By Adelia from Indonesia

I always imagine „How Christmas celebration in Europe“. And finally, I got that opportunity. I thought it will the more the merrier than the Christmas celebration in Indonesia. In Indonesia we celebrate Christmas from 1 December even until January. We make Christmas like there we have Christmas every day. In the Church the reason we celebrate it until January is that we have special Christmas for Children, Young people, Women, Men, special for each Parish, etc.

However, we always sing „O Holy Night“ in every Christmas celebration. I thought it will be weird for people from Europe, as you can see the difference based on the culture.

I remember my lecturer at university, he came from Deutschland and his name is Mr. Uwe Hummel. He told me, he was shocked for the first time when he attended a Christmas Celebration on 1st December, and the people sang „O Holy Night“ even the time is not yet 24th night (Chrismas Eve).

Now I know the reason he was shocked. I realized people who live in Germany especially just celebrate on 24th night. After a service at church, there will be a dinner for the family. Celebrating together was a good idea, maybe some families separated for a long time and Christmas eve is a time to meet again. But, I was thinking how about people who do not have family or maybe they celebrate it alone. From my side, Christmas celebrations and Christmas eve in Deutschland are specifically a family celebration. I hope church will be there for people who do not have a family.

Gratefully on 24th night, we have celebrated it with Carolin and Christina at their house. We cook together (Indonesien and African Foods), sing, dance, play games, play puzzles, and then exchange gifts with each other. It was a beautiful memory for all of us, especially for Volunteers.

And also a unique culture I thought is the Christmas calendar, so we can count how many days until Christmas. We got so many gifts from people who care about us (Volunteers). I thought all of the unique cultures give us our own special memories.