Posted: 16-Dec-05
It’s that time of year again. It’s freezing cold outside and the snow is piling high, along with all of the Christmas decorations, holiday cheer, and crazy last minute shoppers. This is the norm for the Christmas season in the United States. But have you ever thought about how this season is celebrated in other countries around the world?
Since Christmas is centered on Christianity and the birth of Jesus Christ, many countries do not celebrate it, as they do not believe in it. Since North and South America’s majority religion is Christianity, let’s venture to the other side of the world where holiday season is not the predominant Christianity celebration.
The country of Iceland celebrates Christmas in a different way as well. The Christmas season is referred to as the Yuletide season in Iceland which lasts 13 days. The people of Iceland believe in 13 Santa’s known as Jólasveinar. They start delivering the presents on Dec 12th and finish by the 25th.
Moving central to Europe, where Hungary is located, and is about the size of Indiana. Here “Luca Napja”, Lucy’s Day is celebrated on December 13. Following a village tradition, Hungarians make a chair out of seven different types of wood. Then on Christmas Eve mass, one will stand on the chair and see who all the witches are in the room. Christmas dinner is consisted of mostly fish and dessert is often a “Beiglie”which is a soft rolled cookie with walnuts and poppy seeds.
Farther east makes way for an entirely different Christmas celebration. The countries in the Middle East do not celebrate Christmas, but they celebrate St. Nicholas. To them, St. Nicholas is a thin figured man dressed in bishop’s robes, contrary to Americans believing that St. Nicholas looks like our plump, jolly Santa Claus. In the city of Myra, located in Turkey, a St. Nicholas festival is held on December 6th to celebrate and honor his life.
In India the population is overwhelming Hindu and Muslim, therefore there is not official celebration of Christmas. The British influence from the days before India gained independence is evident and there is still a British influence from the days before India gained their independence and some still exchange gifts during the season; and giving “baksheesh” which are charitable handouts to the poor in India
Farther across in East Asia, Christmas has never been very popular due to the lack of people practicing Christianity. But China and Japan are starting to adopt Christmas rituals as well. In Japan, the excitement of Christmas grew so much that they started the ritual of having Hoteiosho, one of the gods from the Japanese pantheon, bring gifts to the children. They believed that since he had eyes in the back of his head, it's natural for him to observe the behavior of the children in Japan.
Down under in the island of New Zealand, Christmas is celebrated twice a year. Since there are so many people from the Northern Hemisphere who now live in New Zealand they want to be able to have a “white Christmas”. Therefore, Christmas is held on December 25th and also in mid-July. The people of New Zealand believe in Santa Claus as well and he actually rides into town on Christmas morning on a fire engine and throws candy out to the children on the street.
No matter what part of the world you are in, Christmas is the time of year where families get together and celebrate. May you have a joyful holiday and, take the time to appreciate what you have and maybe adopt one of the many traditions around the world!
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