Sweet December

On November 30th, we celebrated sweet December. I had no clue what sweet December was, nor how important it was and you may be wondering the same thing, let me fill you in.


The practice of Sweet December, a religious celebration recognizing the impending birth of the Jesus Christ, and dates back for many generations among Christians from east Asia, especially among the Karen community. Traditionally, the Karen Christians gather at midnight on the evening of November 30 to welcome in the month that marks the birth of Jesus. In this tradition, Christmas is celebrated separately, but the entire month is considered sacred. The Sweet December service, then, is a deliberate time of worship that consecrates the month and beckons us to look forward to the coming of the "God with us One." (http://www.k95country.com/events/detail/703192/, 11/2011)

We were thinking that a few people would gather and we would pray.... we didn't realize they would ask us to decorate, That they would set up many chairs, cook LOTS of food and invite LOTS of people! We also did not know that the whole event would run for about 4 hours.... now that's a really long time when you do not understand the language. We started at 7pm with food, then had a service, watched the story of Noah on film and ate again! The night ended at midnight with a prayer. It was a good time, we enjoyed decorating, the food was great and we met new people. Following are pictures of the day, enjoy!

This is banana stem, yup we eat it!

Games with the kids

Bon fire and a movie