Christmas Tradtions Around The World

[ozarkhillbilly]

Christmas Traditions Around The World


In Italy they have no Christmas trees, instead they decorate small
wooden pyramids with fruit.

In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, it is customary for the
streets to be blocked off on Christmas eve so that the people can
roller-skate to church.

An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on
Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is
believed to bring good luck.

It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the
Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in

a clockwise direction.

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig
prepared with mustard.

Sending red Christmas cards to anyone in Japan constitutes bad
etiquette, since funeral notices there are customarily printed in red.

In Norway on Christmas Eve, all the brooms in the house are hidden
because long ago it was believed that witches and mischievous spirits
came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding.

Please feel free to add more strange or unique customs and traditions.
Merry Christmas!!!!
Bill

[Gill]

It's also a British tradition that valuable coins should be mixed into the Christmas pudding. Nowadays, this tradition isn't observed rigorously, probably because the size of coins has diminished over the years and there's a risk of choking on them. Nevertheless, I remember my mother wrapping coins in tin foil for inclusion in her pudding many years ago.

A tradition in Britain that's even older than Christmas is wassailing, when apple orchard workers would gather to drink a warm, spiced cider before walking around the orchards at night, making a noise to scare away evil spirits. They would then choose a tree (usually the most vigorous tree in the orchard) to be the king tree and give it gifts. These gifts would usually be a couple of pints of good cider, poured over its roots, and bread soaked in cider hung on its branches but other similar gifts were also made. In this way, a bountiful harvest was supposedly promoted.

Gill

[Old Mooner]

Hey Gill-
I was, as I have said before, stationed in England with the USAF (1964-1967) and my son was born there. Explain the tradition of "Boxing Day" to these folks. I thought it was a good idea.
Moon

[Gill]

Boxing day? You mean it isn't universal ? I should imagine those who live in Commonwealth countries will probably be quite familiar with it, though. The origins of Boxing day are uncertain but this is how I understand it...

The day after Christmas is the feast day of the first Christian martyr, St Stephen (as in the Good King Wenceslas carol) and is therefore regarded as being another day of celebration. Although gifts to family close friends traditionally took place on Christmas day, employees and tradesmen were given smaller tokens on the day after Christmas. These gifts became known as the Christmas Box and hence the day they were given became known as Boxing day.

It's also been said that during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, all good protestants were required to attend to their religious devotions to the exclusion of all other fripperies on Christmas day and the giving of presents was frowned upon. As a result, gifts (Christmas Boxes) were exchanged the day after Christmas and the day was therefore known as Boxing day. Oliver Cromwell's been unjustly blamed for the suppression a lot of merry-making and it's unlikely that this story is true. Roman Catholics have accused him of trying to abolish Christmas altogether, whereas in reality his spymasters uncovered a Catholic conspiracy which was being fostered through messages concealed in mince pies; for a while, mince pies were therefore outlawed in England!

Whichever origin you accept, it's a tradition which has now faded away. You're more likely to get newspaper boys or milkmen (we have a daily milk delivery service in Britain) expecting a seasonal tip just before the festivities start. Nowadays, Boxing Day has become the start of the annual retail sales. Nevertheless, it's not uncommon to hear the older generation still talking about their Christmas Box instead of Christmas presents. Back in the 1970's, my father always received a turkey and a bottle of sherry from his employer with his wages on the last payday before Christmas, and he referred to this as his Christmas Box.

Gill

[CanadianScroller]

This is not so much a Christmas tradition but a statement of how we should be satisfied with what we have.
My grandmother was a Tween Stairs maid running up and down the house at everyones beckon call.
She worked from 6 am to 9 pm seven days a week, and generously her "Master" let her have two days a year off. Mothers Day and Boxing Day.

I work 8 hours a day, I get 12 stat holidays and after 27 years with the same employer I get 6 weeks paid vacation a year.
God bless us Everyone!

[bearfretworks]

Thanks for the explanation of Boxing Day Gill. My New Zealand hunting buddies tried to tell me it was a day to burn the boxes that Christmas presents came in while drinking beer. Your versions make a lot more sense!!!

[Woodbutcher68]

Here's a new tradition in Ohio.
Miller Lite is using the clip in their beer commercials.

http://www.hedonistica.com/media.php?path=http://70.85.89.52/~hedonist/videos/christmas_house.wmv

[GrayBeard Phil]

WoodButcher:

I refernce to your link about the musical house lights,

Need I say that who ever made that house blink lights to music, may have too much time on their hands??

I would bet many of our friends overseas would have no concept of WHY that house was lighted to music in the first place.

Phil

[CanadianScroller]

But it is so COOL

Some of us cut wood, where each individual tooth scrapes away a sliver of wood. Hundreds of predrilled holes, blades are threaded, attached and rethreaded. Hours and hours sitting at a small tool nibbling away at a piece of wood.....Me thinks we have much time ourselves

[Woodbutcher68]

That guy didn't have any time on his hands fo a while.
The display lasts about 12 minutes and it took him 3 hours of programming for each minute of the show.
The music is from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When they heard about it, they flew the guy to one of their concerts.

Phil,
You ever seen pictures of the buses and cabs in the Phillipines or India?

[PiALaModem]

More Christmas Traditions from around the world:

In India, they get up, go to work, and come home.

[Woodbutcher68]

That's typical of any non-Christian countries. An exception this year is that Hannukah starts the same day as Christmas. Kwaanza is the day after.

[CanadianScroller]

More Christmas Traditions from around the world:

In India, they get up, go to work, and come home.

Well said Steve. The world is getting smaller every day.
My sons both get Christmas off this year. That's a first in quite some time.
They work in a call center.
You know,,,I just got this PC for Christmas and I am too dumb to turn it on. Can you send someone out to do that for me.

I am sure we all have our own personal traditions too.
Mt parents started one for use several years ago.
We take about 30 or so dollar store items that are wrapped and numbered and put them in a big box.
Then we take turns drawing the numbers and choosing gifts.
We do this on Christmas eve. It takes quite some time to go through the bundles.
When it is all done we can trade each other for things we like.
They never get the right colour mascara for me anyway

[Woodbutcher68]

They never get the right colour mascara for me anyway

More information than we needed!

[PiALaModem]

In my family, we do a slight variation on the dollar-store deal. Everyone draws a number, and then we pull from the grab bag in numerical order. At the time when you pull, you have the choice of keeping the item or trading with some previous picker -- who is obliged to do the trade. At the end, the person who picked first (who didn't have a chance to trade) gets to make the final trade.

I don't know where this came from! It's fun but you have to be careful not to have one item that is clearly cooler than all the others, or it ends up being a "winner" thing for whoever picks #1. Obviously afterwards people trade informally.

Some traditions I'd like to know the origin of: egg nog, immortal fruit cake (the legend or immortal joke about fruit cakes that are inedible - I like fruit cake, myself!), gift-giving among adults (the tradition of gifts is based of course on gifts to a child, and later, gifts to children).