International Christmas Traditions ~ Part 1

-

The days leading up to Christmas have been quickly approaching, and I have been really busy with preparing for (The Last Jedi, anyone?) and mid-terms as well. Since this week is still a geography week, I decided to cover international Christmas traditions of the countries that are not usually mentioned in articles like these. Most articles I have seen over this topic cover the variations of Christmas traditions in Europe and the Americas, but in my brain about now, this article will be different.

“Happy Christmas” in China
Pretty much only the Christians in China know about Christmas, and they make up about 1% of the people. Larger cities have begun to celebrate Christmas with many of the same traditions we do: Santa Claus (Sheng Dan Lao Ren: “Old Christmas Man), trees, caroling, lights. Those who do celebrate have the tradition of giving each other apples that are wrapped as a gift. When I went to Hong Kong, there were posters for Halloween and Christmas, but most Chinese don’t celebrate these holidays on the mainland. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997 so that may be why they are way more “western” there. I find some similarities in Hong Kong from what I’ve heard about Japan (Disneyland being one of those).
 
“The Big Day” in Bangladesh
 
Payesh
Christmas is a public holiday here although only 0.3% of the population are Christians. Pitha (sweet rice cakes) and payesh (rice pudding) are special dishes for Christmas. Christmas trees, family gatherings, and feasts are familiar traditions to us as well as a special type of traditional song. Here is a selection from WhyChristmas?
“Another type of traditional song from Bangladesh which is also 
Pitha
sung at Christmas, in churches and homes, are 'kirtan'. In Bengali Christian culture, the kirtan is performed with a singer who leads the song and everyone else follows them. The songs starts off slowly but gets faster and faster! The song is done with people in a circle - the leader stands in the middle. So when it starts you walk slowly around the circle but by the end you're dancing/running around! The leaders also sometimes dance in and out of the circle as it gets faster. Kirtans are also done in villages from house to house - very exciting carol singing!”
 
“Merry Christmas” in Croatia
Advent Wreath


85% of the population of Croatia are Catholics so Christmas is an important holiday in that country. Advent calendars, Christmas trees, and yule logs for good luck can be seen starting November 25th (St. Catherine’s Day) to January 6th (Epiphany). During the Christmas season, many special days are held for the saints:
  • December 4th: St. Barbara’s Day
  • December 5th: St. Nicholas Eve; good children get candy and gifts in their shoes; bad children get golden twigs from the large horned monster, Krampus, as a reminder to behave
  • December 6th: St. Nicholas Day
    • Sarma
  • December 13th: St. Lucia’s Day; children sow wheat (called “Christmas wheat”) on small plates and put it under the tree so it can grow.
“It's traditional to have an Advent wreath made of straw or evergreen twigs which has four candles. The wreath symbolizes endlessness and the four candles symbolize different parts of history and life:
  • First Candle (purple): creation - hope;
  • Second Candle (purple): embodiment - peace;
  • Third Candle (pink): redemption - joy;
    • Fritule
  • Fourth Candle (purple): ending - love;
A fifth candle is sometimes added in the center which is lit on Christmas Day!"

That was a quote from WhyChristmas about the Advent wreaths. Traditional dishes include sarma (cabbage rolls with pork) and candy includes krafne and fritule.


“Glorious Birth Feast” in Egypt

Fata Lamb Soup

15% of the population in Egypt are Coptic Christians. For them, Christmas Day is on January 7th. From 25th November to 6th January, their Advent season (Kiahk). Santa Claus (Baba Noel) climbs through a window to leave the children presents. Special dishes include Fata (lamb soup) and kakh. Some go on a vegan diet called “The Holy Nativity Fast.”

“Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” in Madagascar
Holly, robins, and fake snow can be seen in Madagascar around the holiday season. To them, Santa Claus is Dadabe Noely, a famous Christmas carol is Sambasamba Zanahary (“It's a big opportunity Lord that you send your only Son to save us from our sin”), and the fruit lychee is a special treat.
&
That was this week’s article, but definitely do more research on Christmas traditions of other countries too. I found Iceland one of the most interesting that I have come across so far.  The quote for this week is by Benjamin Franklin: "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." Sounds like something he would have said. Next week’s article is about two of my favorite Christmas stories so don’t miss that!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Central Texas: A Writing Vacation

-
Image
  Welcome back to my blog. Today's article is about my writing/school/regular vacation to Texas. My family took a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas to visit relatives in early fall. This was a school vacation because I still had to spend time on vacation to write my essay and read my homework for the U.S. History college class I was taking. The vacation put a lot less stress on my schedule because I had a good amount of time on my hands to write my first college essay. It was terrifying at first, but I did well on it so that was a relief. This trip was also a writing vacation because Texas is a crucial part of research for a novel I have been writing. I needed two different areas of the country to use as a setting for my novel, and I chose Los Angeles and Dallas. Before this trip, I had only been in Texas for the first year of my existence so I didn’t know what the area looked like at all. I also tend to assume that every large city equals LA, and I was obviously w...
Read more

Introductions to Israel

-
Image
As you may have seen, I changed the font on this blog which required reposting every single article: yes, all fifty of them. But it is now all said and done. I also removed the directory from my blog because it was becoming a hassle. There is still the archives and labels on the sidebar though. There was a comment on the "Histories and Mysteries 2018 Site Directory" that was deleted along with the article when I made my changes. I will relay it below: Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Histories and Mysteries 2018 Site Directory": I'm amazed, I have to admit. Seldom do I come across a blog that's both equally educative and interesting, and without a doubt, you have hit the nail on the head. The issue is something not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about. Now i'm very happy I came across this in my search for something regarding this. Thank you for the comment if it is yours! We have finally reached a country in ou...
Read more

2017 Summer Highlights

-
Image
Although it is the last day of July, it is still July so this is a miscellaneous article about some highlights of my summer. I had a great summer break off school and I was able to do many things. The main ones are listed below: Finishing School This is a very frequent happening, but every summer I finally complete my school year. I finished 10th grade this year, and it was extremely tough compared to my previous grades. There were many changes between Jr. High and High School. I had to study harder and had to write longer reports and essays. But 10th grade was also very different from 9th grade. I had even more work to do, and had to apply logical thinking to many of my subjects. This was mostly so in Biology class where application questions were on my tests and exams. I also began to take some notes, and began to use flashcards for both my English and Spanish vocabulary terms. I was glad to be finally done with that school year although I knew that I would be moving on to an...
Read more