Merry Christmas: A look back on Christmas revelries in Calcutta in December, 1857

With the renewed scare of the pandemic, Christmas holidays have come under a cloud. Arguably the world's favourite festival, Christmas is unlikely to be the same this year. But even in the worst of times, the spirit of revelry, good times, fun and food associated with Christmas remained in the past.

Kolkata, one of the first cities to be colonised in India, embraced Christmas early. There was a secular zest to the celebration and even today plum cakes from the Jewish confectioners Nahoum’s from the New Market are deemed to be a must in middle class Bengali homes in the city, whatever be the faith they follow. Singing carols in the Church, eating out on and around Park Street or even a walk down the street to soak in the decorations, light, sound and smell are also deemed to be necessary. The spirit of Christmas prevails through the city decked up in fairy lights, and an assortment of Santa Claus ranging from the dishevelled to the imposing.

Curiously, even during an earlier crisis in 1857, when the Englishmen were vulnerable and were threatened by the mutiny by Indian Sepoys, the Christmas spirit did not totally abandon the city.

In December 1857, the British in India were still trying to suppress the rebellion which had broken out earlier that year. There was ennui all over the country. Kolkata being the capital was tense though there was no direct impact of the rebellion.

The edition of The Bengal Hurkaru published from Kolkata on Christmas Eve of 1857 provide an interesting insight into life in Kolkata during Christmas that year.

A quick glance on the front page suggest there was not much amiss in the first city of the East. The page carried advertisements of shipping firms offering voyages to London and Australia, a notice for the AGM of the Asiatic Society, of the arrival of consignments of Stilton cheese as well as Bengal almanacs and diaries for 1858.

The advertisement of purveyors D. Wilson and Company (David Wilson & Company) - owners of Asia, India and Kolkata’s longest surviving hotel - The Great Eastern Hotel - communicated that its ‘Hall of All Nations’ had a plentiful stocks of Christmas fare – turkey, ham, beef, and a wide variety of cakes, sweets and biscuits. ‘Hall of All Nations’ was actually a large first-edition of a departmental store in Asia owned and run by the hotel selling everything required by a lady or a gentleman.

William Walker, a Scottish-born Australian writer, also known as William Walker of Bombay, under his pen-name – Tom Cringle - wrote a series of letters around this time in the Times of India under the heading - ‘Jottings of an invalid in search of health’, in which he wrote, “During Christmas and New Year, Hall of All Nations constitutes one of the greatest sights of Calcutta. A ragged beggar may go at one end with a week’s growth of stubble on his chin, and rags on his back, but let him possess the universal medium, he may be shaved, have his hair cut, get a hot bath, fitted with new cloths cut in first style of London, new boots, new hat, and, oh a new sensation, a good dinner. And should he be a family man he can buy a new crinoline for his wife, together with bonbons and toys for his children. It has its coffee room – ‘Jerusalem’ - billiard room and dining rooms… they also make all sorts of cakes and ginger nuts and bake excellent bread.”

On Christmas eve, in the early evening, the leading lights from the town and the Rajas, Maharajas and Baboos would drop in for a customary drink on the ground floor hall before proceeding to the respective private parties. David-Nunes-Cardozo alias Dave Carson, the famous Blackface Minstrel artiste of 19th century India wrote a famous song about the Hall, as well, –

‘To Wilson’s, or to Spence's Hall

On holiday I stray.

With freedom call for mutton chops

And billiards play all day.

The servant catches from afar the hukum,

‘Jaldi jao, hey khidmadgar

Brandy, Sharab, Bilayetai Pani

Jaldi lao.’

For 1857 Christmas, Wilson Hotel’s (Great Eastern Hotel now) Hurkaru advertisement had the following statement tucked in it, obliquely referring to the uprise-

‘It is our hearty hope, that we may with our numerous Friends, join to celebrate a MERRY CHRISTMAS notwithstanding the heavy misfortunes that have befallen the Indian Empire since we last met to discuss the right good cheer which had been provided for all India AND its Inhabitants, in that Monster Establishment, “THE HALL OF ALL NATIONS”. Having however good reason to suppose that the British rule in India, is about being established in a firmer manner than ever it was before, we expect, not unreasonably, that our Friends will need the choicest and rarest Articles procurable, to enable them to usher in with great glee, A HAPPY NEW YEAR’.

The inner pages of the newspaper carried detailed reports of military operations, including the relief to war-torn Lucknow, with lists of casualties and returns of guns and ammunition seized from rebel sepoys. Several military promotions were also announced to fill the places of those killed recently. And these items were sandwiched between news of everyday life in Kolkata – the early closure of grog shops; the routine comings and goings of East India Company personnel; commercial and shipping intelligence; and performances by the famous Italian singer Signora Ventura, along with the Calcutta Town Band, and by Blackface minstrels from New Orleans.

Imperial Kolkata also had a tradition of printing her own version of Merry Christmas cards sans imagery of Victorian era dominated by nativity, snow-clad landscapes, robins bearing flowers and letters and so on and so forth - visuals that were profoundly reminiscent of a European winter celebration.

Frequently, without much reference to traditional European themes and with little interest in snow-clad winters, Kolkata had its own distinctive flavor of Christmas cards printed by Kolkata’s very own Thacker, Spink and Company which were a distinctive Kolkata Christmas novelty featuring her Foo-Foo-Tasha Band and the famous municipal or the New market in Chowringhee.

(Devasis Chattopadhyay is the author of the book ‘Without Prejudice’, a columnist and a Kolkata history buff.)