Kochi is located in southwest India on the coast of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district in the state of Kerala.
The state of Kerala has a Christian population of around 20%, so Christmas Day, 25 December, is a public holiday.
Christmas is a very important holiday in Kochi. The streets are decorated with fairy lights and the cityscape is bathed in a festive light. Houses are decorated with glowing stars, fairy lights and a richly decorated Christmas tree, which is made of plastic due to the lack of real trees.
Christmas is celebrated in a very traditional way. Giving presents, as we do in the West, is not common.
There is a lot of cooking in the days before Christmas, and the food is distributed in the neighborhood at Christmas. It is not important that the neighbors are Christians themselves.
I was lucky enough to spend Christmas with a Christian family. The mother and daughter prepared meals that are not often eaten in normal life. They prepared a lot of meat, which is expensive. But at Christmas, only the best is good enough for the neighborhood.
In the evening, people go to church for midnight mass.
For many years, Cochin has celebrated a carnival that runs from Christmas to New Year. At Veli Ground, a large square in Fort Cochin, you can see one of the largest Christmas trees in India, decorated all over with lights. It is a festival with live music, food stalls and carnival. This is where Indian families go to celebrate. They dress up, the women in their finest sarees, the children in new clothes.
The highlight of the Cochin Carnival is the burning of a giant statue on New Year's Eve and a carnival procession through the streets of Fort Cochin on New Year's Day.
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