Daniël Trusiewicz of Poland oversees the European Baptist Federation’s Indigenous Missionary Project, an effort to facilitate evangelism and planting new Baptist churches in Europe, the Middle East and central Asia.
Christmas is preceded by the four weeks of Advent. The culmination of Advent is Christmas Eve. Families gather around the festal table for a special meal. The food can be served only when the first star can be visible in the sky. People start this meal by breaking a wafer bread — a piece of flat and white bread — and exchanging good wishes. It is also important to be reconciled with each other.
After that, people eat a semivegetarian meal composed of several dishes. A red beetroot soup, dumplings filled with cabbage, different types of fish, fruit drink and poppy-seeds cake would be particularly popular. Meat is not allowed on that night. One place at the Christmas Eve table must be free for a potential guest. This is a symbol of hospitality and openness to an invisible presence of the One who once was rejected when He came to this earth from heaven.
After the meal, people sing carols and give gifts to each other. All gifts are laid at a Christmas tree, and children always wait impatiently for the moment of unwrapping them. This is practiced in order to remember that God had sent His Son as the gift to humankind. At midnight, the Roman Catholics attend a Christmas Mass.
Baptists would practice the same rituals as Catholics, except for the midnight Mass.
Most Baptist churches would have a family service with children singing carols, reciting poems or acting the Nativity stories according to the Bible. Children often get gifts in churches that are prepared by Sunday Schools. Sermons during Christmas would be based on the stories about the birth of the Savior, and carols would be sung in churches.
I personally like that Christmas is a family reunion. People try to be reconciled for this occasion and are even more friendly than usual. I think it is really important that Christmas can be celebrated, because it reminds us of the Savior who became man so that sinners may have eternal life.
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