Christmas in Gyogone – Burma
By Ruth Benson
It is time again for the Holidays. Looking back to the time when we were growing up in Burma I never fully realized how fortunate I was to grow up in the family I was born into. I knew I was lucky, but I never knew how very, very lucky I really was. Christmas was always celebrated in a big way. Not in the material sense of getting lots of presents. Material gifts were never the focus of the Holidays. We each would get only one item and that was that. Everyone got the same thing. If my sisters and I got a new silk lonegyi, so did each and everyone of our domestic helpers. It was the singing, the midnight services, the friends and acquaintances and the shared joyful times that were the most treasure and memorable times for me, and my siblings. I am positively and absolutely sure of that.
My memories of how the Christmas seasons were celebrated are, and continue to be some of the most awesome experiences I will ever have in this lifetime. I can remember when my mother would have pigs slaughtered in order to give great feasts for the people from the Karen village across the street from our property. Karen people love music and singing, so a stage was set up outside in front of the east end of the house. Everyone and anyone who wished to perform could partake in the concerts and take to the stage to sing or play music or dance or share whatever that so desired. No auditions or rehearsals were required. Karen students from the Insein Seminary School performed Christmas carols for the audience. One year they even put on the Nativity play, all in celebrating the Birthday of Jesus.
On the evenings of the 22nd, 23rd and the 24th of December, different groups of people would come to our house to sing all through the night till dawn. Sometimes the house would be too full with people and a group of carol singers had to wait outside for their turn to come in. Hot coffee and teas, almond cookies and tangerines were served to everyone who came to our house. No invitations required. Sometimes some church or youth groups would send us cards to let us know in advance on the date and time of their visits. My brother Johnny’s teenager friends from the English Methodist School we went to were the noisiest and the loudest group of singers that I can remember. We spent the following days sleeping all day following those labouriously fun filled nights. I wish that my children, my nieces and nephews could have been there to be able to experience them themselves. I know this all sound so grand and over the top, but I would not have been able to describe these events had I not experienced them myself.
Looking back on how we were raised, I think my parents did well in raising us to be conscientious human beings. Speaking for myself, my father’s constant reminder to us on never to allow ourselves to feel superior or inferior to anyone has served us well in our adult lives. I was not even fully aware that we had a privileged childhood until my brother-in-law Bill Michel decided to Google and searched for the house that we grew up in.
When I speak of Thaminegone, the Karen village across the street, I never thought about how large our compound was until I took a closer look at the map. What used to be a driveway between Louisa Villa and Ruth Villa that led to the Main house is now actually a road that leads all the way downhill to the pond where I got clay to make mud balls for my homemade slingshots and sometimes for sculpting. There are other new roads and houses, a Buddhist monastery, some factory and commercial buildings, owned by the military government would be a good guess, and the expanded Yangon Technology University in place of the rice fields and the rubber plantation that my parents owned at one time. Yes I am definitely very lucky and blessed to be able to have lived this life, even as I am now leading a very simple and humble life.
May your Christmas be a jyful one & May the New Year bring you all that you wish for!
Love to all and God Bless.
