This Year i spent my Christmas in Europe..
somehing i have never dreamt of.
But here i am, in a tiny little speck on earth, the place called A J K A. A town with around 40.000 population in Hungary.
What does Christmas here feels like? It feels 90% different from Manado. One thing remain the same is the Ornamen.
Everything is new for me :
The Santa Chocolate which is nagyon nagyon finom ( very very delicious ),the kids would put their shoes on the 5th and in the morning they will find soo many chocolate inside.
The Cold wheather , sadly there was no snow :( . In Manado at this time it would be rain.
The Christmas Service which was attended by around 100 people on the Christmas Eve, but on the Christmas Day there was only around 30 people. And it was Communion Day!.
( I will talk about the Church Congregation here vs in Manado later )
The Food , which was Chicken Soup, Baked Pork, Baked Chicken rolled with Bacon and Egg, Potatos, Rice, Tart, Wine, Champagne and Palinka.
The Gift exchange, usually in Manado me and mom buy gifts only for the children, and we give money gift for my cousins. But here we give and receive gift from everyone in the family. We gave gifts for our cousins, Anya, Apa, Andi, Norby, Peter, Tina, Panka, Domonkos, Bogi, Kornel and DiddyMama. And me and David received gifts from them in return.
Here, Christmas feels like family quality time.
In Manado Christmas feels like everyone's quality time. We would visit our family, friends and neighbours. There will be Christmas carols everywhere from supermarket, boutique, mall, even inside public transportation. There is Santa Claus with it's car parade on the road between 5th to 10th of December , These Santa Claus will visit house of each kids ( by appointment by their parents ) to bring gifts. Along with the Zwarte Piet whose job is to teach the kids not to be naughty again.
There is a Santa Claus Carnival on the main road of Manado.
Everyhouse will make or order Christmas cookies.
There will be Christmas service from 24th - 26th December with tons of people. The most people attendance would be on 25th which the Church even had to put chairs on the road to cover space for the people. There will be choir singing, sometimes drama and performance on Christmas's Day service.
And the 25th, 26th of December and 1st of January would be the days where the neighbourhood kids would be suddenly rich. Because they would visit all of the houses in the neighbourhood, they will also visit their godfather and godmather and they will be given money as a Christmas gift. Often called "Ampao".
The Food in Christmas usually Brenebon Soup, Roasted Pork, Grilled fish, Baked fish with Pineaple and Sweet sauce, Saute Pork with sweet soya, Bitter Vegetable which was made by papaya leaves mixed with slow cooked pork, satay, sweet soya sauce chicken saute, Grilled Pork , Grilled Rice mixed with Oil and Ginger, Grilled Black Vegetable called "Pangi" mixed with Pork Fat and sometimes Pork's blood, all of these are grilled traditionaly inside a bamboo ), Pudding,Klappertaart, Cake, Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Beer and traditional drink like Palinka but in Manado is called "TjapTikoes" Translated literally as "RatStamp"
Overall i feel utterly blessed that this Christmas i have come to a new phase in my life which is being David's wife. I am very grateful to God for his endless blessing to us.
I really hope that next year i can spend my Christmas with my family in Manado.
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