World’s Most Unique Christmas Traditions, From Dolphin Sleighs To Sand Men
Christmas #Christmas
With Christmas just around the corner, most of us will be looking forward to a roast turkey with all the trimmings, mulled wine, decorating the tree, singing carols among other standard Western traditions.
Christians make up roughly 31 percent of the global population. Still, approximately 45 percent engage in some sort of Christmas activity. Some Orthodox Christian countries including Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan use the Julian calendar and therefore celebrate Christmas on December 7. Similarly, 30 million Coptic Christians in countries Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Lebanon also use the Julian calendar.
With so many different countries and cultures celebrating the same holiday, there are bound to be some fascinating and inspiring traditions from around the globe that you may even want to incorporate into your own festivities.
Newsweek looked up some of the most interesting traditions from around the world.
How Does Europe Celebrate Christmas? Eastern Europe – Carp in the Bath
While turkey may be the meat of choice for many in the U.S, in eastern Europe the dish of choice is actually the carp. The tradition has its roots in 13th-century Catholicism when the pope prohibited the eating of meat, with the exception of fish in the run-up to Christmas during the advent fast.
This oily freshwater dish arrives at the dinner table after spending two to three days swimming around the family tub. As they’re bottom feeders, the carp need to be purged in fresh water so they lose that muddy flavor. Many people who grew up in countries such as Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, and the Czech Republic have fond childhood memories of playing with the fish in the run-up to Christmas.
Ukraine – The Legend of the Christmas Spider
Ukraine has a charming story associated with Christmas tree decorations based in traditional folklore.
The story goes that a poor but hardworking widow lived with her children in a small house. One summer day, a pine cone fell on the earthen floor of the house and grew a tree. The family cared for the tree, hoping to use it as a Christmas tree come winter. The tree grew but when Christmas Eve arrived, the family could not afford to decorate it. The children went to bed and fell asleep and when they awoke the next day, they saw that the tree had become covered in cobwebs. When they opened the curtains, the first rays of morning sunlight coated the webs and turned them gold and silver. The family was thrilled and the legend goes that they never lived in poverty again.
Ukrainians honor this tradition by hanging spider ornaments and tinsel on their trees.
The People’s Republic of China is officially atheist but it is believed that roughly 5 percent of the population is Christian. Although shopping malls and other public spaces get lavishly adorned with Christmas decorations, very few Western holiday traditions are observed.
Nevertheless, a unique tradition has emerged out of China, and it’s something you won’t see anywhere else.
Christmas Eve in Mandarin is said ping an ye, which translates to the night of safety and peace. This is very similar to the way you say apple, which is ping guo, which sounds similar. As a result, apples became a popular gift for friends, colleagues and loved ones during the season. The apples are typically engraved with positive messages and delicately wrapped.
India – Beach Parties
Christians make up approximately 18 percent of the population in Kerala, a southern state in India, making it the third-largest religion behind Islam and Hinduism.
In the coastal village of Puthenthope in the Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, the resident Christians host an enviable celebration every December 25. After a 6 a.m. mass, the sleepy village erupts with football matches, theater, music and feasting in what is known as the jalolsavam, or water festival. And naturally, there are also boat races and swimming competitions.
In the week leading up to Christmas, Venezuelans in Caracas get up early and attend morning mass. The twist? They travel there on roller skates. This tradition is so popular that many roads in the capital are closed until 8 a.m. so people can leisurely skate their way to mass in peace.
The origins of this unusual tradition are unclear but some people believe the roller skating is an alternative to ice skating or sledding, as temperatures in Venezuela in December can often be in the 80s.
Mexico – The Night of the Radishes
Many of us grab a knife and carve shapes into pumpkins around Halloween while in Oaxaca, Mexico, the time for vegetable carving takes place during the run-up to Christmas. Noche de Rábanos or Night of the Radishes occurs on December 23 and dates back more than a century when it was made an official celebration in 1897. The tradition was born out of a time when merchants would carve images into vegetables to attract customers around Christmastime.
Amateurs and artisans carve intricate scenes into the vegetables which are grown to be larger than normal with some as heavy as 6.6 pounds.
Christmas is called Sekukulu in Uganda and if you wanted to say merry Christmas it would be sekukulu enungi. There are many similarities between an American and a Ugandan Christmas: church bells and carols by candlelight, as well as feasting and dressing up in our best clothes. But Christmas in Uganda is a bit more of a community affair. There are dances and singing performances or competitions, and soccer matches all over the city. The evening is a food lover’s dream, with large dinner parties that make sure the poorest members of the community are involved.
About 10 to 15 percent of people in Egypt are Christian and most belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church and they have some very unique traditions for Christmas. While the rest of us are shoveling snowman-shaped chocolates down our throats by the first of December, and having a daily pumpkin-spiced latte, Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt fast from November 25 to January 6 where they essentially eat a vegan diet called the Holy Nativity Fast. Santa’s sleigh is also traditionally depicted being pulled by camels.
Christmas is very much celebrated in Hawaii but with a few enviable island twists including Santa’s sleigh being replaced by an outrigger canoe pulled by dolphins, and beachside sand “snowmen.”
Surf competitions, swimming in crystal clear waters and beach games make up the Christmas Day activities, complete with a whole roast pig to top it off.
New Zealand – Christmas barbecue
While many people in colder climes leave out mince pies and a glass of sherry for Santa, in New Zealand he often gets offered a beer and some pineapple chunks. Many people bring a tree into their home and decorate it like people do in the U.S. but Kiwis also have their own special tree called the Pōhutukawa, a large tree with bright red flowers that flower on the North Island from mid-December to the second week of January. Many believe that the earlier and longer it flowers, the hotter and longer the summer is meant to be.
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