A hint of sweetness for Christmas celebration
Source: The Sangai Express / Mungchan Zimik

Ukhrul, January 03 2018: The Tangkhul Churches had a charming conventional practice of greeting one another a Merry Christmas by distributing packets of jaggery/gur (Shimlaksa in Tangkhul dialect) as Christmas gift to all the congregation members of the Churches during the Christmas festival.

Greeting by distribution of jaggery/gur was visible in all the Christmas celebration venues.

The locals who are fond of jaggery, would wait eagerly for their turn.

Special programme of jaggery plucking was also organised after the midnight service at the Churches.

A hint of sweetness for Christmas celebration

Churches of Ukhrul District especially the Tangkhul community would spend lavishly in purchasing the sweet every year.

As per the size of the Church members, jaggery ranging from 300 kgs � 1200 kgs were purchased for celebrating Christmas thus spending over Rs 1 crore of every year for the festival.

When the locals were asked why they purchase the sweet, they stated that they consider jaggery as an indispensable items, often served as Shimlaksa during the occasion.

Jaggery is unrefined sugar prepared from sugarcane and is not recommend for diabetic people and too much consumption can cause over weight.

A 95 years old person S Luikham, who has been an active Church worker since his youth, said gur was the only sweet items which was available during the early time and has been his favourite ever since.

Gur served with hot water was a common recipe used at home or Church, instead of tea.

Another aged women Ayiwon said Christmas without jaggery is an incomplete Christmas celebration.

Her family would collect 2-3 kgs of gur every year.

The locals eagerly wait for the announcement "Ara Gur Yao ura" which means time for distribution of jaggery and many women folks would be curious about the quantity of gur received.

Many of the Pastors would say that it is a conventional culture and practice of Church to serve Christmas gift to their congregation members.

They further said that the Church still follow a practice of delivering the share of gur to those members who missed the festival.