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Christmas in Fiji Print E-mail
Written by Russell Johnson & Pat Meier-Johnson   
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Where do you go to find a spirited Christmas celebration? Give me Fiji any day. As the temperature teases the freezing tick on the thermometer and our cat Moritz stalks the house, looking for non-existant pools of light, my mind floats on the trade winds to Fiji sunshine. I am a great fan of Fiji. I courted my wife on a cruise of Fiji's islands in 1997, but ten years earlier I went there to do a documentary for American Public Radio and NPR that was supposed to have been a Christmas special featuring Fiji's magnificent a capella choirs, but ended up as a rather strange tale of island politics: two coups d'etat, me being suspected of being CIA, a strange encounter with a drunken German arms dealer.

The program was an hour long but here is a 16 minute updated version, a major part of which features the music of the islands ranging from a Fijian drinking song to familiar Christmas carols sung in Fijian. I would guess that there are few Fijians who cannot sing...magnificently. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and joy during this holiday season.

PS: We are offering a CD of the music alone in our online store.