Christmas in the Orient

We had our Christmas yesterday already, on the 23rd. Strangely early of course, but I’m working both today (Swedish Christmas) and tomorrow (American Christmas). Ideally we’d like to just forget about the whole business. It’s too much work to prepare for a holiday without a single day off to buy presents, cook food and clean the house. But although the Taiwanese don’t officially celebrate the day, there is no escaping it. Relatives send presents, our kids demand parties, department stores jingle their bells, our friends invite us over. Our arms twisted, we finally gave in to the festive spirit.

Yesterday we went to my friend Zhiben’s new house. Unusually for Taiwan they have an oven in their kitchen, and we inaugurated it with a big turkey. (Turkeys aren’t easy to find either, but we finally tracked one down in Taipei). It was very pleasant. We ate too much, drank Belgian banana beer, played snooker, watched TV, and felt slightly nauseous on the way back home. Despite the Oriental setting, it was a very traditional Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all Mango readers from Hsinchu, Taiwan.