The Big Day

In Bangladesh, they call Christmas “Boro Din” (Big Day) and New Year’s “Choto Din” (Small Day). Although there are few Christians here, most people are familiar with this holiday and the Government offices are closed for it. Also, they recognize our Gregorian calendar new year’s day, but the Bengali calendar new year starts on our April 14 (by the way, the current Bengali year is 1415).

For our Christmas in Bangladesh, we found a small Christmas tree and our cook bought us some “Christmas” decorations (note in picture above, they resemble something you would see at Mardi Gras) for the tree and the house. We played some Christmas music, streaming from online radio stations when the internet was working well. We all bought some small gifts for each other (somehow Ezra got the most!) and I completely bought out the wrapping paper supply at the local “Hallmark” store (sold in 1.5’ x 3’ single sheets) to wrap the gifts. 

Christmas morning we had a fun webcam session with my family (and had ones with Jeremy’s family earlier and later in the week). Then we opened gifts, with Ezra going first. He actually did a little bit of the paper ripping, but overall he was not quite as interested as we thought he might be. We had a lovely Christmas lunch with special “pullao” rice and fried eggplant. Emily and I provided some entertainment singing Christmas songs and Ezra actually sounded like he was trying to sing along sometimes. One of the biggest highlights of the day was finally making the brownies that we had been saving from a package my mom sent us. And after Ezra was tucked away in his crib, we watched a Christmas movie and ate the warm brownies with some vanilla ice cream.

Ezra and the tree

Christmas Lunch

The Christmas afternoon nap (outside on the roof deck)