Christmas in Madagascar

Madagascans attend church services, gather with family for a Christmas feast, and decorate their homes. Kids anticipate gifts from Santa Claus and sing carols on the streets.

December in Madagascar is hot and humid, so locals don’t skate on ice rinks or build snowmen, but they have plenty of equally fun alternatives, including swimming, cycling, tanning, and dancing.

Regardless of the region and income level, all Madagascans honor their cultural heritage and embrace the real meaning of the holiday, emphasizing the importance of faith and family.

Christmas Decorations in Madagascar

African climate leaves no chance for a white Christmas, but Madagascans actively use decorations popular in the Northern Hemisphere regardless, including holly, pine trees, and artificial snow.

Many Madagascans decorate Christmas trees, but they are usually artificial because pines aren’t native to the region.

Some locals decorate the monkey puzzle tree instead, the African equivalent of pine. Palm trees adorned with string lights aren’t uncommon.

Overall, Madagascan Christmas tree decorations are the same as in the rest of the world – baubles, tinsel, bows, ornaments with holiday symbols, and fairy lights.

Poinsettias are native to the region and bloom in Madagascar year-round, so locals don’t even have to buy them. These fiery red flowers often adorn garlands and Christmas wreaths.

The streets of Madagascan towns sparkle with fairy lights, but decorations in remote villages are pretty humble.

Many locals live below the poverty line and can’t afford to buy decorations, but they put effort into crafting them from available materials.

The most important Christmas decoration in Madagascar, regardless of a family’s income level, is the nativity scene. Children traditionally craft Jesus’ crib from wood at schools or together with their parents.

Some people also make figurines of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus from clay or wood. They decorate the scene with native plants, making it appear natural.

Church Services

Christmas in Madagascar isn’t commercialized and is celebrated only by genuinely religious people, so the church attendance rate is very high. On Christmas Eve, all locals, young and old, attend the Midnight Mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Madagascan kids begin singing carols at 9 p.m. while the adults are getting ready. Madagascans wear their best clothes to the church even if they plan a laid-back feast afterward.

The Midnight Mass begins at around 10 p.m., the same as in the rest of the world, and ends around midnight. It involves reading passages from the scripture, singing traditional hymns, and praying at the nativity scene.

After the Midnight Mass, everyone goes home to celebrate with their families and wishes each other “Arahaba tratry ny Noely.” Even if the feast ends late, all Madagascans return to church on Christmas morning at 6 a.m. – there are no excuses.

After the Christmas morning church service, some people go home to continue celebrations, while others have to go work on the fields because Christmas is amidst the planting season in Madagascar.

The most attended Midnight Mass in Madagascar is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antsirabe, established in 1913.

Major celebrations also take place in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antananarivo and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Antsiranana.

However, not all regions in Madagascar have proper cathedrals. In small villages with a prevalently pagan population, Christians may only have tiny, dilapidated churches without doors, but this doesn’t stop them from rejoicing when the priest announces that Christ is born.

Dadabe Noely & Gift Exchange

Gifts aren’t a focal point of Christmas celebrations in Madagascar. Locals who can afford gifts exchange them with immediate family and closest friends, but presents aren’t mandatory.

Madagascans consider the thought more important than a gift’s monetary value.

Usually, Madagascans gift something practical, such as new clothes for the Midnight Mass, books, or homeware. This practice is widespread in South Africa.

While adults don’t care much about gifts, kids are never left without them. Santa Claus in Madagascar is called Dadabe Noely, translated as Grandfather Christmas.

Dadabe Noely is similar to American Santa Claus and has the same origin, a fourth-century bishop from Myra. Despite the hot climate, Madagascan Santa Claus also wears a red suit with white fur trims and a hat with a pompom.

However, Santa’s reindeer don’t tolerate heat, so he has to change his sleigh for a horse when going to Africa. Local kids can meet Santa to share their Christmas wishes and take pictures.

Many kids learn poems to please Santa and get better gifts. The most common Christmas gifts for kids in Madagascar are treats, clothes, and toys.

Christmas in Summer

Like everyone living in the Southern Hemisphere, Madagascans celebrate Christmas in summer, which may be challenging to visualize for people from the Northern Hemisphere.

Most Madagascans have never experienced a white Christmas unless they’ve traveled abroad, but they don’t seem to suffer from the lack of snow. Warm weather gives locals an opportunity to spend time outdoors.

Madagascans like to spend the Christmas holidays tanning, swimming, or playing volleyball on the beach. Some locals explore the island’s fantastic nature by hiking, cycling, or going on car trips.

Kids love to play football and other active games. Instead of a formal sit-down Christmas Eve dinner, most Madagascans have a relaxed outdoor Christmas Day lunch. Women wear light summer dresses, and men typically wear shirts with short sleeves.

Performances

Whether in cities or in rural villages, Christmas in Madagascar is never dull. Music is integral to the celebrations, so every town and village organizes caroling events with live music to boost the festive spirit of locals.

Some Madagascan Christmas carols are translations of famous European and American hymns, such as Oh Come Ye Faithful and Silent Night. Other songs are peculiar to the region. Children sometimes set nativity plays in schools and churches.

Many locals write their own Christmas poems and read them at church afternoon gatherings. Some draw pictures inspired by the nativity story. In other words, everyone expresses their talent.

After the Midnight Mass, people head to the churchyard where a Christmas tree or its equivalent is erected. They walk around the tree, holding hands, and sing.

Emphasis on Family

Madagascans place a strong emphasis on family at Christmas time. No Madagascan will choose friends over family for Christmas, and those who consider friends their family will invite them to join the gathering.

Locals who’ve moved to larger towns always return home for holidays and visit their elders to express their honor and gratitude. Many regions of the island aren’t connected by a railway, so locals have to travel by shared taxis.

Like all South Africans, Madagascans are very hospitable, outgoing people. They don’t limit the definition of family to parents and siblings but welcome all extended family, friends, and even neighbors to join the festivities.

For this reason, a Madagascan Christmas dinner may involve over a dozen of people and tends to be pretty loud. Women of the family gather on Christmas morning to cook together because one person can’t handle so much work.

Christmas Food in Madagascar

Food is one of the focal points of Christmas in Madagascar. Wealthy people go to restaurants, whereas locals from disadvantaged communities strive to buy the best food they can afford to make the Christmas meal special.

Throughout the Christmas season, everyone in Madagascar eats fresh lychees, so the roads are covered in lychee peel. People cook as many dishes as possible when they gather for a Christmas lunch.

Rice is the base of South African cuisine – Madagascans eat it year-round, several times a day, including Christmas. The most popular Madagascan Christmas dish is jollof rice with fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, garlic, meat, and spices.

Some locals prefer to cook rice with coconut milk, vegetable mix, beans, curry powder, and other ingredients. The variety of rice dishes in Madagascar is genuinely astonishing.

Families who grow their own food substitute rice for yucca or plantain and serve it with curd made from fermented zebu milk. Fish cooked in coconut or tomato sauce is a traditional Madagascan Christmas food in coastal regions.

Some locals make stew from diced zebu meat, tomatoes, onion, ginger, and spices or black pudding with white beans and boiled rice. Meat in Madagascan dishes can be different – chicken, pork, and goat are the most common options.

Of course, there’s a wide selection of juicy tropical fruits like mangoes, pineapples, guavas, and tamarinds, so Madagascans don’t have to worry about the dessert.

However, some locals make French pastries or banana fritters for dessert. Another popular Madagascan Christmas dessert is banana and pineapple flambee sprinkled with cinnamon.

Perhaps, the most unusual dessert in Madagascar is a dense steamed banana and peanut cake with rice flour and molasses-tyle sweetener. The cake is prepared in massive logs and cut for serving.

Any dish is accompanied by palm wine or Toaka Gasy, an alcoholic drink with fermented sugar canes and rice. Tropical cocktails with rum are perfect for desserts.