By Amelia Jewett ‘27
Now that the holiday season is upon us, many are starting to prepare for their Christmas traditions. For many who celebrate this holiday in America, it’s custom to take part in activities such as decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread houses, and hanging the ornaments off the Christmas tree while listening to holiday carols. But these aren’t the only traditions that exist. All around the world, various cultures celebrate the holidays with different festivities and traditions, but all are celebrated with the same blissful spirit.
In Japan, Christmas isn’t a national holiday and isn’t widely celebrated. However, recently a new tradition has developed which involves a holiday feast at the fast food chain KFC. Families and friends head out to their local Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up and eat their meals of crispy chicken, which many order over a month in advance due to the enormous lines.
Over in Norway, tradition recommends hiding away all your brooms and mops found in your house on Christmas night. Doing so is said to prevent evil witches and spirits who return to the world on the 25th from stealing your brooms and flying off with them.
Iceland has a wonderful tradition that you can start with your own family. On Christmas Eve, families exchange books and spend the rest of their evening reading their new books by the fire. This makes for a wonderfully cozy Christmas Eve activity for any book lover.
The Christmas Pickle is said to have originated in Germany but has now spread to many countries. Someone hides an ornament in the shape of a pickle in their Christmas tree and then the person who finds it receives an additional present. This is a wonderful, fun, and easy tradition to start with your family this year.
In Venezuela, instead of walking or driving to church on Christmas, roads are closed and people head down to Mass on roller skates. The custom is centered around Venezuela’s capital, Caracas and not much is known about how it began. Next time you don’t feel like walking to early Christmas Mass, consider throwing on a pair of roller skates and trying out the tradition.
In a traditional Ukrainian Christmas, families decorate their trees with artificial spider webs. The tradition stems from the legend of a widow and her children who were too poor to decorate their tree on Christmas. The next morning though, they awoke to see that the spiders had spun beautiful silk webs all over their tree to create a beautiful piece of art. The tradition is thought to be a sign of good luck and good fortune for the year ahead.
From food, to decorations, to gifts and good fortunes, every culture around the world celebrates the holiday season in various ways. So, if you’re looking to spice up your December and try something new, look into some fun and creative festive traditions from across the globe.
