Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Somehow, over the last few years, it has acquired the symbolic quality of a new and refreshing beginning since I would spend virtually all of December setting goals and resolutions and making binding, self-enforced commitments to accomplish them. It has truly become a time which has a powerful cleansing effect and an invitation to go back to the simple, pure and spontaneous; a word reminiscent of children’s smiling faces, loving families living in harmony and cities basking in resplendent lights and dazzling decorations…
Many people ask me about what was Christmas like in Baghdad and, in order to be able to answer this I have to always ask the inquirer to be more specific. In other words, to set the time limit between pre and post 2003! Before 2003 Christmas was a secular holiday celebrated by almost every ethnic and religious sect all over Iraq. It simply signified the beginning of a new year. To be sure, Christians enjoyed the additional religious aspect of the holiday, but they were not expected to celebrate Christmas simply because of this religious affiliation. Surprisingly, the level of tolerance was extremely high in pre-2003 Iraq that many Moslem Iraqis celebrated the religious component of Christmas along with Christians in churches simply out of fascination with the Nativity story, the romantic quality surrounding the life of Jesus and his peaceful message of love and compassion which all seemed to appeal to many liberal-minded people regardless of their religious orientation.
The staple ingredients of Christmas, such as Christmas tress, Santa Claus and Christmas presents were all familiar and recognized. Exterior house decorations and wreaths, however, were not known. Frosty the Snowman is also an alien figure (I suppose he enjoys a strictly American folkloric quality!). Holiday cooking was a more important holiday tradition for Christians than for other religious sects. Actually, some holiday meals and cookies were believed to be the specialty of Christians and Christians alone that non- Christian women had to go the distance to learn to make them. Some recipes die with their creators; whereas others pass from one generation to another. Christmas carols were sung in Churches, but they were no Frank Sinatra classics! They were mainly religious ballads and or Bible verses set to music all sung in standard Arabic and inside Churches. Some music stations do switch to Christmas stations and they played Christmas songs and carols all December long, and you could find Christmas CDs and collections in some music stores and choices ranged from Folkloric American to Hip-Hop and R&B versions of them!
To cut a long story short, it might be appropriate to say that Christmas in post-2003 Iraq is simply the absence of all of the above. Some Christian families tenaciously clung to the spirit and ways of Christmas time, but the event lost much of its festive spirit as it has become solely religious, and a threatened one for that matter. And the only way to evade those threats was to make it a secret ritual; a celebration confined to the walls of the house and one which does not go beyond holiday cookies and exchange of presents.
But even in its heyday, Christmas was not as much of a commercial holiday in Iraq as it is here in the United States or other strictly Christian nations in the world. Many of my friends have tried to point my attention to the overwhelming commercialism surrounding Christmas celebrations in the U.S. As a matter of fact, one of my professors is probably possessed with the habit of detecting a commercial implication in virtually everything he sees or touches! It is an established fact, to be sure, and one that seems to be a natural phenomenon in a first-world, highly-industrial and technologically- advanced country as the U.S. Recognizing facts is essential, of course, but, when you’re a student, the downside is that it affects your faith. One day you’re discussing American Exceptionalism; the next they tell you “it’s all about the money!” and your faith is anything exceptional suffers badly…
Although, on the whole, I always have many bones to pick with American Studies as an academic discipline, I always can’t help but appreciate the flexibility which it affords making virtually every single observation, no matter how insubstantial it might seem in the beginning, capable of extensive study and investigation. As American studies students we have this habit of pausing and saying “Hmmm…there’s a dissertation hiding there somewhere!” anytime anything captures our attention or forces us to stop and wonder.
Christmas definitely provides one of these moments. Whether it is the way the face of towns and cities – or even homes change as Christmas approaches or the way people interact with the event or anything in between, there are definitely numerous insights to be gained from closely examining such cultural elements. When my boyfriend and I were touring neighborhoods in Lawrence and Kansas City we noted a disparity in the way homes were lit up with Christmas lights and decorations, and the standard we used to measure the level of the festive spirit of each home depended on how well-lit – or, to be more precise, how exaggeratedly-lit homes were! Commercialism or not, there’s a revealing cultural text to be read in every single detail. But the beauty of it is that we’re not looking for answers; we’re simply seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake…
Another Christmas component that is unknown in Iraq or other Mideastern countries is the concept of gift cards. And there is an interesting cultural kink behind it. In the United States you give somebody a gift card so that they choose their gifts for themselves. In the Middle East, the act simply sends the message that the person was too impatient or too grouchy to brood over a possible gift. Roughly speaking, it sends this message: “And you couldn’t take the time or make the effort to get me a real gift instead!” By the same token, gifting in the Middle East is not necessarily associated with the idea of utility. In the U.S. it is always appreciated to get somebody something they need regardless of its beauty or symbolic meanings; Mideasterners, on the other hand, experience unparalleled joy in the beautiful and the artistic – and in some countries, in the outrageously expensive!
I had to learn my lessons the hard way to break free from some of the age-old conceptions surrounding the celebration of the holidays, but whereas the idea of gift cards still does not sit very well with me although there is a persistent voice somewhere that protests “but it makes perfect sense!”; that of utility is slowly sinking in and gaining ground.
Happy Holidays!