Asian panto!

I woke to someone on the radio talking about Christmas. He was clearly a Muslim. He was talking about pantomime with some enthusiasm.
He belonged to a group putting on a show at Christmas and was obviously very happy with it...
It took me back to my time teaching English as a second language in Rochdale with the first wave of Asian immigrants.
Christmas was to begin with, difficult. We were not attempting to convert them but we did need to explain what it was all about so when the man on the radio this morning said Christmas for him was a time of friendship and joy I cheered.
That was just what we had been aiming at..and we were rewarded by some very odd Christmas cards...my favourite was addressed to "My dear Grandmother."
One year we did a pantomime.
Goldilocks was chosen and we had no trouble casting three bears but the female roll was difficult. The girls were not willing to take part and we never pushed them so a small very dark boy was happy to oblige.
One of the staff produced a blonde wig and the twelve year old boy looked very strange indeed but he really wanted to do it.
The rehearsals were not easy but the children threw themselves into it .
"Whose been eating my porridge?" was heard throughout the school on the lead up to the last day of term...
The imam was invited and we settled down to a very rough bit of pantomime.
It delighted everybody .....as an introduction to a Christian festival it proved not very alien but went some way towards an explanation....not of the birth of Christ but of the joy of the festive spirit.
Everyone, Christian and Muslim shared that joy. I really hope that some of it lingers ...we certainly need it to.



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