When Sonia Hanaish’s sister asked her to spend Christmas in Florida a couple of years ago she agreed, but only on one condition — she wanted traditional pacha (stuffed tripe) on Christmas morning.
“Christmas is not Christmas without pacha in a Chaldean family,” said Hanaish. “My mom packed up the ingredients she needed and flew to Florida and I had pacha that Christmas morning.”
Many Chaldean Christmas traditions have traveled thousand of miles and have been carried on from generation to generation right here in the United States.
Mavita Yousif Bachouka, 7, is celebrating her sixth Christmas in the U.S. Although she was too young to remember how her family celebrated in Iraq, her parents remind her of the traditions every year as they incorporate American customs with Chaldean ones into their holiday celebrations.
“My favorite part of Christmas is getting gifts,” said Mavita, adding that she is asking Santa Claus – an American symbol — for dolls and clothes this year. However, when asked the meaning of Christmas, the second-grader reverts to her native tongue, Aramaic, and talks about the birth of Christ and the nativity.
“Church is very important part,” said Titiya Bachouka. Speaking both in English and Aramaic, Mavita’s 60-year-old grandmother continues to explain how the holiday is celebrated. “Our religion is important to us. In Iraq, we celebrate (be Yalda) Christmas for three days and we go to church every day of the celebrations starting with a two-hour midnight mass on Christmas Eve.”
The preparation for the holiday starts at the beginning of December when many families abstain from meat up to 25 days before Christmas. During this time they scrub their homes from wall to wall, knowing they will be visited by dozens of people during Christmas.
Family members also travel to Mosul from villages like Telkaif and Alquosh to buy the groceries they need to prepare holiday meals. They start with klecha — date and walnut cookies that are a popular holiday dessert. Just like pacha, many Chaldean families would agree that Christmas is not Christmas without some klecha.
The holiday is centered around religion, family and food. After church, the families go home, eat pacha, and then the visits begin. In Telkaif where the Bachoukas lived, families travel from home to home visiting one another. The host serves chai (tea), Turkish coffee and klecha.
Christmas in America was a different cultural experience for the Bachouka family. “In Iraq we also decorate the Christmas tree and we display the nativity scene underneath the tree like people do here in America,” explained Sundus Yousif Bachouka, Mavita’s 29-year-old mother. “But here in America decorations are everywhere. You see lights on homes and at stores. It is nice but much different from Iraq.”
Gifts are not exchanged in Iraq. Instead each person will wear a new outfit bought especially for Christmas. Everything worn that day is new — even socks, shoes and underwear. This is to symbolize the new life of Jesus Christ. When people visit each other’s homes, they give the children some money, usually a small amount in change or a couple of dollars.
Also in Iraq, the priest visits every Chaldean family and offers blessings to their home. He spends just a few minutes at each house in order to be able to visit every family. Sometimes, instead of families visiting each other at home, people in the village of Telkaif will spend a day during the Christmas celebrations at a park called Bedratha. There families eat and play all kinds of games, including cards, soccer and marbles.
”We love to play games,” said Salma Garmo, 70. “Christmas is about family and about being happy and we are happy when we are with our family.”
All types of traditions have been celebrated over time in Iraq. In some of the Christian homes a ceremony is held in the courtyard of the home on Christmas Eve. One of the children in the family reads Christmas stories from the Bible. The other members of the family hold lighted candles, and as soon as the story has been read, a bonfire is lit in one corner of the courtyard.
The fire is made of dried thorns and the future of the house for the coming year depends upon the way the fire burns. If the thorns burn to ashes, the family will have good fortune. While the fire is burning, a psalm is sung. When the fire is reduced to ashes, everyone jumps over the ashes three times and makes a wish.
On Christmas Day a similar bonfire is built in the church. While it burns the men of the congregation chant a hymn. Then there is a procession in which the officials of the church march behind the bishop, who carries an image of the infant Jesus upon a scarlet cushion. The long Christmas service always ends with the blessing of the people. The Bishop reaches forth and touches a member of the congregation with his hand, putting his blessing upon him. That person touches the one next him, and so on, until all have received "the Touch of Peace."
article by: Vanessa Denha-Garmo