Issue date: 12/5/05 Section: Aggielife

Zack Sweeten - The Battalion

From Thanksgiving to Christmas, jolly songs of Christmas greet coffee shop patrons, Santa Claus grants children's wishes at the mall and families decorate their Christmas tree with layers of lights and ribbon.

Justin Tirsun, a senior environmental design sciences major, won't be taking part in any of the ever-present Christmas spirit.

Instead of owning a Christmas tree, setting up elaborate decorations or exchanging gifts on Christmas day, Tirsun's family celebrates Hanukkah.

Tirsun said Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, a remembrance of the Maccabees' victory over the Persians.

"Lights and lighting up different things is traced back to the Jewish stories, and it was eventually picked up by Christians," Tirsun said.

Tirsun's family has their own traditions for how to spend Dec. 25.

"We have a tradition on Christmas day to eat Chinese food - 'cause it's the only thing open - and to watch a movie."

Tirsun's family, as well as other Jewish families, gives and receives one gift each night during Hanukkah. Despite not having one day set aside for gift exchanges, Tirsun said Dec. 25 does have a meaning for his family.

"It's a day to get discounts; that's all it means to us," Tirsun said.

Christmas envelops the spirit of good cheer and merriment, but it is also symbolic of the culture in this country.

When Krishna Shanmugam, a junior genetics major, moved to America from India with his family years ago, they celebrated Christmas to feel more at home in their American community, he said.

"We used to do the traditional things that other kids did - we had presents and decorated the house with lights," Shanmugam said. "It was more to embrace some of the cultural aspects of our new home."

Recently, though, his family has turned away from most of the festivities because the kids in his family have grown older and because of the day's lack of religious significance for them.

"These days, honestly, we just don't celebrate it," Shanmugam said. "I go to India over Christmas break a lot, and instead of Christmas here, we celebrate Pongal there in India."

Shanmugam said there aren't any specific holidays Hindus celebrate this time of year except for Pongal, celebrated in southern India in early January, but it is a holiday more analogous to Thanksgiving than Christmas.

Landon Procton, a sophomore biomedical science major and the president of A&M's Agnostic and Atheist Society, independently developed his own view of Christmas - a perspective not shared by his family members.

Continued...

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