Publication: The Seattle Times, 12/24/2002
by Jason Margolis
Non-Christians gather to pray, socialize, help the needy
For people who aren't Christian, it can be hard knowing what to do. They go to the movies, they watch football, they search frantically for an open Chinese restaurant.
Christmas is a Christian holiday, but it's also America's day off. And while some spend the free time in their pajamas flipping though the TV channels, many non-Christians have developed a more targeted approach to surviving Christmas, and have come up with some holiday traditions of their own.
On Seattle's Capitol Hill, about 75 Hindus will hold their own version of a Christmas Eve service. Each year, the congregation at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington gathers to listen to their swami, or cleric, extol the merits of Jesus Christ.
Swami Bhaskarananda says Christmas has become a tradition at his temple in Seattle, and common practice for many other Hindus of the Ramakrishna Order.
"Hinduism believes in only one God, just as Christianity does. But our scriptures say that the same God may be called by different names by different sages," says Bhaskarananda. "He's not a stranger to us. Jesus Christ, we look up to him as a divine incarnation."
After 30 minutes of religious worship, when grape juice, Indian curry, cakes and matzoh are placed on the altar — offerings members of the congregation think Christ might've enjoyed — the congregation rolls out the piano to sing a few tunes. Half the congregation sits on the floor cross-legged, while many of the women wear brightly colored saris.
"We sing every Christmas carol in the book. That night we don't sing any other songs," said Devra Freedman, a temple volunteer. "Everybody tries their best."
Nearby, many of Seattle's Jews for years gathered each Christmas Eve to eat corned-beef sandwiches and listen to klezmer music at Pip Meyerson's Matzoh Momma deli on Capitol Hill.
"When you have a place like a deli, it's a natural. ... People would come from near or far to listen to Jewish music," said Rabbi James Mirel, who played bass guitar in the klezmer band, which he said would also draw crowds of passersby walking home from church. "We try not to compete with the Christmas holiday, but we try to do something to make it fun."
But the deli closed in 1995, the tradition ended, and Meyerson has moved into the catering business preparing Jewish-style food. He still talks about organizing more Christmas Eve Jewish parties but laments that it's a lot of work without the restaurant. This year he says he's eating Chinese food and going to the movies.
"The big joke is that if you go to the movies on Christmas Eve, you see everybody who's Jewish," said Meyerson.
On the other side of town, at Club Medusa in Belltown, close to 500 Jews, aged 21 to 40, will gather for the annual "Matzoh Ball," a Christmas Eve social dance held in cities across the country.
Before the gathering and then on Christmas Day, many of the partygoers will volunteer serving food to the homeless in groups organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and Jconnect, a program of the University of Washington Hillel.
For many Seattle Muslims, Christmas provides an opportunity to spend time at the mosque, pray and socialize with other Muslims.
"There are two days when the mosque is most full, and that's the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas," says Aziz Junejo, the host and producer of the Seattle cable-access TV show "Focus on Islam."
"You can't go to the mall, you can't go shopping, usually everything is closed on Christmas," says Junejo.
Without many of the modern distractions, Junejo says local Muslims spend much of the day completing their five daily prayers at the mosque, where prayer is felt the strongest.
While Christ is revered as a prophet in Islam, Christmas has little religious significance in Islam. Muslims don't pray to any of the prophets, worshipping only their God, Allah.
And typically, American Muslims don't exchange gifts on Christmas; they have their own gift-giving holiday, Eid al-Fitr, which falls at the end of Ramadan.
While the Muslims have their own religious occasion to give gifts, Sikhs do not.
Still, Sarbjit Singh Virk, former president of the Sikh temple Singh Sabha of Washington in Renton, says Christmas is a big occasion in his and other American Sikhs' homes.
"We buy a big Christmas tree and decorate it like the Christians do, put presents underneath," says Virk. "We want to share with the Christians, share with their happiness ... I think we do all the same things except going to church."
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