The holidays have been bringing nostalgia and a little home sickness. The other night Poppy and I spontaneously cuddled on the couch for a couple hours singing Christmas songs using the lyrics on my phone.
Taiwan goes big on commercial Christmas. In most major shopping areas...and parks...and every building of the university where I work, there is a lit up Chirstmas tree. Usually the tree includes elaborate lights, an animated character (the MRT main station has a giant Pikachu tree) and some sort of advertisement attached.
In an attempt to bring the cheer into our apartment, I searched google maps for Christmas supply stores. I love a few white lights at night to create a warm glow. Stopping for a delicious pepper cookie on our way, we rounded a corner following the map on my phone and, before us, was the brightest most elaborate Christmas pop up store! It looked like a giant Christmas hive buzzing with customers.
We squeezed our way between the garland and sparkles and blow up santas, through the various Christmas noises, to the wall of lights displayed. After much confusion, we realized you must take a picture of the card for the lights you want and wait in a long line for a clerk to get them from the supply area in the back. But when the clerk brought us our "white" lights, they were actually rainbow color...and flashing...making me slightly dizzy...and we gave up.
A couple days later, I came home from work to find Trae had found white lights at Costco and the kids had docorated as a surprise. Such a rush of familiarity and warmth.
Last week, Teacher Yiting, the social worker who leads our photovoice group at the after school program, asked me to bring photos of our traditions around the holidays to share with the students. I showed photos while she wrote the english words on the dry erase board. I shared about decorating cookies and Christmas trees, about santa visiting, and about our tradition of caroling for canned donations. The hardest tradition to explain was our White Elephant gift exchange. They had many questions. You can steal other people's presents...yikes? What happens then? And the presents aren't "good" presents? Why?
This week, the students went caroling to visit their tribe by the river, and Hsi-sheng and I felt lucky to get to tag along. While a few of the students are Han-Chinese, the founder of the organization and most students are Amis - the largest Indigenous tribe from the central mountains of Taiwan. The organization's tradition is to visit the tribe's housing along the river and sing two songs (Silent Night and Joy to the World) in their Indigenous language. Hsi-sheng explains to me that many, but not all tribe members, are Christian due to early missionaries.
The students practiced their songs weekly in our group sessions. They slowly got better 😊. Teacher Yiting lectured them on taking it seriously, as they would feel embarrassed if they didn't know the words in front of their elders. She tells them they are among few young members of the community that remember and will carry on the songs in their language, as most schools do not teach (and many discourage) its use. She showed this video to the students to share one of few examples she could find online of the song performed in Amis.
The night of caroling, the weather was quite cold and rainy, but the cheer was warm, as the students dressed in Santa hats and rain gear and set out from the small church to the neighboring houses tribe members had built along the river. It was really special to get to share in their tradition while being so far from my own.
But it was a complicated experience. The community had little drinkable water or electricity and often only recycled materials for covering. Many of the tribe members had moved from the mountains in central Taiwan to the riverside near the city to find work. But they have been displaced several times when the government tried to claim public land and move them to public housing. Many of the tribe members do not like the public housing and instead rebuild homes back on the river where they can stay warm with open fires and stay connected to one another.
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