A week ago was the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is something I learned at school. My teacher taught me it is waiting for Christ (Finnish schools were definitively more Christian and more Lutheran when I was a kid). On the first Sunday (actually the Monday, of course, no school on Sunday) in Swedish-speaking schools we lit up one candle from a four-candle holder and sang Hosanna David's Son and talked about Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
I was so sad this year that nobody even realized it was First Sunday of Advent.
There's an irony in all this. In Finland I had just started liking Christmas again. I had been suffering from a serious Bridget Jones syndrome ("once again I am humiliatingly spending Christmas Eve alone in my parents' house in a single bed") but then along came Current Husband, who, not prone to depression anyway, loved all kinds of Christmases, Finnish or American. So I spent two nice Christmases with him in Finland, enjoying how I enjoyed Christmas again, and then moved to America. Now I'm wondering whether I'll ever have joulu again.
Joulu is, for me, a Christmas tree (always a fir tree or spruce, whatever the difference between those two, never a pine tree) with a star on top, loads of Christmas presents and huge Christmas meal consisting of traditional Finnish foods and lots and lots of fish, all on Christmas Eve. All of this (except maybe the presents) I hated for several years, feeling it underlined my singleton status... but now I'd like it. Only, now I have a Christmas tree at my in-laws, and it might be a pine tree and it might have an angel, not a star on top. I have more presents than ever, but some of them come by mail to my own address and are opened once we leave for the holidays or once we come back, and are always opened on Christmas Day. I have loads of food, but random American Christmas food, so no knowing really what will come up except for jello salad (this is in Utah). I can't blame my in-laws since they really try to encourage me to cook Finnish Christmas foods and sometimes even open up the presents on Christmas Eve. I think my mother-in-law guesses that Christmas is a time of home sickness. But what's the point if everything is just a bit off anyway? Besides, Finnish Christmas foods are about the weirdest Finnish foods in people's eyes here (they're the most traditional ones, that's why.)
Did I start liking joulu again only to notice there is no more joulu? Will I just learn to like the American version of Christmas in itself, without attaching any childhood memories to it? But isn't Christmas very much about childhood memories?
If I ever start to feel like it's not really Christmas, I just take some guns and go shoot stuff that's been dumped out in the hills. Nothing reminds me of Christmas than blasting an old washing machine with a shotgun. Current Husband knows what I'm talking about...
ReplyDeleteI like Joulu/Christmas no matter where and according to what tradition it is. I liked the green, hot, summery aussie Christmas barbeque just as much as our traditional ones.
ReplyDeleteTo me christmas always has been and is and always will be most importantly about the Saviour. The food, the weather, the decorations and all that other stuff doesn't really make a difference. Of course they're nice and I enjoy them too and the preparations etc, but it makes no difference with the message of Christmas whatsoever. That is something I also want to teach my kids. That Christmas is about celebrating the Saviour, the messiah and it doesn't what time of the year it is or where you are and how you do it. As long as it is about the Saviour you'll always have a merry Christmas.
Time to make some perunalaatikko, lanttulaatikko and porkkanalaatikko, freeze it and take it over to in-laws.
ReplyDeleteThey propably let you enjoy them all by yourself :-)
Mirja
Sirpa, you make me feel really shallow...
ReplyDeleteMormoniäiti: P:s sister had a food poisoning once after her work Christmas party. Unfortunately she had also eaten Finnish Christmas food made by P - this was soon after his mission - and since then she hasn't been able to even look at rutabaga casserole or rosolli. So those are out.
Current Husband (is anyone else suspicious of this moniker?), in fact, does know something about the unlikely combination of Christmas and guns. We tended toward clay pigeons though, leaving the rusting garbage to trashier folks.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm lucky because several years already we made the decision not to travel for Christmas (or Thanksgiving for that matter). Not everyone have the option but we try to go either before or after Christmas to visit. Christmas is too busy, too expensive to travel on and everyone is so wound up in getting every last minute thing done. Going before or after (or even a bit after) makes it more relaxing and we can spend time together with people a lot more.
ReplyDeleteFood was never a huge deal for me with Christmas and we never had too many typical Finnish Christmas foods (I'm fine as long as I get rosolli and carrot casserole and even that I haven't made in a few years... I will this year though).
We open a few gifts in the evening of the 24th and the rest the next morning. We eat cheese fondue on the evening of the 24th (well, this year we'll move that to New Years since my brother doesn't eat cheese) and then on Christmas we eat prime rib with all the fixings.
I don't even rush it with the Christmas cards because Christmas doesn't really start until the 25th. Well, except the Hanukkah cards for our Jewish friends.
What I really miss the most is the snow and cold during Christmas (not that it was ever guaranteed in Finland). There's something magical about glistening snow and the quiet and dark outside. My main goal is to shut out as much of the commercial side of Christmas as possible and just have a quiet and peaceful time.