Christmas in recent years has become one of the biggest holiday of all people in the whole wide world. This is the season of candles and strings, chants and choirs with lovely smells of Christmas trees and toasted chestnuts. Christmas comes and brings us tasty meals, joyful laughs and passionate kisses under mistletoes. In Vietnam, Christmas Eve is often more important than Christmas day. In Ho Chi Minh City, people, especially the young, enjoy going into the city center, where The Catholic Cathedral locates to see how beautifully their city will look like on Xmas days. The streets are crowded with people on Christmas Eve. People celebrate by throwing confetti, taking pictures and enjoying Christmas decorations with lights of big hotels and department stores. Lots of cafes and restaurants are open for people to have a snack! Not many people in Vietnam are Christians, but some like going to Midnight Mass services. Many Catholic churches have a big nativity crib scene or crèche with nearly life size statues of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the shepherds and animals. What about Christmas traditions from other nations around the world? In Russia and Ukraine, Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January and not 25th of December like in most other countries. This unusual date is because the Orthodox Church uses the old ‘Julian’ calendar for religious celebration days. In the traditional Russian Christmas, special prayers are said and people fast, sometimes for 39 days, until January 6th (Christmas Eve), when the first evening star in appears in the sky. Then begins a twelve-course supper in honor of each of the twelve apostles. In Ireland, it is traditional to leave mince pies and a bottle of Guinness out as a snack for Santa. A Christmas tradition in parts of Spain, Portugal and Italy is to set up a model village of Bethlehem. Along with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, a Caganer, or “Shitter” in English, is placed in the scene. The Caganer is a figurine, traditionally of a man, in the act of defecating, pants around his knees bending over with pile of feces at his heels. According to Norwegian ancient belief, witches and evil spirits would emerge on Christmas Eve to steal brooms to ride the skies. Thus, on Christmas Eve, all the brooms and similar cleaning implements are hidden and men would fire their shotguns outside their houses to frighten these witches away. The people of Netherlands, who celebrate the holiday on December 6th, await the arrival of Sinterklaas and his sidekick – Black Pete, who come by way of steamer to leave candy and nuts for good little boys and girls who have filled their shoes with hay and sugar for his horse. In Germany, December 6th is Nikolaustag, St. Claus day. On the eve of that day, children will leave a shoe or boot outside their doors, and the next morning, candies and/or small toys will appear in those for kids who have been good or else a golden birch (a symbol for spanking) is placed next to the sweets if they were bad. For many people in Japan, traditional Christmas dinner is KFC. It is so popular and well-marketed that you will have to make a reservation to eat at a KFC on Christmas in the country. People around the world have their own ways to celebrate Christmas, but how about you? what do you usually do on Christmas day, please share with us. And to end our post today, we would like to give you a newly released music video by The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing “Angels We Have Heard On High as our Christmas gift for you guys. https://youtube/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 12:30:48 +0000