Have you ever wondered what makes the holidays super special apart from the food, family, friends and the parties? The traditions. Some traditions are…well, very traditional. Others can be fun and very weird. Though the idea and meaning behind the celebration of Christmas may be the same, the way it is celebrated in different cultures varies drastically. Here’s a highlight of the weirdest and most interesting Christmas traditions from around the world.
First in line, the Christmas Pickle. It’s an old tradition where a pickle ornament is hidden on the Christmas tree. The first person to find the pickle among all the other ornaments is said to receive an extra present on Christmas. The tradition has stories originating from the Spain to Germany, but either way it seems like a fun and not to mention weird tradition!
From December 16th to December 24th, there’s a very unique tradition that takes place in Caracas, Venezuela. The busy city streets of Caracas are closed off before 8 AM to any motor traffic. This allows the streets to be open to traffic on 4-wheelers! It has been customary in Venezuela to attend Misa de Aguinaldo (Early Morning Mass) and by closing traffic off to bulky cars and buses, everyone can skate to mass on time.
Here’s an odd item you wouldn’t automatically associate with Christmas. On a Ukrainian Christmas tree the site of a spider or web is not unusual. The folk tale that goes with the tradition says a poor family woke up on Christmas morning to find their once bare tree decorated with spider webs that gave of a gold and sliver shimmer in the morning sun.
Christmas Eve in the Czech Republic is supposedly a single lady’s chance to find out what her future holds. Standing outside her front door if she throws a shoe over her shoulder and it lands with the toes pointing towards the door she’ll be married within the year.
Tradition has it that who so ever is making Christmas pudding in England should make a wish as they stir clockwise in this way ensuring that their wish will come true.
In southern Louisiana massive bonfires are burned every Christmas Eve to light up the river so that Papa Noel (the south Louisiana Santa Claus) can find their houses.
Every year, 2 weeks before Christmas children in the former Yugoslavian Republics sneak up on their mother and tie her feet to her chair. They then dance around singing, “Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day, what will you pay to get away?” She then gives them their presents. Evidently it’s not enough to satisfy their materialistic appetites though, as the following week they do the same thing to their father.
This one really takes things to another level though. In Greenland, Christmas lunch usually consists of Auk (a type of bird) that has been wrapped in seal skin and buried for over half a year.
In Slovakia, there is a tradition where the patriarch (the head/father) of the family fills his spoon with loksa, a type of pudding, and flings it at the ceiling. The more he can get to stick on the ceiling the better his harvest will be in the year to come.
In one of the stranger traditions on the list, every year on December 8th in Catalonia, children begin to feed a log that the family keeps in their home. They also cover it up so it doesn’t get cold and then, on Christmas Eve, all the children begin beating the log so that it will poop out their presents.
Those residing in Japan have already begun the process of pre-ordering their KFC for Christmas.
Unlike the traditional ham or turkey we are used to seeing during the holidays, many in Japan celebrate by eating fried chicken, it has become common practice to eat KFC during Christmas. Christmas cake then accompanies the meal for dessert.
