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December 24, 2008
Holiday in Cambodia
WATCH THIS SPACE, friends and confidants, for a full account of Mr. Flynn's attempts to "save Christmas" in a country that does not technically celebrate said holiday.
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Ever since I was a little kid, I loved Christmas. I've never been particularly religious in my love of Christmas (I usually fell asleep during church services), but I am such a sucker for the spirit of the season, for gift giving and christmas caroling and funny beverages and various strange norse/germanic holdovers from paganism.
In fact, I decided that even though I had to work on christmas, I would still ring in the season as festively as possible. Christopher suggested the idea of getting Santa suits from friends in Hong Kong (where they have a yearly Santa pub crawl, and thus good supply of Santa suits.) I brought up the idea of going out to the shooting range in Santa outfits. We also floated various ideas like riding around in a cyclo on christmas, giving candy to random children and strangers. Though I didn't get to pull that off, I do have a long-lasting souvenir of this christmas season: a custom-made Cambodian Santa outfit. I decided to have one made after concluding that a) getting one made wouldn't cost any more than buying a Santa suit would, b) none of the Santa suits available here would fit me comfortably, and c) the idea of a custom-made Santa suit is just plain awesome.
[Photo to come: Mr Flynn in Santa attire, riding in a tuk-tuk]
So, as I do when I need anything, I went to the russian market to buy fabric and find a tailor. Luckily, I had Wanna (librarian extraordinare and friend of PIA) along to explain what precisely I wanted. The fabric is either thick silk or some sort of partly-synthetic material, but it looked like it would breathe decently well. The tailor hadn't done work like this before, but luckily there was a child-sized santa suit hanging in one of the nearby stalls. It was a 3-4 day turnaround and I ended up with something that will proabably make a good pair of pajamas when/if I move to a colder climate. (The Santa Hat I already bought: it says "Feliz Navidad" and lights up when you press a button. It, too, is awesome)
My love of secular 'xmas' is probably a good thing, since at the university we are officially not allowed to discuss religion or politics. So when I talked about Christmas, I tried to emphasize that most of the traditions we observe aren't particularly Christian either. I explained the influence of Yule and Saturnalia on current traditions, and I pointed out that Santa Claus is a great way to get children to behave. My students more or less have a decent understanding of who Santa Claus is (though one of my students confidently claimed that Santa was a "ship captain"), but I made sure they knew that Santa only gives presents to good children. Christmas is something that's really only caught on in the last ten years, mostly as a social or commercial kind of event here. But Santa outfits make people happy, so it's become fairly common to dress little kids up as Santa. Cambodian children are already unbearably adorable, so this just makes them even more so--especially when they wear fake beards. I didn't manage to ride around town, but I did visit my fellow teacher Boramy and her son, Alexander (named after Pushkin...a legacy of her 1980s study in russia.)
Here's Boramy's description of my visit:
"My son - Alex - likes Santacloud or Christmas man. He learns that he is welcomed by a Christamas man if he behaves well. This year, Adam visited my home with his red christmas suit and the chocolate of Christmas man and Christmas tree. They got along very well in English language. Adam is not a religious person.He just sings the variety of his christmas songs with the long deep memory of his childhood.That's great for me and Alex."
Posted by flynn at December 24, 2008 8:41 PM
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Comments
I am watching with a spyglass
Posted by: kunstlerin at December 25, 2008 9:41 AM
I am in suspense.
Posted by: Brendan at December 29, 2008 1:30 AM
OK, the thing about a "teaser" -- whether in print, on air, or in cyberspace -- is that you are supposed to then deliver! Your "dear readers" are getting blue balls!
Posted by: Ann at December 30, 2008 1:45 AM
Picture of most adorable kid Santa ever a good first step, but readers still demand post!
Posted by: Ann at January 7, 2009 7:16 AM
In the old Germanic folklore that gave rise to the modern Santa Claus, Santa was accompanied by a dirty little ethnic-looking dwarf named Schmutzlie. Basically, if you were good Santa would give you candy and presents; if you were bad he would instruct Schmutzlie to put you in a burlap sack and carry you into the woods, where he would beat you with a hickory switch. Funny how that bit gets left out these days. We're left with this watered down "On Dasher, etc." rubbish.
Posted by: Will Scharf at January 8, 2009 12:16 PM
little Cambodian santa with beard! too cute! too cute!
Posted by: helen at January 9, 2009 5:06 PM
It's nice to see that you are still the same quirky, fun loving guy that I had the pleasure to "teach". Gosh, that seems like so long ago, but all the memories are worth their weight in gold. I still laugh remembering the good times and those "Flynnisms". Keep the stories coming!
Posted by: Diane Tyree at January 12, 2009 1:41 PM