Christmas

Alsace
Australia
Austria
Bulgaria
Canada
Denmark
Egypt
England
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Nederland
Norway
Provence
Russia
Spain
USA

Alsace

A long time ago lived in Alsace the Lord Hans Von Trotter who terrified the country. He had such a reputation as a wicked man that he became a legendary figure: Hans Trapp, also known in France as Père Fouettard ("Father Wip"). He comes for bad children instead of St. Nicholas. He is clothed in animal skins, has a long beard and drooping ears, walks around with a hat pulled down on his face, a staff in his hand and chains around his waist to beat children better. He incarnates the darkness and cold of the long winter nights.

The Christmas cake is the Kugelhöff.

Austria

Merci Alexandra (Farisa) for the Nikolo image and info!

The official start for the festivities is the First Advent (the fourth Sunday before the great feast). It is then that the first candle of the Advent wreath is lighted. The latter is made of oak branches and four candles.

On Christkind (Christmas) day, it is said that the infant Jesus himself brings the presents, surrounded by a crowd of Angels. St. Nicolas, or Nikolo as he is called here, brings little gift early in December, on the 5th or 6th, to help little children be patient. He is accompanied by the Krampuss, a terrible devil with a long red tail and a basket on his back: he takes naughty children with him to hell, or at least hits them with his ferula. The part of the Krampuss is actually played by disguised actors during Nikolo-Krampuss festivals, where they really distribute such a correction.

The Christmas cake is the Mohntorte.

Die Keiligen Drei Könige, the day of the Three Magi or Wise Kings, is also played by actors in disguise who go from door to door to announce the good news.

Australia

A turkey dinner with ham and pork is the traditional meal, with for dessert a Christmas plum pudding. A small favor is baked inside, in memory of the gold nugget which these puddings contained in the days of the gold rush. It brings good luck to whoever finds it.

Christmas bush pops up everywhere: this native plant has little red-flowered leaves.

On Christmas Eve, Carols by Candlelight is held in Melbourne and other cities. Tens of thousands of people gather under the night sky to sing their favorite Christmas songs by the light of many candles.

Bulgaria

Christmas dinner is important and consists of at least twelve meatless dishes (beans, varieties of nuts, dried plums, cakes, and the traditional Banitza). Each represents a month of the year, and having more than 12 dishes means that there will be enough food for the household during the whole year. On this paticular day, the whole family eat together on straw and leave the table together.

In the past, the celebration was different: boys and young men, called RkoledariS, visited the homes and sung to the health and wealth of their hosts. They were rewarded with money and also food, such as the kravai (ring-shaped breads). They would bring long sticks to carry the latter. In the house the family gathered, seated on the ground or on dry grass, to eat meatless food. There were 7 or 12 dishes: wine, rakia, sarmy... A constant was a huge round bread where representations of the house, cattle etc were carved.

Canada

In some provinces the Eskimos celebrate the Sinck tuck, a great winter festival, which invlves dancing and present-giving.

In Labrador, turnips saved from the summer harvest are carved with a hole to push a candle in, then offered to children.

In Nova Scotia, which was settled by Scottish highlanders, carols imported from Britain two centuries earlier are sung each Christmas morning.

Denmark

The Christmas cake is the Grod, and Saint Nicolas' honey Grod.

Egypt

Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of December in the tradition of the Coptic Church. Advent is observed for forty days before that, during which people fast: no meat, poultry or dairy products. Some people only do this during the last week of Advent.

On Christmas Eve a brand new outfit is worn to church. The christmas service ends at midnight with the ringing of church bells. People then go home to a special meal: the fata, consisting of bread, rice, garlic and boiled meat.

On Christmas morning it is customary in Egypt and the rest of the Middle-East to visit friends and neighbours. People take with them kaak, a kind of shortbread. They offer them to their host and drink shorbat with them.

England

It is in AD 596 that the tradition of Christmas was imported to England by St Augustine and other monks who wanted to bring Christianity to the Anglo Saxons.

An English custom is mumming, going back to the Middle Ages where mummers (actors wearing masks) acted out Christmas plays. The latter are still performed in towns and villages.

Father Christmas is the one who brings gifts to children on Christmas Eve (but the gifts are not opened, usually, before the next afternoon). He is clothed in a long red or green robe.

The Christmas pudding is the traditional Christmas desert.

Ethiopia

Ganna, the Ethiopian Christmas, is celebrated on January 7th. People receive candles as they enter the church. After lighting them everyone walks around the church three times, then

~ Food includes injera, a sourdough pancake-like bread. The main meal can be doro wat, a spicy chicken stew, with a piece of the injera used to scoop up the wat. Beautifully decorated baskets are used to serve the wat.

The presents are a very secondary part and usually consist of simple gifts such as clothing.

Finland

A sheaf of grain together with nuts and seeds is tied to a pole and placed in the garden for the birds. Many peasants will not eat their dinner before the birds have had theirs.

France

December 6 is the feast day of St. Nicholas in France; December 25 is Noël (Christmas), and children eagerly await from Père Noël's visit (Father Christmas). They write letters to Père Noël at the North Pole and try to be very good so he will visit them.

Le Père Fouettard ("Father Whip") is a figure that is supposed to come instead of Père Noël if a child hasn't been good. For the origins of Père Fouettard, see Christmas in Alsace

Germany

Christmas preparations begin on the eve of December 6th. Some evenings are dedicated to the making of spiced cakes and cookies, and gifts and ornaments. Little fruit dolls are traditional Christmas toys. Beautiful gingerbread houses and cookies are made. The German Christmas tree pastry, Christbaumgeback, is a white dough that can be moulded into shapes and baked for tree decorations. Some homes in Germany have several Christmas trees.

Like in many parts of Europe, Santa is known as St. Nicholas and travels around the country on December 6. Instead of reindeer, he travels with a white pony that carries bags. One bag is filled with presents for those who have been good; the other has switches for those who have been bad. Bad guys follow St. Nicholas around as he delivers gifts. Some of them bring presents, some bring a lump of coal and some take presents.

In parts of Germany, people believe that the Christ Child sends a messenger on Christmas Eve. He appears as an gift-bearing Angel in a white robe and golden crown. The Angel is called Christkind. Children leave letters on their windowsills for Christkind; sometimes they are decorated by using glue and sprinkling it with sugar to make them sparkle.

There is another gift-bringing Christmas Eve figure (as opposed to December 6) called Weihnachtsmann or Christmas Man, who looks like Santa Claus.

The Christmas meal is served on a dish decorated with apples, nuts, raisins. The apple, first fruit mentioned in the Scriptures, is the symbol of good and evil in paradise; the nuts, with their hard shells and delicious kernels, mean the mysteries and difficulties of life.

Italy

December 6 is St. Nicholas' feast day. That's when he visits children in the towns along the Adriatic coast of Italy. In Sicily, Santa Lucia delivers presents on December 13. Santa Lucia has a donkey that carries baskets of gifts. Her blue cloak is studded with stars. Children throughout Sicily place their shoes outside and hope to find them filled with gifts in the morning. Sometimes they even put out straw and carrots for the donkey.

A strict fast is observed for 24 hours before Christmas Eve, and is followed by a celebration meal, in which is featured the traditional Christmas sweet: the Panettone, a light Milanese cake.

Presents and empty boxes are drawn from the Urn of Fate -- a lucky dip sort of game -- which always contains one gift per person. At dusk, candles are lit around the family crib (Presipi), prayers are said, and poems are recited by children.

Nederland

Submitted by Betty (thank you sister!)

"Here in Holland they (most people especially ones with children) celebrate Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) on December 5th. He comes into Holland by boat on the second saturday in November, children start setting there shoe's for little gifts like chocolate letters and other small things. This goes on until the fifth of december (Sinterklaas Eve), when de zwarte pieten the black helpers, go around with Sinterklaas (on his white horse) to deliver all the gifts. Christmas is called Kerstmis and is for most just a holiday to spend with family. No Turkeys here or Christmas puddings :-( I was raised in Canada so I tried to bring the Christmas spirit into my childrens lives as well as I could, and I guess I did ok as most teens dont like Christmas much but mine love it :-)"

St Nicholas is dressed in Bishop's robes and journeys in a boat with Black Peter his helper, who wears Spanish clothes. It is said that the pair live most of the year preparing lists of presents and writing every child's behaviour in a huge book. Many people go to Amsterdam docks to greet him. He mounts a snowy horse and rides through the streets in a great parade, amid many festivities.

Farmers in Holland blow long horns at sunset every evening during the Christmas period. The horns are blown over water wells, which amplifies the sound enormously. This is done to announce the coming of Christmas.

Norway

Christmas retains the name Jol, which was until the Xth century a pagan celebration, the feast of light, honoring the Norse gods Odin, Foey and Njord. Originally the transition between the dark winter and the springtime, it was moved to the 25th of December to celebrate the birth of Christ as well. The juleoel or Christmas beer is also a reminiscence of its pagan origins.

Each one makes his own candle for he crown of the Advent. If the weather was good, the work is guaranteed to be successful. The first candles are reserved for the celebrations because they are the whitest. The way they burn during the night of Christmas is an omen of the year to come. A candle that went out meant a death (candles symbolize mourning).

Julenissen, also known as Santa Claus, is characterised by his red hood and his great white beard. He resides in Drobak, and replies to all the mail he receives at the address: Julenissen, N-440 drobak, Norway.

At Christmastime the little gnome Nisse guards all the farm animals, and plays tricks on the children if they forget to reserve a bowl of special porridge for him.

The Julebord is the Christmas banquet to which many enterprises invite their employees and principal clients on the "first day of Christmas", the 25th of December. The table stays set all day long and the feast is animated with competitions and table games in which everyone participates.

A traditional holiday cookie is the Sand Kager. It is made by mixing 2 cups of butter and sugar, 4 cups of flour, and 1 cup of chopped almonds, then pressing the mix into a tin to bake until golden brown. It is then cut into squares.

Provence

Nouvè (Christmas) is the most important celebration of the year. The cycle starts the 4th of December with Saint Barb's Day; that day, seeds of wheat or lentils are set in tres sietoun (three saucers) on a bottom of moistened cotton. If the wheat grows well it is a sign of fecondity and abundance for the coming year. It will be placed in the Christmas crib. Provence is the home of the little crib figures.

The Christmas table is set with three tablecloths and three chandeliers representing the holy Trinity, and thirteen loaves of bread representing Christ and the twelve apostles. The Christmas table remains until New Year day, and on Christmas day children are allowed to serve themselves at the table. Each time the guests leave the table, the four corners of the tablecloths are folded up to prevent the bad spirits (hear mice and other rodents) to climb up and throw curses on the food.

The cacho-fiò ("put the fire") happens at the beginning of the Christmas supper: the eldest, with the help of the Cago-nis (the youngest in the assembly) puts a log of a fruit tree in the hearth, sprinkles it three times with warmed wine, blesses it and lights it with the ritual words: "Alegre! Alegre! Dieu nous alegre! Cacho fio ven, tout ben ven. Dieu nous fague la graci de veire l'an que ven! E se noun sian pas mai, que noun siguen pas mens" (Merry! Merry! God rejoices us! Cacho-fiò comes, all comes well. God do us the grace of seeing the year that is coming! And if [the coming year] we are not more numerous, let us not be fewer!")

Russia

For Christmas, celebrated on the 7th of January (by the Orthodox), Santa Claus is named Dedushka Moroz or Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) and accompanied by Snegourotchka. He lives deep in the woods. He comes to town in a sleigh to deliver toys and gifts door-to-door. He has a red coat and hat with white fur trim, and his beard is white and bushy.

Baboushka is another traditional Christmas figure who distributes presents to children.

On Christmas Day, hymns and carols are sung. People gather in churches and homes are decorated with the usual Christmas trees (Yolka), flowers and coloured lights. Hay is spread on floors and tables to encourage horse feed to grow.

Christmas dinner includes a variety of different meats - apple-stuffed goose and suckling pig are favourite main dishes. The traditional cakes that day are the Koutia and Vatiouchka.

Spain

Santa is not as popular in Spain and Mexico as the Three Wise Men are. From December 25 to January 5, families shop so the children can pick out what they want the Three Wise Men to bring them. Then they write letters to the Three Wise Men, asking for the gifts they want and gifts for their families. The night of January 5, children set out their shoes so the Three Wise Men can fill them with candy and treats and surround them with presents.

USA

In the United States, the gift bringer is known as Santa Claus. He comes in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and brings gifts. He is clothed in red velvet with white fur, is plump and has great white beard. He announces himself with a "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!". Christmas celebrations vary greatly in the United States, due to the great variety of the settlers of old.

In Pennsylvania, the Moravians build a landscape called a Putz under the Christmas tree.
In this same state, the Germans are given gifts by Belsnickle, who taps them with his switch if they have misbehaved.

In the South, firearms are shot to greet distant neighbours on Christmas Day.

In Alaska, a star on a pole is taken from door to door, followed by Herod's Men, who try to capture the star. Colonial doorways are often decorated with pineapple, a symbol of hospitality. The carols sung in each home include Aleut words: Gristuusaaq suu'uq, or Christ Is Born. Everyone joins in the closing words, Mnogaya leta, or God Grant You Many Years. At the end of the singing the host offers the carolers with maple-frosted doughnuts, cookies, candy, piruk or fish pie, and sometimes smoked salmon.

In Boston, carol singing festivities are famous. The singers are accompanied by hand bells.

In New Orleans, a huge ox is paraded around the streets decorated with holly and with ribbons tied to its horns.

In Arizona, the Mexican ritual called Las Posadas is a procession and play recounting the search of Mary and Joseph for a room at the inn. Families play the parts and visit each other's houses playing the drama over and over while, at the same time, having a look at each family's crib.

In Hawaii, Christmas starts with the coming of the Christmas Tree Ship, a ship bringing a great load of Christmas fare. Santa Claus also arrives by boat.

In California, Santa Claus sweeps in on a surf board.