Nepali Hindus just finished celebrating Tihar, also known as the Festival of Lights, and on the last days of the weeklong celebration they decorate their houses with lights, candles and flowers to the abundance. There’s also lots of singing and dancing.
It’s incredibly beautiful, and it easily reminded us of the lengths some folks back home go to decorate their houses with Christmas lights in December. (I actually saw a neighbor’s house here in Kathmandu with a large green and red star clearly meant for the Christmas holiday and not necessarily Tihar.)
It’s hard not to enjoy such a spectacle. The Nepali Hindus in our neighborhood went well out of their way to decorate, and we could see that it brought them together with their families and neighbors. They looked like they were having fun.
One morning at the breakfast table, one of my children said, “Well, I guess this Christmas, we need to outdo the Hindus in the neighborhood.”
Which at first blush seemed like a great idea. Shouldn’t we show as much effort to highlight Christmas? Shouldn’t we show Jesus that we love Him more than the Hindus love their gods? Isn’t decorating to the hilt a chance for us to draw non-Christians to us and our holidays so that we can tell them more and more about the sacrifice that Christ made for us?
But another part of me says this isn’t so great an idea, especially when you really understand why the Hindus do what they do.
The trouble with Tihar is that all these decorations aren’t just fun. They’re designed to attract false gods and goddesses to their house, a different one each day, because if they don’t, there’s no way to possibly have health and wealth in the coming year. Don’t do enough and you just might suffer some financial hardship from which you’ll never recover. And in a country this poor, that’s a devastatingly sober thought.
That’s not why we decorate our house at Christmas and Easter. It certainly isn’t to appease a god that offers blessings on a whim. Praise the Lord for that. I know I could never do enough to make up for my poor annual behavior.
And I don’t want Hindus here to mistake my decorations as a necessity rather than a joyful reminder of Christ’s birth.
At our house, putting up lights and a tree is a chance to fill the house with the blessed reminder that God is with us — Immanuel — the One and Only Son who made the greatest sacrifice ever when I don’t deserve it.
I don’t want Hindus here to think that I decorate my house out of necessity. And so I’m praying about how best to celebrate Christmas, including decorations, while also making our Hindu neighbors understand that God doesn’t need my offerings, He just wants my heart.
Very interesting! We have a large Hindu community in our area, and many friends have reached out to their families. Thanks for sharing your heart.