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

Kolkata News

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.)

Source: https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/merry-christmas-a-look-back-on-christmas-revelries-in-calcutta-in-december-1857