Christmas traditions around the globe Although Americans celebrate the holiday with candlelight services, piles of gifts, large feasts, lights and trees, people in other countries mark Jesus’ birth in many interesting ways: • Nine days before Christmas in Mexico, Las Posadas processions reenact Joseph and Mary’s search for a place to stay in Bethlehem. • Instead of decorating trees, Italians place fruit on small wooden pyramids. • On Christmas Eve, the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, are blocked off so people can roller-skate to church. • Ukrainian Christmas trees often feature an artificial spider and web. According to a folk tale, a poor woman who couldn’t afford decorations awoke one Christmas morning to find that spiders had “trimmed” her children’s trees with delicate webs. • In Brazil, the gift-bringer is known as Papai Noel (Father Noel), who lives in Greenland, according to legend. When he arrives in Brazil, he wears silk clothing because of the summer heat. • It’s considered bad etiquette to send red Christmas cards in Japan because funeral notices are customarily printed in red.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 22:49:00 +0000