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FROM THE EDITOR: The Diocese of Brooklyn is known as the Diocese of Immigrants. Its international flavor means that Mass is celebrated in dozens of languages and the pews are filled with parishioners of many nationalities. With that in mind, Tablet looks at how different cultures in the diocese celebrate Christmas. This week we focus on Nigeria, Brazil, Philippines and Vietnam.
HEIGHTS OF FUTURES — Cosmas Nzebalu, parochial vicar at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Springfield Gardens, has fond memories of Christmas in his native Nigeria.
“Christmas is a special time for us. Our life revolves around the church and I remember the joy and excitement we had on Christmas Day,” said Father Nzebalu, Coordinator of the Nigerian Apostolate of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
About 10% of Nigeria’s 218 million people are Catholic, and Father Nzebalu explained that in the small villages that dot the country’s landscape, people live in extended families, from grandparents to parents to children, aunts, uncles and cousins. same tent.
Nigerian Christmas traditions include families wearing identical clothes on Christmas Day, created with a special design on a fabric unique to that family.
Families join together for midnight and fireworks after church. On Christmas Day, wealthy families serve slaughtered cows or goats along with the meat used for the main meal. Many families donate meat to the less fortunate.
Traditional Christmas dishes include rice with FuFu, a type of sticky dough common in West African cuisine. Another popular dish is white rice mixed with palm kernels – the edible seeds of the oil palm fruit.
“Families also like to cook. They cook different dishes with rice,” added Father Nzebalu.
Father José Carlos da Silva’s native Brazil has the world’s largest floating Christmas tree — a 542-ton tree decorated with 3.3 million lights that floats in Rio de Janeiro’s Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.
Still, Father da Silva, pastor of St. Rita Church in Long Island City and coordinator of the Brazilian Apostolate, said decorations are secondary and Brazilians focus on spiritual things, such as the importance of the birth of Jesus Christ. “For us, it’s the center of everything,” he said.
Brazil is a predominantly Catholic country, with approximately 55% of the country’s 216 million people practicing the religion.
Families attend Christmas parties together and then go home for dinner at midnight. Turkey is a traditional Christmas dinner, “but we don’t do it like we do in America,” Father da Silva explained. In Brazilian cuisine, turkey is garnished with fruits such as peaches and pineapples.
Chicken is also a popular Christmas meal. Brazilians cook chickens called “chesters”, specially raised chickens that contain a high percentage of breast meat.
We call him Santa Claus, but to Brazilian children he is Papai Noel (Father Christmas) or Bom Velhinho (Good Old Man). In a fun tradition, children are invited to leave a Christmas stocking by the window in the hope that Santa will spot it as he flies past their house. Traditionally, when Papa Noel sees a stocking, he exchanges it for a present.
St. Rita’s Church prepares for Christmas by holding a novena from December 1. “Every year we pray for something as a community — we all pray for the same thing. This year we are praying for world peace because of the war in Ukraine,” Father da Silva explained. On December 10, St. Rita will serve Christmas dinner in its church.
“The government controls everything. But they let us celebrate Christmas,” said Peter Hoa Nguyen, parish vicar of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Astoria, who was born and raised in Vietnam.
Vietnam is a communist country and the majority of the country’s 98.5 million citizens do not practice any religion. But there are 7 million Catholics and faith is a big part of their lives, Father Nguyen said.
There may have been economic reasons behind the communist leaders’ willingness to allow the celebration of Christmas. “The government wants to be part of the global economy, trade and everything. They know that they cannot erase the country from the world,” explained Father Nguyen.
Vietnamese traditions include the Christmas Eve celebrations, which include scripture readings that depict the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. “It’s like a holy holiday,” Father Nguyen said.
Families usually attend Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Traditional Vietnamese Christmas dinner consists of duck, chicken or pork. Side dishes include leather and eggs.
Since Vietnam was a French colony (known as French Indochina) from 1862 to 1954, traces of French cuisine still remain on the country’s table. For example, Buche de Noël, a wheel-shaped chocolate cake, is a popular dessert and often given as a gift.
Christmas in the Filipino tradition focuses a lot on Mary, the mother of Jesus, said Patrick Longalong, pastor of Lourdes Church in Queens Village and coordinator of the Philippine Apostolate.
The Philippines is the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia – 86% of its 111 million citizens are Catholic.
In the Philippines, there is a series of nine Masses known as Simbang Gabi, starting on December 16 and ending on December 24 in the days leading up to Christmas. We are on a journey with her during her pregnancy towards the birth of Jesus,” Father Longalong explained.
Masses used to take place at 4 a.m., but that changed when martial law was imposed in the Philippines in 1972 under the orders of Ferdinand Marcos.
“They used to wake up really early to go to Mass. But during the martial law in the Philippines, they decided to do it in the evening because of the curfew. With the curfew, you can’t go out early in the morning,” Father Longalong said.
Filipinos traditionally celebrate Christmas at midnight and then sleep through the night. “Midnight is huge. You go to midnight and then you come home and you eat what we call Nochebuena, which is a post-midnight meal. That’s when we start opening presents,” Father Longalong said.
The celebration lasts for several hours. “As they say, it’s night is night,” he explained.
Typical dishes include a rice cake called Bibinka and another type of rice cake called Puto Bumbong, baked in bamboo tubes and topped with shredded coconut and brown sugar.
The most common Christmas decoration in the Philippines is the Parol, a large star-shaped lantern. People hang it outside shops and houses as well as in the town square.
Father Longalong said: “The fact that the password is there reminds us of the Star of Bethlehem.
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