What does Christmas look like in Timor-Leste?
Chris and Julie Dean are serving the Lord in Timor-Leste, a place where Christmas is well-celebrated, but poorly understood. Here, they share what Christmas looks like for most Timorese people, and how God is at work in sending out the gospel.
This article is part two of the series, ‘Let every heart prepare him room: proclaiming the gospel at Christmas time’. Part one is here. Part three is here.
From our observations during our first two years in Timor-Leste, Christmas here could be encapsulated by five ‘F’s: faith, formality, festivity, family, and faithfulness.
Faith
Timorese culture is deeply religious. While most Timorese formally identify as Catholic, for many, their lived-out ‘faith’ is a hybrid of Catholicism with traditional Timorese animism, including ancestor-worship, and appeasement of much-feared spirits. This is the spiritual backdrop for the celebration of Christmas, Timorese-style.
Formality
Despite being a theoretically ‘Catholic’ country, it is striking to see many people thronging to Catholic mass on Sundays, and even more striking to observe that many, many more do not. Most men do not seem to participate. Yet, at Christmas (and Easter) the roads are thick with people–women, men, and children–coming and going from mostly Catholic churches.
While many Timorese people are poor, at Christmas everyone strives to have a ‘new’ (often second-hand) set of clothes to wear to Church. Some people buy metres of colourful fabric for the family to wear matching clothes to Christmas church services.
Since many people define themselves as either Catholic or Protestant (depending on which family they are born into), there is a lot of nominal Christianity, including within the minority Protestant denominations.
Festivity
Nonetheless, Christmas is a very festive time in Timor. There are Christmas-themed decorations in the streets, neighbourhoods and western-type shops. In smaller localities outside of Dili, communities often set up elaborate, life-sized nativity scenes. Fireworks are relatively cheap here (and apparently unregulated), so many people set off fireworks on Christmas Eve and Christmas night.
Family
Christmas is also very much a family-focused time. Like many Australians, Timorese gather with their families either at home or by the beach to celebrate. As with any Timorese celebration, food is an important component of these family gatherings. Timorese people especially like to eat katupa: a form of rice cooked with coconut milk in small single-use baskets, woven from palm leaves. As Christmas approaches, these katupas are for sale everywhere from street-vendors.
Faithfulness
The evangelical church in Timor-Leste is small and peripheral in the culture’s eyes. Yet, especially at Christmas, evangelical churches, including the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Timor-Leste, (EPCTL) continue striving to faithfully testify to the gospel of God’s grace, found in Jesus Christ alone. We praise God for such gospel faithfulness amongst evangelical believers.
Most of the EPCTL congregations hold a service either on Christmas Eve (or in the week prior to Christmas), as well as on Christmas Day. Since it is culturally normal to attend church at Christmas, these services are a great opportunity to clearly preach the gospel to irregular churchgoers and nominal Christians. This year, we will again be participating in some of these services, some of which Chris will be preaching at.
Please pray with us that many Timorese who are not yet personally trusting in Jesus will prepare room for him this Christmas, responding in true faith to the great news of his gospel.
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Timor-Leste needs more gospel workers to serve in the evangelical church and faithfully proclaim the message of Christ. Would you consider joining God’s mission to help send the gospel out in Timor-Leste? Contact your local branch to start a conversation today.
