Christmas Under A Tropical Sun: Dipika Mukherjee examines Christmas in literature from a warm and sunny place
As I write this post from Malaysia, under a tropical sun, I am struck by how universal the festivities of Christmas are, even in our modern fractured world. In this majority-Muslim country, Christmas is celebrated with Open Houses as Christian families open their doors for non-Christian friends and family. There is no snow, there is food, there is feasting...and the emphasis is on the ties of friendship and family. A green Christmas in the tropics is a warm Christmas indeed. Two years ago, I read a story by the Godden sisters, recounting five years of their childhood spent in the Indian village of Narayanganj, during World War I. I was enchanted. Jon and Rumer Godden wrote Two Under the Indian Su n story as adults, but it is infused with the childhood wonder and daily astonishment of life in British India. This book was published in the US in 1966 by Knopf/Viking and is a delightful retelling of a childhood in India by two accomplished writers. And now...