Happy Holidays from Sunday Morning
Christmas is well and truly upon us and with our Big Design Market stall and Pop Up Shop, it has been so busy that we haven’t managed a newsletter for awhile until now!
We have decorated the shop with colourful paper star decorations which Lichen got in Kochi, Kerala last December – you may remember an earlier newsletter she did about the trip – and it got her reminiscing about Christmas, India style.
Christmas is big over in Kerala, and was a lot of fun to be a part of as there are some interesting variations on our own traditions. We started noticing as Christmas was getting closer, child size scarecrows dressed in kids clothes and wearing Santa masks leaning against people fences. It was slightly eery and comical. Then in the evenings more and more groups of kids and teenagers were wandering around dressed in a mix of Halloween type costumes – usually one kid in a Scream mask, one dressed as a leopard and then often a mix of Hindu gods and always at least one Santa, all playing instruments and sometimes singing carols.
The streets are lit up with intricate paper star lanterns hanging outside of peoples gates and the festivities continue throughout December right up top New Years Eve when all the scarecrows are gathered up and taken to the beach where they are placed at the base of a 20 foot Father Christmas figure (called Papa) which is filled with fireworks and set on fire! Fireworks explode in every direction – its amazing and total mayhem. The kids and I chose to watch from a safe distance! On New Years Day there is a big carnival parade through the streets of Kochi, which goes for hours and includes a transvestite beauty competition! The feeling of a continuous community celebration was wonderful and was set to a non-stop soundtrack of firecrackers.
On Christmas day itself we were invited to spend with friends we made from the Secret Garden Hotel in Kochi where we had an incredible meal and were treated to a performance of sitar and tabla players. The trip overall was wonderful and the friends we made from Secret Garden we will see again in 2014 as Dylan and I have been invited to hold an artist in Residency program there in 2014. We can’t wait to go back and share it with a group of fantastic artists. Christmas day for our family this year will be quiet and involve a beach somewhere, which is great as we recover from a big 2013 and look forward to an exciting 2014. I hope your Christmas is filled with fun, food and festivities, Lichen x
Good News…
We have some great news!! Our Pop Up Shop, which was originally only going to be open until Christmas, is now staying open next year!! We will be closed in January and February for renovations, and then reopening early March. Of course, our webshop will continue to take orders while we are away over Christmas and New Years. Orders made after 12pm Friday 20th December will be sent out once we are back on January 6th.