How Hong Kong’s expatriate communities keep Christmas traditions alive far from home
For Germans and Swedes the holiday mood starts with Advent, for Brazilians there’s a feast and new clothes, the French prepare 13 desserts, while Russian speakers wait for Uncle Frost to arrive
Christmas celebrations begin early for teacher Andrea Springmann. On the first Sunday in December, she places an Advent wreath with four large candles on her coffee table to signal the start of festivities. After a special breakfast, she lights the first candle and her children open the first window of their chocolate-filled Advent calendars.
Then they light another candle every Sunday until all four candles on the Advent wreath are lit. Advent, which means “arrival” or “coming” is a tradition followed by many families in her native Germany and Springmann’s family try to keep it in their adopted home, too.
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“It is very important to us to celebrate Christmas the German way,” says Springmann, who came to Hong Kong about seven years ago to join her husband. “We want our children, who were both born in Hong Kong, to know our traditions and how we experienced Christmas back home.”
Her children particularly enjoy the ritual of placing a pair of freshly polished shoes outside their bedroom door on the night of December 5, the eve of St Nicholas Day. If they’ve been good, St Nicholas will leave them sweets and a toy. But if they’ve been naughty, his assistant Knecht Ruprecht will drop a piece of coal in their shoes – something Springmann has not resorted to.
This Christmas Eve, other German friends will join the family in her Mid-Levels home to enjoy their annual feast, followed by Christmas songs and opening of presents, brought by the Christkind, or Christ-child.
No one has a good grasp of the number of expatriates living in Hong Kong. Social indicators point to a rising population although immigration officials only count the number of foreigners physically in the city on the last day of each month (603,229 in December 2012).