INDIA, VARANASI: CHRISTMAS EVE MASS AT ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL

 December 24, 2025

I wasn't too thrilled about spending Christmas in a non-Christian country, but in the end I think it was a good experience. We enjoyed our Sunday service in an LDS Ward, and we had the opportunity to go to a Christmas Eve Mass in Varanasi in St. Mary's Cathedral, a Gothic Revival-style church that is the episcopal seat for Varanasi. Since Catholics make up only 0.1% of the population of the Agra Ecclesiastical Province that includes Varanasi, it is impressive that they have this building and could pull off this level of celebration.

St. Mary's was established in 1854 during the British colonial era and attained cathedral status in 1970. The current church was finished and dedicated in 1993.

The cathedral was less than a mile from our hotel, so we decided to walk there rather than worry about catching a cab, rickshaw, or Uber. Once we got in the general vicinity, the church was hard to miss because of the lit-up Christmas decorations.

The highlight of the outdoor decorations was a nativity scene that ran almost the entire length of the yard from the entry gate to the church building. The stable and Holy Family were in the center, with the shepherds arriving on the left end . . . 

. . . and the wisemen arriving with their camels on the right end.

INDIA: RETURN TO DELHI AND SUNDAY CHURCH IN AN LDS WARD

 December 21-22, 2024

Bob left early in the morning for one more birding trip with Bablu while the rest of us enjoyed a slower morning with time to pack and eat breakfast. A van and driver picked us up around 10:30 AM and we began the long trek back to Guwahati and the airport. This time I sat up front, and the driver was much, much smoother. We also seemed to be on better roads, so I wonder if we took a different (perhaps longer?) route. Anyway, I survived without motion sickness.

We had another difficult pass through the airport. We had no ticket confirmations or boarding passes, which apparently were required just to get through the first door. The officials finally let us in, but three of us had to stay near the entrance guards while Bob picked up our boarding passes. Our time in Guwahati and Kaziranga was the only part of the trip where we were not with Audley Travel, the agency Bob used to plan the rest of the trip, and it reinforced that when you travel to India, it is a good idea NOT to do it on your own. We are pretty experienced, savvy travelers, and it was almost too much for us!

When we had arrived in Guwahati four days before, we didn't stay long in the airport. This time we were there for several hours waiting for our departure time.  We admired the holiday decor. 

We tried to understand why these signs were on the trash cans.

We hunted and hunted for something for dinner and finally ordered a veggie pizza that came with corn, green olives, green peppers, onions and ketchup.  Yeah, no.

ITALY: NAPLES - DANTE PIAZZA, MARADONA, STREET ART, THE CHAPEL OF SANSEVERO, CHRISTMAS ALLEY, AND THE CHURCH OF SOULS IN PURGATORY

March 15, 2024

After a decent night of sleep, we met Chris and Stan for a mediocre breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 AM. We had 9:00 tickets for our first destination, and we had to figure out how to get there.

The streets are very narrow, and we were quite impressed by the parking job of the car below. We were also very glad we didn't have a car that we had to park. The ice cream visual on the right was tempting, but we couldn't be late for our first appointment.

This is the University Institute of Mediation. At first I thought that was "Meditation," and that those four guys holding up the balcony were deep in thought. 

It turns out they need someone to negotiate their release.

FRANCE 2000: CHARTRES AND VERSAILLES

 December 24, 2000

It was Christmas Eve AND Sunday and we were not sure what would be open, but we began our day by driving to Chartres to see its massive Gothic cathedral, built mostly between 1193 and 1250 and with additions as recent as the 17th century. Considered to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979.

The story is told that during World War II, the city itself was heavily bombed in August 1944. An order was given to destroy the cathedral as it was thought to be in use by the Germans as an observation post. An American army officer named Colonel Welborn Barton Griffith, Jr., challenged the order, volunteering to go behind enemy lines to investigate. He entered the cathedral and after searching it from the crypt to the bell tower, declared it free of Germans by ringing the bell and waving an American flag from the tower. The cathedral was spared. Tragically, Colonel Griffith was killed in action later on that day a few miles north of the city. Posthumous medals and awards from both the US and France are not enough to recognize his bravery and foresight.  (Photo from Wikipedia)

Unlike many of the other cathedrals of Europe, the stained glass windows also survived the war. When the war started in 1939, master glass artisans dismantled hundreds of the precious stained glass windows, and with the help of local volunteers, packaged the windows in crates and stored them in the crypt. Just before German invaders reached the area, the French people hauled them across the country to be stored in an underground quarry. In August 1944, bombs blew out the cathedral's temporary windows.

The cathedral is massive--430 feet long and 151 feet wide with a nave height of 121 feet. It covers 117,060 square feet. The two towers are 344 and 371 feet.  

DALLAS: FOOD TRUCKS, A CATHEDRAL, AND A CHRISTKINDLMARKT

After spending an hour and a half in the Dallas Museum of Art (about a third as long as I would have liked to stay here and about three times as long as Bob would have been there on his own), we crammed three more things into our evening.

1. Directly across the street from the Dallas Museum of Art is the Klyde Warren Park, a 5.2-acre urban refuge created by Dallas billionaire Kelcy Warren and named for his only child. The park has lots of seating and a nice track that was busy with walkers and runners and a quinceanera party when we were there.

However, as nice as the park is, what drew us across the street were the seven food trucks stationed along the park's perimeter. America's growing obsession with food trucks has been fully embraced in Dallas:

We walked up and down the line-up, struggling with what to choose. This menu tempted us. I was especially intrigued by "The Dead Elvis." 

JAPAN: A NEW CHRISTMAS TRADITION

While reading about Christmas traditions, I ran across this interesting tidbit:
"Christmas in Japan means one thing: Fried chicken from KFC. Poultry is a rarity in Japan, and the custom of ordering from the fast food chain likely started when Americans on the prowl for a traditional Christmas bird had to settle for the Colonel’s golden-fried alternative. In the 1970s, noticing an uptick in sales around the holidays, KFC saw an opportunity to start a new Christmas tradition and began to advertise its chicken as an integral part of the holiday season in Japan. Now, several decades later, the Japanese have embraced fried chicken at Christmas with an almost maniacal devotion. Customers reserve their buckets months in advance, and those foolish enough to wait until Christmas Eve have to wait in lines that snake for blocks to get a taste of the Colonel’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. But I’m sure the wait is worth it, because there’s nothing more magical at this time of year than gathering the family around the chicken bucket."  (Found on this site.)

I laughed and thought to myself, Surely this is someone's stretching of the truth.  I emailed Rachael and asked her if she had ever heard of this tradition, and she replied, "Yep! In fact I vividly remember seeing a special stand outside one KFC during the first Christmas we were married [and living in Japan] that was manned by a female KFC employee dressed in a Santa outfit...with a short skirt of course. KFC also makes sense because of the colors. Red and white are auspicious."

A quick search of the internet yielded hundreds of supporting statements and pictures:

Yeah, I know he doesn't look Christmas-y, but I just couldn't resist.

Time to scrap the Southern California tradition of tamales on Christmas Eve.  I'm all for trying a year with the Colonel in his auspicious red and white suit!

How about you?  Do you have any culture-based Christmas traditions?

CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS: TRAVEL

I've gotten in the habit of picking up new Christmas tree ornaments when we travel. I think it all started with this ornament, sent to us from Hawaii by my mother-in-law a few months after we visited my in-laws there when they were on a two-year assignment for my father-in-law's work:

After we got this ornament, I just couldn't stop myself.  On the domestic front, we have these:

Purchased on a Church History tour in 2003, Palmyra, NY

Valley Forge

Louisiana's Bayou country, 2005

 Andrew even got in on the act WITHOUT my urging.  On his 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C., he came home with this gift for me--a tree ornament:

 

It's been especially fun to purchase international ornaments.  We got most of the ones I include below in the country itself, but a few (the mosque and the Chinese dancers) were purchased at World Market here in Redlands. 

King Henry VIII came from the very first international trip Bob and I took together: 

England, 1999

 We returned to England a few years later:

On that same trip we spent a few wonderful days on the Isle of Man, site of much Cannon family history:

Over Christmas and New Year's 2000-2001 we all traveled to France to pick up Rachael from her study abroad semester in Paris:

On that trip we also met up with my mother in Germany.  One of our favorite stops was the Weihnachtsmarkt in Salzburg, where I bought two long strands of these straw ornaments.  When I brought them home, I cut them apart into forty individual ornaments, and they are now one of the main design items on our tree:

At that same market we purchased these two woodland fairies:

In 2002 we took a winter trip to Italy.  Unfortunately, on the day we were in Pisa, the Tower was closed and we did not get to go inside:

 

In 2007 we traveled to Japan to see our cute new granddaughter Savannah:

 

While there, we took a little side trip to China:

In 2009 we went to Peru with the other partners in Bob's law firm and their wives:

  This past year we went on a cruise that included, among other countries, Turkey:


. . . and Ukraine (where I lost control as far as ornaments go, but they were all so cute):

. . . and Greece

 

I realize that I don't have any ornaments  from our trip to Spain with Andrew in 2006.  We'll have to go back so I can get one.   I'm also hoping for lots more ornaments from other countries in the years to come! Maybe an Egyptian camel, a Polish grandma, an Indian elephant, a Dutch tulip, an African warrior, an Australian kangaroo . . .

A EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS

"Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance--each beautiful, unique, and too soon gone."
- Deborah Whipp

One of our more memorable family Christmases was spent in Europe in 2000. Rachael was just finishing up a study abroad program in Paris and my mother was going to Germany for the holidays, so we decided to take the boys to pick up Rachael, explore Germany with Mom, and travel through France with Rachael as tour guide.

Several of our most beloved Christmas decorations were purchased in Germany and Austria on that trip. With Mom gone now, they mean even more to me. Every year when I get them out, I will remember the wonderful week we shared with her in her homeland.

The first two were purchased in Rothenburg, an absolutely gorgeous medieval walled city in Bavaria.

Fisherman smoker/incense burner

Appliqued tablecloth

The others were purchased in Salzburg, Austria, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, especially during the Christmas season when all the Christmas Market stalls are set up in the city square and the air is filled with the heady aroma of the hot Christmas wine everyone (well, almost everyone) drinks and the scent of roasting chestnuts, which my mom loved and we consumed several times on the trip.Polish Christmas tree votive (I loved Polish pottery even then, three years before Sam's mission):

50 or so gold straw stars for our Christmas tree

Two Christmas fairies

We had many, many memorable experiences on that trip with Mom, a subject for another post.

After about a week with Mom, we went on to France and she stayed in Germany with friends. December 24, 2000, found us first in Chartres, visiting the massive cathedral with its famous blue stained glass window.
Later that morning we attended sacrament meeting in Rachael's ward in Versailles. A sweet man slipped unbidden onto the bench next to Bob and whispered an English translation of the meeting to us. The humble simplicity of the sacrament meeting, chapel, and members contrasted sharply with the massive splendor of what we had just seen at Chartres and what we would see later that day. It was kind of like the contrast between the humble shepherds and the wealthy kings who visited the Christ child--both wonderful, just different. After church we visited Rachael's host family (I wish I had a picture!) and were touched by their love for her.

We spent the afternoon walking around the Palace of Versailles with its wonderful assortment of "rainbow rooms" (each a different bold color and decorating scheme) and its exquisite grounds. We ate very little all day to prime our appetites for what we anticipated would be a delicious Christmas Eve dinner in a nice restaurant. Much to our dismay, we discovered that NO restaurants were open anywhere in Versailles on Christmas Eve. Unlike in the United States, everyone was home with family and friends and the streets were silent. We ended up eating incredibly disgusting cold Chinese take-out from a nearby Asian "deli," the only place we could find that was doing business.

We went to Midnight Mass in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Versailles (not to be confused with THE Notre Dame in Paris) and reveled in the pomp and pageantry of the ceremony, but the most memorable thing about the mass was that the magnificent, bellowing organ behind us in the organ loft had a key that kept sticking, causing almost uncontrolled giggles from our bench. Still, it was a beautiful (and very educational) service, full of fervor and devotion.

On Christmas morning we opened a few small gifts in our hotel room, then spent the day wandering up and down the Champs Elysee in Paris.

In the end, being together
was the best gift of all.