A Quiet Christmas

Those of us who grew up in Singapore where Christmas is synonymous with the Orchard Road light-up can be forgiven to think that York's city centre is lit with lights a few folds grander and brighter, with snow falling and revellers singing and dancing the night away.

Especially here in York, where is the Archbishop is the second highest ranking cleric after the Archbishop of Canterbury, one would imagine Christmas to be a grand, bright, merry occasion. The reality is that Christmas in York seems rather dull, when measured against Orchard Road's unrestrained profit making Christmas.

Firstly, Christmas lighting in the city centre is not as elaborate or bright as those in Orchard road where big shopping centres compete with each other to put up the greatest and the brightest to attract customers.

Secondly, in Singapore, Christmas is an end-of-the-year excuse for busy friends to gather for a binge. Here in York, as you may have guessed, Christmas is a traditional family affair where people spend their Christmas at home, much like CNY back in Singapore. As such, it turns utterly quiet on Christmas and Boxing Day as all shops and places of interest are closed. The whole country shuts down, even the trains and buses are not running, so if you don't have a car, you are basically much stuck and isolated at home.

On the campus itself, all of the UK students have gone home, and most overseas students are spending the vacation outside York. A Christmas party to be held by the university's chaplins has been called off, presumbly due to poor response. So the whole place is very very quiet.

York is well known for its Christmas market though. In the run-up to Christmas, there is an open air market held at the city centre everyday, which attracts a lot of visitors, making the city centre as crowded as Tampines Mall (ok, it still can't beat the Orchard Road crowd). However, as a tourist, I find Vienna's Christmas markets more interesting. For one, the weather there is colder and the more numerous markets are located against a backdrop of classical buildings. Also, the atmosphere and the goods there are more like our stereotype of Christmas: snow, candles, christmas deco, nutcracker dolls, hot wines etc. Here in York, the stuff sold at the Christmas markets are more down-to-earth: sausages, candy, poultry, clothes etc stuff that families, not tourists, would need. But to be fair, downtown Vienna is made for tourist whereas York is a small, traditional city that needs to cater to its residents needs.

So it turns out that Christmas here is a rather subdued affair. However, the upside is that it is still an authentic, religious and sincere. All of the many churches here hold services from Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day. I could hear the church bells tolling as I was walking on the campus grounds on Christmas Eve. I kinda sympathized with the Christians in Singapore, where Christmas has mostly lost its religious significance among those who celebrated it. I would think that a true Christian would appreciate Christmas here more than in Singapore.