by Nisha from Sri Lanka

I can’t believe that 8 months are over from our volunteer year and that it’s already December. This is the very first time I’m celebrating Christmas without my family.

I see many differences in many areas of the way we celebrate Christmas in SL and in Deutschland. Food and drinks are the main difference I see. For example, most of the Christmas markets will be constructed around Catholic churches in Sri Lanka and most of the food items sold in these markets will be sweets. We have Aluwa (a sweet prepared in the Sinhala and Tamil new year), Christmas cake, Boondi etc and in Christmas markets in Germany I see a variety of food items like Currywurst, Reibekuchen, Chocolate covered fruit skewers, Baumstriezel, Pretzel etc. We also realized that Glühwein and Kinderpunsch are very popular during this time of year in Germany.

Another difference is the practices done during this season. For example the Advent Kalender! Carolin and Christina gifted me my very first Advent Kalender! I was very excited to receive it since we don’t have this tradition in my country. The lightning of Advent wreath on every Sunday beginning from the first Sunday of the month is also done by the Catholics in my country.

On the 25th of December we share food cooked in our house with the families of other religions around the area and also with the poor families in the area. The people who belong to other religions also share their food with us during their festive seasons. For example, Muslims at Ramadan, Tamils at Pongal and Deepavali and Buddhists during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April.

My favourite time during this season is the night of 24th. On that day the church mass will begin at 10pm and end at 1am. When it is 12 O’Clock the lights inside the church will be switched off and there will only be the noise of fire crackers which are lit around the church. People will start wishing each other and after the prayers we all gather around to have food and talk with everyone. We will reach home by foot and on the way we will meet people from other churches as well and we wish all of them on our way back home.

I think there are still more to see regarding how Christmas is celebrated in Germany and I’m sure I will love those experiences.