -
Ingredients - Wheat flour, Eggs, Butter, Date palm jaggery, Baking powder, Whipping Cream, Milk, Rosogolla made of date palm jaggery, all as per the quantity you would desire to make. For decoration - they have used drops of yellow and green food colors, but you may have your choice.
Method - First - boil the milk. When the milk thickens and condenses to about half the vessel, mix proportionate jaggery with it. Take a bowl, whip the egg, butter and rest of the jaggery ( all in proportion to your taken quantity and required taste ), in it. Sieve wheat flour and baking powder. And, mix it with the egg mixture in the bowl.
Now, grease a microwave bowl, and pour the batter into it. Microwave under 200 degree centigrade for 20 mnts. Once the cake is ready, allow it to cool down.
Next, when the cake is fully cooled down, cut the cake horizontally into two halves. Place the lower half in a tray or plate. Mix whipping cream with some of the mixture of milk and jaggery prepared, and pour it over the cake. Next, place the other half on top of it. Pour the remaining mixture on it, in the same way. Separately, mix the whipping cream with the colors of your choice, and make floral designs on the top of the cake. Place the rosogollas in the centre. And your cake is ready.
b. Chicken Lasane -
c. Yule log - a traditional Christmas attraction. For the recipe they followed the link - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8767/yummy-chocolate-log
d. Chicken Wrap - Call it Wrap or roll, this is a very popular evening snack of the busy Bengali. We see a lot of customers outside street joints and the most frequent and popular order received is for a neatly wrapped, properly cooked - wrap or roll. This item will be present in their evening course as well. The recipe was referred from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-chicken-wrap with few changes - like instead of a tortilla, home made roti of wheat flour will be used. Spinach will be used instead lettuce leaves. The chicken will be tossed in chilly sauce and black pepper will be added to make it even more spicy.
That apart, I got a cue that they regularly follow the magazine - hangla heshel - http://www.hanglahesel.com/
and, their entire lunch course is inspired by the recipes included in this magazine.
Now, coming to the grand evening. No Bengali celebration is complete without adda and cultural events. Same goes for my friend's place as well. They have set up a stage for the evening, where members of the family and friends and relatives invited would perform -
a. The opening song - a Tagore song, which is pretty embedded into our culture, almost being a representative of Bong genre.
b. A drama performance, depicting changing times and birth and meaning of messiah in 21st century.
c. a folk dance performance, marking the winter harvest.
d. No Bengali evening gets a fine-tune without the intellectual Bengali engaging in logical argument. A debate competition on the topic - Christmas then and now, focusing on the importance of park street and rap culture.
e. Finally, abritti or poetry and a lok-geet will end the evening.
And, then, finally, it would be dinner time. Wherein, every tired yet rejoiced bones would fill their heart and tummy again with great food. And then, a pinch of salted ajwain would be ready to aid digestion. And, topping up that, there would be a session of antakshari around Bonn-fire, which would continue until either someone has a great Ghost Story to share or someone falls asleep.
Well, this was a sneak peak into a traditional Bengali household celebrating Christmas, completely at home, without going to Park Street. So, if somehow you are in Kolkata, and wish to celebrate it with Family and friends, along with avoiding the traffic jam, from this article, you get a good cue.
Wish everyone of you, A Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year ahead. Stay tuned for more articles on New Year.
Also send in your reviews, ideas, stories, memories etc to aamiprabhasini@gmail.com
You can also tweet @PranWin and share the joy of Christmas.
Well, due to several historical reasons, Christmas is celebrated worldwide, transcending all geographical, cultural and religious barriers. And, with creative minds, the celebrations have taken a variety of forms in different communities.
Today, I will take you into the Christmas celebration stories of a traditional Bengali Household. All it happened that one friend of mine invited me to help her with the preparations of this winter festival. And being a Bengali myself, I decided to share the story with everyone of you. May be you decide to take a few tips and add them to your celebration plans.
1. Creative Pandals ( altars ) - Jingle Bells Jingle Bells, and Christ the Messiah, our Father and Friend is born to Mother Mary and Father Joseph, in a stable in Jerusalem. And during winter, a lot of material is available in the market to make an alter resembling the time of birth of Jesus Christ. Making pandals is an art - very closely associated to the Bengali heritage. Almost no festival is complete without a proper, very decorative altar with images of deity or dolls within.
In Bengal, a winter fest is celebrated by a large community of people, which is called - Maera maerir Ghor. Two clay dolls - one resembling a boy and other resembling a girl is made and placed inside a hut made of straw and hay. And then, the hut is burned, signifying burning off all the negative energies in our lives. And, people gather around the burning hut, and have sweet dishes prepared at home. That apart, there is also the tradition of making alters during Jhulan poornima, depicting the various phases in the life of Shree Krishna. Indeed art is held in high esteem in our society.
Taking a cue from this, my friend's family prepared two altars - one resembling the stable where Christ was born. And, the other alter is decorated with clay masks painted to resemble - asuras or negative spirits. An open lantern is erected inside, which will be burnt on Christmas day, to mark - the Birth of Christ and end of All troubles surrounding the world, esp. their lives. The altar of Christ is decorated with bells, fabric painted wooden boards, pine trees, candles, gifts, Santa Claus and candy sticks. In place of Easter eggs, sweets made out of condensed milk, shaped as egg will be placed in front of Christ, which would be served as prasad, after puja is performed ,and hymns are sung.
2. Bengal is the land of culture, literature and the most important of all - Food. This is why, we are often termed - Bhojon Roshik Bangali. So, even my friend's family have a full menu set for the Christmas day. Before the puja, all they would have is rosomalai and water. Since many cannot or do not wish to fast, having food without salt is an alternative in Bengali society. Once puja is done, they would have prasad, and then, the feast begins. Cakes would be cut. A sumptuous lunch menu is on their agenda. This would be followed by snacks - filled evening. And, everything would be made at home. Below I share four recipes from their kitchen -
a. Rosomalai Cake -
Ingredients - Wheat flour, Eggs, Butter, Date palm jaggery, Baking powder, Whipping Cream, Milk, Rosogolla made of date palm jaggery, all as per the quantity you would desire to make. For decoration - they have used drops of yellow and green food colors, but you may have your choice.
Method - First - boil the milk. When the milk thickens and condenses to about half the vessel, mix proportionate jaggery with it. Take a bowl, whip the egg, butter and rest of the jaggery ( all in proportion to your taken quantity and required taste ), in it. Sieve wheat flour and baking powder. And, mix it with the egg mixture in the bowl.
Now, grease a microwave bowl, and pour the batter into it. Microwave under 200 degree centigrade for 20 mnts. Once the cake is ready, allow it to cool down.
Next, when the cake is fully cooled down, cut the cake horizontally into two halves. Place the lower half in a tray or plate. Mix whipping cream with some of the mixture of milk and jaggery prepared, and pour it over the cake. Next, place the other half on top of it. Pour the remaining mixture on it, in the same way. Separately, mix the whipping cream with the colors of your choice, and make floral designs on the top of the cake. Place the rosogollas in the centre. And your cake is ready.
b. Chicken Lasane -
- Take a large pot and boil a lightly salted water. Cook lasagna noodles for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
- Meanwhile, place the chicken in a saucepan with enough water to cover, and bring to a boil. Cook for 20 minutes, or until no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from saucepan, and shred.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Dissolve the bouillon cube in hot water. In a large bowl, mix the chicken with the bouillon, cream cheese, and 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
- Spread 1/3 of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with the chicken mixture, and top with 3 lasagna noodles; repeat. Top with remaining sauce, and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven.
c. Yule log - a traditional Christmas attraction. For the recipe they followed the link - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8767/yummy-chocolate-log
d. Chicken Wrap - Call it Wrap or roll, this is a very popular evening snack of the busy Bengali. We see a lot of customers outside street joints and the most frequent and popular order received is for a neatly wrapped, properly cooked - wrap or roll. This item will be present in their evening course as well. The recipe was referred from http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-chicken-wrap with few changes - like instead of a tortilla, home made roti of wheat flour will be used. Spinach will be used instead lettuce leaves. The chicken will be tossed in chilly sauce and black pepper will be added to make it even more spicy.
That apart, I got a cue that they regularly follow the magazine - hangla heshel - http://www.hanglahesel.com/
and, their entire lunch course is inspired by the recipes included in this magazine.
Now, coming to the grand evening. No Bengali celebration is complete without adda and cultural events. Same goes for my friend's place as well. They have set up a stage for the evening, where members of the family and friends and relatives invited would perform -
a. The opening song - a Tagore song, which is pretty embedded into our culture, almost being a representative of Bong genre.
b. A drama performance, depicting changing times and birth and meaning of messiah in 21st century.
c. a folk dance performance, marking the winter harvest.
d. No Bengali evening gets a fine-tune without the intellectual Bengali engaging in logical argument. A debate competition on the topic - Christmas then and now, focusing on the importance of park street and rap culture.
e. Finally, abritti or poetry and a lok-geet will end the evening.
And, then, finally, it would be dinner time. Wherein, every tired yet rejoiced bones would fill their heart and tummy again with great food. And then, a pinch of salted ajwain would be ready to aid digestion. And, topping up that, there would be a session of antakshari around Bonn-fire, which would continue until either someone has a great Ghost Story to share or someone falls asleep.
Well, this was a sneak peak into a traditional Bengali household celebrating Christmas, completely at home, without going to Park Street. So, if somehow you are in Kolkata, and wish to celebrate it with Family and friends, along with avoiding the traffic jam, from this article, you get a good cue.
Wish everyone of you, A Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year ahead. Stay tuned for more articles on New Year.
Also send in your reviews, ideas, stories, memories etc to aamiprabhasini@gmail.com
You can also tweet @PranWin and share the joy of Christmas.
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