{"id":66613,"date":"2025-12-25T01:50:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/what-is-christmas-like-for-non-christians\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T01:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T01:50:31","slug":"what-is-christmas-like-for-non-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/what-is-christmas-like-for-non-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Christmas like for non-Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"BobbyBobby Rao<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bobby Rao is Hindu but is happy to go to midnight Mass with his wife Josephine <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Former international cricketer Bobby Rao has a very important job on 25 December – he’s on turkey duty.<\/p>\n

Born in Hyderabad, Bobby played test cricket for India in the 1970s but has lived in Strabane, County Tyrone, since 1980.<\/p>\n

As a Hindu, 25 December does not hold any religious significance, but he and his Christian wife Josephine enjoy celebrating each other’s traditions, with midnight Mass on Christmas Eve a definite on the festive calendar.<\/p>\n

“As a Hindu, we respect all the religions, that’s how we were brought up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I have a lot of Christian friends back home in India, so we celebrated [Christmas] with them, we went to their homes and celebrated and when we had our Diwali [Hindu Festival of Lights] they came.”<\/p>\n

On Christmas Day, they will have more than two dozen friends around for a traditional turkey dinner, followed on Boxing Day by an Indian banquet.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be stuffing the turkey, my wife taught me how to do all that, so we have a perfect Christmas here.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NorthNorth West Migrants Forum<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Farida Hassan, who is Muslim and originally from Sudan, says she loves the Christmas celebrations in Northern Ireland<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Farida Hassan, a Muslim from Sudan, is spending her first Christmas in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Now living in Londonderry, she said she loved the way it brings families and communities together.<\/p>\n

“It’s the first time for me to see the celebrations of Christmas,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I know it means a lot for Christian people, it’s a big celebration for Christians and they just stay at home with their families and that’s an amazing thing.<\/p>\n

“The place where I live [in the Bogside] I see a lot of people doing the lights and I say to them on the street ‘Merry Christmas’ and they say ‘Merry Christmas to you, love, Merry Christmas’.”<\/p>\n

And while she does not have a Christmas tree of her own, she likes to see her neighbours’ decorations.<\/p>\n

On Christmas Day itself, she will have Sudanese-style chicken dinner with friends and just relax.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Beams of light were projected from a menorah in Trafalgar Square in London to celebrate Hanukkah<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, ended on 22 December this year.<\/p>\n

Michael Black, who is deputy chairman of the Belfast Jewish Community, said it had been a very anxious time following the attack on Jewish people in Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

Fifteen people were killed and dozens more injured<\/a> when two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration on 14 December.<\/p>\n

“It’s terrible, it’s a terrible atrocity,” he said, adding that the wider community here were “very supportive”.<\/p>\n

Like many non-Christians, some Jews have adopted some of the traditions associated with Christmas.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a survey from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research<\/a>, found that in the UK almost three in 10 (28%) said they put up a Christmas tree some years, most years or every year.<\/p>\n

“We don’t celebrate the religious festival of Christmas,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It only coincides with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.<\/p>\n

“Having said that, some families – especially where there are mixed marriages – will have a Christmas dinner, non-religious, where they will probably give presents to the children, just so that our own children don’t feel left out.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Bobby Rao Bobby Rao is Hindu but is happy to go to midnight Mass with his wife Josephine Former international cricketer Bobby Rao has a very important job on 25 December – he’s on turkey duty. Born in Hyderabad, Bobby played test cricket for India in the 1970s but has lived in Strabane, County Tyrone, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[2882,18991],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66615,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66613\/revisions\/66615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}