LIVE: Christmas beyond the Western lens
While much of the world associates Christmas with snow, shopping malls, and December 25, communities across the Global South mark the season in profoundly different and often overlooked ways.
This special World Reframed episode explores how Christmas is lived, questioned, and reimagined beyond Western traditions, with a particular focus on Africa, South America and Asia.
In Coptic Christian communities in Ethiopia and Egypt, Christmas is not celebrated on December 25 but on January 7, following the Julian calendar. Known as Genna in Ethiopia and Eid al-Milad in Egypt, the day is preceded by a long fasting period and centred on prayer, church services, and community meals rather than gift-giving or consumer excess. Worshippers often attend all-night services, dressed in traditional white garments, underscoring the spiritual weight of the occasion.
In this episode, our guests from around the Global South candidly discuss celebrating amid economic hardship, political uncertainty, and conflict, reshaping Christmas into a moment of quiet resilience rather than a commercial celebration.
We also challenge how global media portrays Christmas, arguing that dominant narratives erase the diversity of experiences in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Stories of fasting, collective care, and local rituals rarely make it into global headlines, despite revealing how communities adapt faith to lived realities.
We want our audiences to rethink Christmas not as a single global event, but as many local experiences shaped by history, inequality, and culture.
Click here to watch our previous episodes
World Reframed is produced in London by Global South World, part of the Impactum Group. Its editors are Duncan Hooper and Ismail Akwei.
ISSN 2978-4891
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team. You can contact us here.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
