How Christmas celebrations in India may have spread out of Fort Kochi

Arrival of the Portuguese on the shores of India early in the 16th Century may have inadvertently helped Fort Kochi become the nucleus of spread of Christmas celebrations as we know it today in India or even across south-east Asia, say Fort Kochi’s history buffs. As Catholics across the world celebrate the 800th year of the first Christmas crib put together by St. Francis Assisi, Paul Thelakat, senior priest of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, says that Christmas celebrations have been very much influenced by the West. Bony Thomas, artist and writer on the lineage and culture of West Kochi, including Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, says that most of what we know as part of Christmas celebrations came ashore with the Portuguese. A fusion cuisine Charles Dias, former MP and author of the upcoming book ‘Consoado,’, says that though Christmas celebrations have remnants from the days after the British takeover, the Portuguese gave the celebrations definite contours with Latin prayers, adorations, and cribs.