From gingerbread to pickled cucumber
There are many things to love about Christmas – the time with the family, the food or the presents. Here in Germany we sweeten the Advent season before Christmas mainly with chocolate and gingerbread. On December 24th, the presents lie under the decorated Christmas tree. Christmas Eve usually ends with the unpacking of the presents and a hearty meal.
But what if we replace the gingerbread with pudding? Unimaginable? Absolutely not! Simply another Christmas tradition from another country.
On this day of the advent calendar we would like to travel around the world and see how the probably most beautiful family celebration of the year is celebrated in other cultures all over the world.
By the way, the Christmas pudding tradition originated in Slovakia. On Christmas Day the head of the household traditionally throws a large spoon of his dessert on the ceiling. The reason: the more of the sticky pudding sticks to the ceiling, the more happiness the New Year brings.
In Japan, Christmas is unthinkable without a hearty dish, namely chicken. And even more special: only the fried chicken from Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). This tradition goes back to a very successful commercial of the fast food chain in 1974. In order not to go away empty-handed at Christmas, the chicken should be reserved weeks in advance.
Another tradition that has something to do with food comes from the USA. There, it is a tradition to hide a pickled cucumber in the decorated Christmas tree. The person who can find the pickled cucumber in the tree will be very lucky next year.
The ones, who really need luck at Christmas are the Spanish people. In Spain, the National Lottery has been a tradition since the end of the 19th century. On 22 December, the National Lottery distributes the largest sum of money of the entire year. People buy numerous lottery tickets and meet up to follow the draw with lots of excitement. The lottery numbers are traditionally sung by school children.
In the Philippines, a big lantern festival is celebrated on the Saturday before Christmas Eve. The Giant Lantern Festival (Parul Sampernandu) takes place in the capital San Fernando. Several villages present their artistically homemade lanterns in a competition. Some lanterns even have a diameter of more than 6 metres.
Brazil is even more pompous. In the bay of Rio de Janeiro, you will find the world’s largest floating Christmas tree, the “Árvore de Natal”. The tree consists of a steel construction and is 85 metres high and decorated with 3.3 million lights. The tree has already made it into the Guinness Book of Records several times.
A very sporty tradition can be found in Venezuela. The inhabitants of the capital Caracas go to the Christmas mass on roller skates. For this tradition the streets are even closed for cars at Christmas.
A less sporty tradition can be found in Sweden. On Christmas the Swedes can traditionally be found in front of their televisions at 3 pm, watching Donald Duck. The 60-minute episode “Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul” (Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas) is scheduled so firmly in the day that all the other festivities can be planned around it, so that the whole family can take part in the television event.
And no matter if you hide pickled cucumbers in your Christmas tree, eat tons of gingerbread or rush into church on your roller skates – we wish you a wonderful pre-Christmas season!
Written by: Rebecca Hellweg