Keeping Mumbai’s oldest Christmas traditions alive

A unique take on the Nativity scene at Kole Kalyan village

Centuries after the Portuguese handed over the reins of the city to the British, traces of their cultural influence still shine in the Christmas celebrations of the East Indian community. Among the city's oldest inhabitants, this Christian community is native to Mumbai and its members came to call themselves East Indians to differentiate themselves from the Goan and Manglorean migrants.

Whether they converted during the Portuguese rule, or much earlier at the hands of Apostle Bartholomew is still under debate. But the community continues to thrive in pockets across the city, in gaothans across Bandra, Marol, Chembur, Vasai, and parts of Thane and Raigad. Each gaothan celebrates Christmas with gusto.

Christmas decorations at an East Indian bungalow in Kole Kalyan village, Santacruz

Their celebrations of Christmas or Nataal, as the East Indians call it, spell a beautiful mix of local and adopted culture, right from their dialect to the traditional feast fare. "Our maiboli [mother tongue] is a fusional dialect of Marathi with words from the Portuguese lexicon, due to which East Indian Marathi sounds very similar to both Marathi and Konkani," says Candida Remedios, an East Indian archivist and dialect quizzer.

She cites that Nataalcha San (festival of Chrsitmas), comes from the Portuguese word for Christmas, Nataal. It's the same with the names of some dishes that have been a part of the community's festive diet since the time of the Portuguese. These include bol de gram for dal sweet or dal halwa, bol de coc for thali sweet, and koswad or kuswar which indicates the traditional sharing of sweets and is drawn from the Portuguese word consoada, meaning a Christmas Eve feast. "Instead of Merry Christmas, we wish each other ‘Boa Fes', which is drawn from Boas Festas in Portuguese, meaning happy holidays," says Valencia D'souza, an East Indian creator on Instagram.

A traditional feast with Indian spiced roast chicken, lyonnaise potato, grilled vegetables, hot chocolate and Christmas desserts. File pics

This tradition of sharing sweets is unique to Christians in the Konkan region, but the recipes have commonalities with other Christian communities and the local Maharashtrian cuisine in many ways. It does have a close parallel in the exchange of faral during Diwali, explains D'souza, "We make traditional East Indian sweets like nancatai (biscuits), peru halwa (guava jelly), shingoli (nevris), marzipan, kulkuls, dalicha halwa (dal sweet). And, we distribute the homemade sweets to our neighbours and family members on Christmas day."

But before the sweets and the feast, the festive season begins with the harvest season. "[The harvest festival of Aagera is] celebrated on the first Sunday of October and marks the end of aagoth [monsoon]," Remedios adds. During the Mass, freshly cut paddy and other farm produce is blessed, and there's also a procession complete with the gaothan's local band. This also marks the beginning of the wedding season for the community.

A platter of East Indian sweets like nancatai (biscuits), peru halwa (guava jelly), shingoli (nevris), marzipan and kulkul

Once the season of advent begins, gaothans begin prepping for Christmas. "In gaothans across Mumbai, the community builds a Nativity scene or Christmas crib. There are also competitions and each zone of the gaothan competes. The local church too, has a crib. Parishioners also go carolling door to door in the evenings, and an East Indian band native to that gaothan will also play," says Remedios.

Christmas Day involves a large feast, where pork is often the centrepiece. "We don't have many unique traditions or rituals as such, but attending midnight Mass with the family on Christmas Eve is a tradition we never miss," says Nathan Gomes, a stand-up comic and creator.

He says that usually there's a lot of pork eaten during the Christmas feast, but there's also either a stuffed chicken or a chicken roast. A typical table will see specialties like fugias, pork indyal (vindaloo), sorpotel, chittaps, chicken or duck mobile, plum or coconut cake, marzipan, kulkuls, milk cream, and other sweets. "In some households, they serve Khimad, which is a hot toddy made with coriander, turmeric, spices, country liquor or whisky. It's perfect for a cold Christmas night," says Gomes. He laughs that over the years, apart from commercialisation of the festival, the biggest change he has noticed is that it's no longer as cold as it used to be around Christmas.