For most people in Africa, Christmas is a time to spend with friends and family, go to a Christmas service in church and enjoy the Christmas festivities. Each country on the continent has its own unique Christmas traditions, a nice Christmas braai, Santa arriving on a camel and the buying, giving and wearing of your new Christmas clothes! Sounds pretty normal, especially if you read some of the peculiar Christmas traditions take place in some parts of the world.
What the cluck?
Christmas isn’t celebrated everywhere in the world. Although the original meaning of Christmas often gets forgotten in the food, presents and decorations, it’s still a Christian holiday. Considering only 1 percent of the Japanese population is Christian it’s not that surprising Christmas isn’t a national holiday. But that doesn’t mean one can’t have Christmas traditions, a Japanese entrepreneur most have thought when he opened a new KFC restaurant in 1974. This smart man was absolutely right, because after a festive marketing campaign to lore the Japanese to KFC with the not so imaginative slogan ‘Kentucky for Christmas’, a new Japanese Christmas tradition was born. Till this day, millions of Japanese families put a large bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the table during the Christmas holidays.
Why Icelandic children are so well behaved
Do your kids think Santa is kind of intimidating? Good thing they don’t know about Icelandic folklore. In Iceland, the story goes, there are thirteen trolls that play tricks on the Icelandic population. These trolls come down from the icy mountains and get up to all kinds of mischief. It gets really scary when their mother comes in to play; Gryla is not a loving and warm mother figure. She is half monster half witch and it’s no wonder the Icelandic kids are scared of her because she eats the children that are naughty. As if that’s not enough there’s also a giant cat-like beast that roams the countryside at Christmas to devour the farmworkers that have been lazy this year. Sounds like a scary Christmas.
Christmas decoration to the max
Decorating is part of many Christmas traditions around the world. But some people take decorating to another level. Especially when it comes to Christmas lights to decorate the outside of your house (kerstverlichting buiten) it can get pretty crazy. This extreme decorating is seen in more than one country, but the Americans absolutely take the cake. Americans absolutely love Christmas and it shows in the hysterical ways they decorate. Their lights are so bright and so abundant that they can actually be seen from space! It’s not just the lights though, its al kinds of figures; from the reindeer to complete depictions of the north pole. And just some lights isn’t enough. To really shine you have to make sure the Christmas lights react to music. It may not be a very environmentally friendly way to celebrate, but it sure is impressive and overwhelming.
Night of the Radish
Another unusual tradition to celebrate Christmas we find in the town of Oaxaca, Mexico. Christmas eve in this town is celebrated as Noche de los Rabanos, which means Night of the Radish. During this night hundreds of people try to make the most impressive and beautiful cut out of a giant radish. This weird way to celebrate probably originates from smart local farmers who wanted to make sure their radishes sold.
Find the pickle!
In Germany, if you want to earn an extra gift, you have to make sure you are the one who finds the hidden pickle in the Christmas tree. It’s said that Santa hides the pickle in the tree. These days the pickle isn’t always a real pickle, but is can also be an ornament in the shape of a pickle. Some Americans have taken over this German tradition. Although it’s not exactly clear if the Christmas pickle originates from Germany. Just as with the radish, this tradition may actually be a marketing stunt.
On a roll
Going to mass on Christmas morning is a common tradition in many countries. The inhabitants of Venezuela’s capitol Caracas, make it unique by the way they get to mass. Many streets in the city are closed to traffic on this particular morning, because most churchgoers get there on their roller skates. Legend goes that kids in Caracas go to sleep with a lace tied around their big toe and the other end out of the window so that when people come skating by they don’t forget to gently wake the sleeping kids by tugging on the shoelace.
