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Dietician Sheela Seharawat

The festival of Christmas brings with it much yuletide joy and the responsibility to give without receiving. A festival that started from Christian societies and is now celebrated all over the world with pomp and show. From the red clothed Santa Claus who has become a worldwide fixture with his lore about the sleigh, reindeer, North Pole abode being pretty much common knowledge all over the world. Christmas is celebrated with great joy and gaiety and people generally sit with friends and family and take in the celebrations with the comfort of their loved ones. One other thing that defines the ‘spirit of Christmas’ is the oft vaunted and loved Christmas Eve. The ‘night before Christmas’ wherein ‘not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse’ is a very celebrated occasion that has its roots in the earliest of Christmas festivities.

The moments where we know that Christmas day is coming with the dawn where we open our presents and celebrate and share in the mutual joy that our families and loved ones have for each other. Christmas Eve’s magic, therefore, comes from the realization that the next day is something even more magical and therefore what comes before it shares in that magic. Many other cultural traditions and experiences in a varied way are also associated with this Christmas Eve celebrated around the world, which includes the gathering of family and friends, the singing of Christmas carols, the setting up and enjoyment of Christmas lights, trees, and various other decorations, the wrapping and the exchange and opening of gifts, and other general preparations for Christmas Day. The most important tradition of this evening is one that is practised in churches and cathedrals around the world and that is the Midnight Mass which is often seen as the most important church service of this season.

The evening when the much oved Christmas Tree is brought into the home to be decorated and lit. This is something that has become ubiquitous around the world as a traditional celebration even in societies which do not have any religious connections to the festival. Many of the traditions of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day began in the old European traditions, from St Nicholas, to the varied depictions of what was to become Santa Claus to other deities associated with this season. The magic of Christmas Eve is come.