lindsey.

Tonight is Christmas Eve.  The streets are packed tonight with Santa’s.  Numerous vendors are selling giant balloons shaped like Kris Kringle.  As my students told me, Santa in Vietnam is very thin and rides a bike (obviously.  why would he need a sleigh here?), so the streets also contain many men riding around in red suits and fake beards.  It is also one of the busiest nights of the year, not because people are going to church, but because Christmas Eve is a very romantic holiday. 

You’d think in my second year, it wouldn’t be so strange to celebrate in Vietnam, but there is always something that sticks out, because I am in such a minority here.  The traditions we hold, the things we do…being here makes you think of things differently.  This year, for the first time ever, I have been celebrating Advent, doing a study with my team that has been so poignant and good for my soul.  I went to a Christmas Eve candlelight service.  I sang lots of wonderful Christmas carols. I made LOTS of ginger cookies, and I am making new traditions, like Christmas brunch.  In this context, each year brings something new, and things we “always do” change, or we don’t do them at all.  It makes it difficult to celebrate the cultural part of Christmas.  The only thing that doesn’t change between America and Vietnam is the Incarnation, and that is what I must cling to. 

Truly He taught us to love one another, 
His law is love and His gospel is peace. 
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. 
And in his name all oppression shall cease.