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SantaCon to Santarchy: Madness at Trafalgar Sqaure

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Sorry that I have not blogged since long but I promise that from now on I will regularly post about my life here in London.

SantaCon at Trafalgar Square

Believe me London is full of surprises and for an Indian village guy like me, everything always seems to be the first time. So here I am in London, blogging in the Christmas break about the experiences I am having with regard to the biggest festival of the Western world i.e obviously Christmas. For me, it’s full of hope and novelty as for the first time I am going to see it outside of India and I must confess that Hugh Grant starred film Love Actually  had greatly influenced my idea of Christmas in London. So let’s see whether I shall start singing I can feel it in my fingers I can feel it in my toes… like Bill Nighy of the same film.

Couple Kissing in SantaCon

Couple Kissing in SantaCon

So in the list of firsts, I have added few things in this Christmas time. Like on last Saturday (15 December), I accidentally went to Trafalgar Square and experienced my first ever SantaCon (and a little bit of Santarchy too). There during one of the crazy moments I got to click my first ever photograph of a kissing couple also. 

Slutty Santas

Slutty Santas

It was all madness there that day but something a passer-by like me could enjoy to the fullest. So what is SantaCon? Well what I found,that this is a kind of mass gathering where people dress up in Santa Claus costumes and parade, dance and even mock-fight in public. There is a lot of focus on creativity and spontaneity where people aim to have some good time and unadulterated fun.

People in SantaCon

People in SantaCon

The rules are quite obvious that you will have to dress up in Santa costumes (some even dressed like Jesus and Angels), be jolly, let strangers sit on your lap and frequently bellow “ho, ho, ho!” . One can find naughty Santas too or as they call it  Slutty Santas . You can see that at first it all look like a flash mob but it has more element to it apart from ‘cheerful bawdy and harmless behaviour’ and singing naughty Christmas carol. At some time, you find elements of anarchist ideas in their colourful expression which some call by adding the word Santa and Anarchy together as Santarchy.

Madness

Madness

So I got to see it all on last Saturday. On my way back after visiting the Houses of Parliament along with my other London Study Ambassador friends I stopped at the Trafalgar Square for sometime. At first my reaction by looking at the crowd was of bewilderment and after sometime I joined the melee. Though at some point someone asked me why I did not put on a Santa costume. But overall there was a strong feeling of togetherness among the people where strangers were coming close, dancing and shouting together. In the end, out of the blue a pretty woman dressed as Santa offered a chocolate candy to me also. I was ecstatic.

Santas Fighting

Santas Fighting

Not only dancing and shouting around, but in the midst of SantaCon mock fight broke out between its participants who started throwing brussels sprouts at each other. This mock fight soon gained quite a momentum as strangers like me   and others including children joined it and added to the fun. Some also got quite irritated also no doubt.

Dancing

Dancing

Christine Malik, a 42 year old Computer support specialist who goes by the name of Piper Santa says this about SantaCon, “The best part is the reaction of people when hundreds of Santas show up somewhere. First you have the surprise on their faces, and then it turns into smiling and laughing. That’s what we do it for.”

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