Be it goats, fried chicken or hiding your broomstick, celebrating Christmas takes countless forms around the world. If you’re only used to the way that you celebrate the festivities in the way, take a look at the following traditions and see if you want to integrate one into your Christmas.
Already, everybody has their own traditions for the festive season. Whether that’s advent calendars, Elf on the Shelf, watching all of the Home Alones or leaving out milk and cookies, we all celebrate differently. However, the following countries do something a tad more elaborate, and we’re absolutely here for it.
Different Christmas Traditions
Take a look at some of our favourite celebrations from around the globe.
Columbia – Day of The Little Candles
To mark the start of the Christmas season in Columbia, they have Little Candles Day. The tradition sees communities and towns line their windows and yards with candles and paper lanterns.
The event is to honour the Virgin Mary and the immaculate birth and has grown so whole cities have elaborate displays.
It’s a stunning tradition with utterly impressive candle arrangements.
Norway – Hiding The Broom
Now on to something a little more distant from our own traditions. The tradition of hiding your brooms on Christmas Eve has dated back centuries.
Norweigan families hide their brooms to stop evil spirits from riding them and being stolen. This idea isn’t actually too distant from the belief that witches rode brooms, we just don’t tend to associate that with Christmas.
Japan – A Christmas Fried Dinner
Whilst some of us substitute turkey for other meats or vegan options on Christmas Day, frying it is a little out of the ordinary. However, that’s the quirky way that Japan likes to celebrate. Christmas is not as big of a deal in Japan as in other countries, and this tradition has only emerged in recent years.
Instead of all the hassle of a big Christmas dinner, lots of Japanese families opt for KFC instead! Whilst that’s definitely a tasty notion, we can’t see it becoming too mainstream over here.
Sweden – The Goat
Originally beginning as something else, this tradition has turned a little destructive. Starting in 1966, the people of Gävle in Sweden erected a 13-metre-tall goat in the city square. And, since then, people have then tried to burn it down.
It’s a little like Guy Fawkes and Christmas rolled into one.
Since 1966, the people of Gävle have successfully burnt down the goat 29 times, the most recent in 2016. Who knows how the goat will fare this year, but this is certainly a tradition that we can get behind.
Philippines – Giant Lanterns
Every year, the city of San Fernando holds a giant lantern festival with lanterns symbolizing the star of Bethlehem. And when we say giant lanterns, we mean it. Each one has thousands of spinning lights, creating a huge spectacle to light the night sky.
Now, San Fernando is known as the Christmas capital of the Philippines, with thousands coming to watch the dazzling lanterns.
We hope that you want to get involved with some of these more unique traditions. Or maybe, you want to create your own! The different Christmas traditions from around the globe just prove that although we are all different, Christmas and the festive season is important to so many.