SCENTS TO CONNECT WITH OURSELVES

By Ana-Elena Sastrias, IPF Chair Australia and Teacher

SCENTS OF CHRISTMAS TIME

Christmas time is celebrated throughout many days, even after Christmas Day. In some countries, they extend it up to the first days of February.
Christmas time, in Winter time, is decorated with beautiful Christmas ornaments,
lights, and listening to Christmas Carols, Classical music or any other music that invites us to reflect and relax, sometimes, we also get music to gather with family and friends and enjoy the time sharing love, food, songs, games and gifts. Christmas time, in Summer time, in some places they like to have similar Christmas decoration, music and food than the people from Northern Hemisphere, but in general, due to the warm season, people are more relaxed about decorations, and more attuned to go out and swim, smell the flowers in bloom from Spring, experience the breeze and humidity and enjoy the birds and flying insects pollinating flowers and plants.

What is the Scent of Christmas Celebration made of?
Depending of our culture of origin, this Scent will vary.

In Western Christian Culture is generally a cozy blend of warm spices (cinnamon, clove,
nutmeg), fresh conifer greens (pine, fir, cypress, spruce), sweet baked goods (ginger bread,
almond bread, vanilla, anise), bright citrus (orange, lemon) mixed with peppermint, all in
harmony with mulled wine and cider with cherries, cranberries mixed with the smell of turkey, ham, beef or chicken and potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, beans, chick peas, green peas. Inside the churches, the smell of tuberose and myrrh, frankincense and candles accompanied with Anthems and Christmas Carols.
In Southern Europe, the smell of fish and seafood with peppers, olive oil harmonises
with sweet nuts deserts, dried fruit, red and white wine or mulled wine, cider, brandy to drink. The Christmas decoration also include fresh conifer greens adding a fresh earthy smell. The Christmas style of sweet bread is puffed yeast-based, like in Italy, they have Panettone, in Greece, something similar to Panettone, they have it also for Easter, in Spain, they have “Rosca de Reyes” for the 6th of January. These sweet puffed breads have lots of sugar and dried fruits and usually are taken with frothy warm cocoa drink. The smell in that time is sweet almond, vanilla, fruity, icy sugar, cacao, vanilla like.

In Mexico and some Latin-American countries, the European and Spanish influence is
there in Christmas, but at least in Mexico, we have added some other dishes and aromas into Christmas, like the powder of dried prawns mixed with cooked rosemary and spicy and hot “mole” paste and cooked small potatoes. Some people may cook prawns as a tradition too. Another traditional dish is “Chiles en nogada”, a delicacy of stuffed capsicums or “Chile Poblano” with minced pork meat, blended almonds, covered in an almond sauce and pomegranate seeds. This dish mixes the green spicy chilly with the sweetness of almonds, pork meat and the bitterness of pomegranate seeds. Some more indigenous alcoholic drinks are also part of the tradition like Pulque, Tequila.
Some other Latin-American countries in South America, will cook “ceviche”, based in
fish, seafood, potatoes, lime juice, peppers, salt, tomatoes, coriander, cucumber, avocado, red onion, garlic, and orange juice. This is a very fresh, oceanic smell dish.

In Australia and New Zealand, similar Christmas Celebration custom as the Northern
Hemisphere, with some more simplicity and flexibility adding as a desert “The Pavlova”
a Meringue based fruit creamy desert with strawberries, black berries, kiwi fruit, mango slices. It is soft, easy to digest, sweet combined with the bitterness of the fruit white wine, cider or rose wine are served as drink, seafood is also popular and fish with potato chips and lots of vegetables like potatoes, carrots, spinach, sweet potato, parsley, coriander, mint, orange, lime, lemon, beetroot, red onions, garlic, mushrooms, all blended in black-pepper, marine salt or pink pepper. After dinner, the scents from black tea or herbal tea infusions with milk or coffee or chocolate milk are enjoyed.

In the Middle East, Christmas celebration dishes feature with roasted lamb or chicken,
usually stuffed with spiced rice and nuts (pine nuts and almonds) combined with fruits like dates, also hummus, tabouli, baba ganoush, kebbeh with coriander, peppers as garnish for the dishes. The Baklava is a very sweet festive cake that also is added into the Christmas Celebration. There are regional variations including the Syrian stuffed turkey, Palestinian Qedreh (lamb, rice, chickpeas) and Egyptian Fatta, all seasoned with spices like cinnamon, allspice and baharat.

In Asian Countries, they adopted some of the Western Christmas traditions blent with
their own particular dishes for festivities:
In Japan, they use KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) nuggets with a desert dish “Strawberry
shortcake” which it is a fluffy sponge cake with cream and fresh strawberries. Other sweets
more into the Japanese custom are “Wagashi”, are moulded traditional sweets in the shape of snowmen.
In Philippines, they have baked rice cake with coconut milk, salted egg and cheese called
“Bibingka”. The “Puto Bumbong” is a purple rice cake steamed in bamboo, served with butter, coconut and sugar. Also they have a variety of pastries. They also have many Spanish influence savoury dishes for this celebration made of pork, chicken and beef.
In Vietnam, they have noodle soups, savoury crispy rice cakes with meat and for desert,
chocolate log cake with French influence recipe.
In India, they celebrate with hearty meat dishes with spices like “Biryani and Curries”, accompanied with sweets like “Nankhatai,Bolinhas and Karanji”. For roasted meats, they use goose and duck.
In Thailand, they use spicy red curry with coconut milk, herbs and meat. As a desert,
mango sticky rice with coconut milk.
In Korea, there are savoury pancakes with vegetables, meat or seafood, braised short ribs.
As a desert, rice cake soup, traditionally for New Year celebrations but also shared on
Christmas celebrations.
As decorations in Asian countries, Mango Trees are decorated for Christmas and oil-
burning lamps are used in India.
In China, people prefer to have Christmas celebration outside, instead of cooking at
home. Their food varied from hot pots to Western foods. People give apples to friends and
love ones. Apple signifies “fruit of peace” to Chinese. Some of the staples for Christmas dinner are chicken, duck or dumplings. As a desert, they have coated hawthorn fruits with malt sugar on a bamboo skewer.
In African Countries, there is a vibrant feast of spiced rice dishes, roasted meats (chicken,
goat and turkey) with flavour stews and sides of fried plantains salads and small chops like rich fruitcakes, sticky fruit puddings.

As you can see, Christmas time scents are varied wherever you are.
This is an aromatic glimpse of the World Christmas Celebration Season in food and aromas and decorations as part of the way people stop and value community, reflection, and gathering for peace and harmony. These scents throughout the world are made for us to enjoy, to recover that vibrancy and motivation, and to reconnect with Nature and with ourselves!