Unusual Christmas Traditions from Around the World

Posted by R. Ann Siracusa

The Holidays are upon us. May the world rejoice in peace.

Most of us living in the North America, South America, US and Europe know the common Christmas traditions of the western world. Although Christmas is a Christian religious celebration, it's surprising to find it is celebrated throughout the world. Sometimes it is celebrated not as a religious holiday and sometimes in places we wouldn't expect.

The manner in which the Christian religion is mixed with local traditions, ancient pagan beliefs and festivals is fascinating. I’ve posted this blog before, but I update it annually and in 2018 I found some new, interesting and, in a few cases, irreverent  “traditions.”

  SWEDEN – "GOD JUL AND (OCH) ETT GOTT NYTT AR!"

In Sweden the Christmas is all about time spent with family and friends and eating lots of food and sweets. The festivities start with the St. Lucia ceremony on December 13, the Winter Solstice on the old Julian calendar. But we’ve already looked at the traditions that go with St. Lucia festival.

I’ve run on to another rather recent “tradition” in Sweden: The Gävel Goat. Actually, Gävel is the name of the city where this event takes place. The goat is bocken (boken), in Swedish.

The Yule Goat

The Yule goat is a Scandinavian and Northern European Christmas symbol, a goat made of straw, which is one of the most popular Christmas decorations in Sweden.

The prevalent theory is that the origin dates back to ancient pagan festivals, in particular the worship of the Nose god Thor, who rode the sky in a chariot drawn by two goats. After the advent of Christianity, the Yule goat morphed into a goat which was supposed to help Santa Claus deliver presents. On occasion, Santa rode the goat instead of flying in his sleigh.
Photo source:Wikipedia 

The Gävel Goat

Perhaps the city of Gävel, Sweden, used straw Yule Goats in their city’s decorations for Christmas in Gävel’s Castle Square. I couldn’t find out.             

However, in 1966, Stig Gavlén, an advertising consultant, came up with the idea of building a giant straw version of Yule Goat in Castle Square. The first giant goat was constructed by the Gävel Fire Department as were those erected each year from 1966 to 1970 and 1986 to 2002.

For the last fifty years the giant goat has been a Christmas tradition and is dedicated at the beginning of Advent. The event now draws tourists from all over the world.

As the years passed, the goat has grown in size. The one built in 1985 by the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa reached 41 feet in height and made it into the Guinness Book of Records. In 1993, it reached 49 feet, setting another record.

But our giant goat has a problem. Despite the efforts of the city of Gävel, the goat has been destroyed thirty-six times, the most recent incident in 2016. Usually it is torched, but because the fire station is nearby, they have always managed to save the wooden frame. At least once it was hit by a car and collapsed. More recently the police foiled an attempt to steal it by helicopter.

Since 1986, two goats have been built, one by a society of Southern Merchants and the other by the Natural Science Club of Vasa, so there is a standby. Sometime both get destroyed.

◄The 2011 Goat on Fire www.todayifoundout.com/giant-goat-sweden   

Photo: Mikael Johansson/Wikimedia Commonshttps://www.thelocal.se/20151126/five-weirdest-attacks-on-swedens-straw-yule-goat ▼                                  

Although the city has taken many measures to protect the goat. Fences, guards, spotlights and cameras don't seem to work. The biggest deterrent of all is that it is illegal to burn down the goat, with serious consequences for those caught. 

In 2001, a 51-yearold American tourist, Lawrence Jones, set the goat on fires after supposedly being convinced by his Swedish friends that it was a legal game the town officials played with the populace. He ended up with a $14,700 fine and an 18 day prison sentence for his efforts.

The photo is the goat which was set on fire during a blizzard in 1998.

Of course, despite all this and other efforts, half the fun of the tradition (The Dark Tradition, if you will) is seeing and betting whether or not the goat can stay intact until Christmas.

MEXICO – “Feliz Navidad”

Mexican celebrate in many of the same ways as other countries. In Mexico, las posadas begins on December 16. The ninth evening of las posadas is Buena Noche, Christmas Eve. The children lead a procession to the church and place a figure of the Christ Child in the nativity scene there, Then everyone attends midnight mass.

And of course, the Christmas dinner. In Mexico, it just isn’t Christmas without tamales.

La Noche de Rábanos - The Night of the Radishes

However, if you spend Christmas eve in Oaxaca, Mexico, you’ll enjoy an interesting tradition you may not be familiar with. The night of December 23 is “The Night of the Radishes” (La Noche de Rábanos), one of the annual Christmas customs in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In this festival, competitors carve nativity scenes and other Christmas themes into large radishes, which are proudly displayed at the Christmas market in the town square. Oaxaca has land dedicated to cultivating special vegetables just for this event.

The competition’s origins date back to when holiday market vendors tried to make their vegetables more enticing by making sculptures with them.

It was such a hit that the governor, Vasconcelos, decided to create an official contest in 1897. It’s been a tradition in Oaxaca ever since.  All kinds of sculptures can be seen—saints, musicians, buildings, even a tiny cemetery where little radish people are celebrating the Day of the Dead.

To ensure fair competition, everyone uses vegetables grown by the government for the festival. And these radishes are big. Some grow 1.5 feet long and can weigh almost seven pounds.

The festival starts in the morning, when everyone can see the artists working on their sculptures, but wait until night if you want to see the finished masterpieces.

The festival also features concerts around the city, fireworks, and light shows.                     Photo by: Lair Lobo-https://www.atlasobscura.com/ ▲

Photo by: W. Scott Koenig 2013                                                     

▼http://agringoinmexico.com/2013/12/25/night-of-the-radishes-the-roots-of-oaxacas-oldest-festival/       

SPAIN - “Feliz Navidad"

The Spanish celebrate with a number of traditional events such nativity scenes (they like large ones), midnight mass, dinners and special deserts, the Three Kings, but there are a few somewhat irreverent traditions also.

● Caga Tió or Tió de Nadal (Pooping Log)

This Catalan Christmas tradition is called the Pooping Log. The word Tió means log. 

Children decorate a small log by adding legs, a face, and a red Catalan hat ('barretina') and sometimes a red cloth or blanket. They are for sale everywhere around Christmas time.

From the 8^th of December until Christmas the children feed the log small pieces of bread or fruit, take care of it and keep it warm. As Christmas approaches, the parents replace the first log with a bigger one, and then bigger. The children believe if they take good care of the log, it will grow bigger and they will get bigger presents. 

On Christmas Eve or Christmas day the children sing a special song to make the log “poop”, then they beat him with a stick.

After giving the log a good beating and still singing, they leave the room, giving parents the opportunity to put candy and presents in the hallow log or under the blanket. Traditionally, when the log has nothing left to poop, it finishes  the deed with a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion, or it 'urinates' by leaving a bowl of water.

These days the presents pooped out by the log are candy, sweets and turrón nougat, and maybe one gift, since the big day for gift giving in January 6, the Epiphany.

●El Caganer (The Defecator)

All Spaniards seem to like nativity scenes, big and small. You find them everywhere. Some families buy a nativity scene rather than a Christmas Tree. A second Catalan tradition I’d never heard of is the Caganer. It’s a small figurine of a man wearing a red Barretina squatting with his pants around his ankles, defecating. (That doesn't sound like a very good Christmas tradition to me.)
                       Photo source: 2012 Article by Barbara Weibel  holeinthedonut.com/2012/caganers ▼

That’s strange enough, but the kicker is that in every crèche there is a hidden Caganer.

The Caganers are for sale everywhere at Christmas time, and have become so popular you can find a caganer figurine with the face of every celebrity in the world.

In a 2012 article, Barbara Weibel writes, “No one knows for sure how the Caganer originally came into being and even today, opinions are divided on what it symbolizes. Some insist that excrement is symbolic of fertilizing the earth.”

According to the ethnographer, Joan Amades, it was a “customary figure in pessebres in the 19th century, because people believed that this deposit fertilized the ground of the pessebre (a manger, crib, nativity scene)…placing this figurine in the pessebre brought good luck and joy and not doing so brought adversity.” 

Others believe the act of defecation is symbolic of the equality of all people, regardless of status, race, or gender (i.e. everyone does it). The explanation Barbara Weibel says she likes best is the reference to an old Spanish proverb which translates as “Dung is no saint, but where it falls, it works miracles.”

THE PHILIPPINES – “Maligayang Pasko”  (in Tagalog, 1 of 8 Philippino languages)

"Malipayon nga Pascua” in Ilonggo;
“Maayong Pasko” in Sugbuhanon or Cebuano;
“Maugmang Pasko” in Bicolano;
“Maupay Nga Pasko” in Warey arey
“Maabig ya pasko” in Pangalatok;
“Magayagan inkianac” Pangasinense

Christmas is a major holiday in the Philippines because over eighty percent of the population is Roman Catholic, and you can say “Merry Christmas” in eight Philippino languages. The people make the season last as long as possible, and some of the shopping and caroling begins in September.

Many of the Christmas traditions came from Europe with the missionaries in the 1500’s but there are some traditions unique to the Philippines.

The parol, the most popular Christmas decoration, is a bamboo pole with a lighted star lanterns on it. Made from bamboo strips and colored paper or cellophane, it represents the star of Bethlehem which guided the Wise Men.

Originally these lanterns were simple, and only about eighteen inches in diameter. Now they are much bigger. 

The Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul Sampernandu) is held each year on the Saturday before Christmas Eve in the city of San Fernando – now known as the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines.” The festival attracts spectators from all over the country and across the globe. Eleven villages take part and compete for the most elaborate lantern. Today these lanterns are about 6 meters in diameter lighted from within by electric bulbs that sparkle in patterns.

AUTHOR R. ANN SIRACUSA

Travel to Foreign Lands for Romance and IntrigueFacebook  Twitter  GooglePlus  Website  AmazonLink

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