We spent Christmas Day at a rather fine upmarket beach resort about an hour's drive south of Trivandrum. We were enjoying the wonderfully generous hospitality of our Trivandrum homestay hosts and their resort-owning sister, and we had the run of the place for the day. But one unexpected restriction was that we couldn't actually go onto the beach.
Christmas Day was the one day of the year when the beach was the sole province of its real owners - the local fishermen and their families. Every other day the western tourists could bathe, parade, or sunbake, show off a few acres of white flesh if they liked. It was tolerated. But not today. The locals had their civilian marshals posted, and were turning back any intrepid westerners, like the Swiss family we'd got to know, who tried to crash the party. At the resort itself, the security staff had locked the bottom gate, and were politely explaining the situation.
They were having a lot of fun on that beach. They were all Catholics, we were told, so not only were they celebrating Christmas Day, but they were also celebrating it with alcohol. Much of the fun consisted of groups of men throwing each other into the water. Likewise groups of women. Always segregated sexes, always fully clothed. No wonder they didn't want the westerners there to complicate it all!
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