Christmas Tradition

 Christmas is fast approaching here in the UK. A celebration which is familiar to so many people around the world. However, whilst there remains a general grounding in Christmas festivities, whether that is to do with eating a festive meal or the acknowledgement that the holiday originated from the Bible, the celebrations of Christmas around the world are vastly different. Whilst we are perhaps conditioned to believing that Christmas is only celebrated on the 25th of December, where one engages in present giving and consumes a large dinner, this is not the case for many countries. Indeed, our preconceptions of how Christmas is generally celebrated comes from the celebrations we partake in and through watching films made in the US or Canada, where the Christmas traditions are almost identical to our own. Yet, we fail to acknowledge many of the vast differences within the Christmas traditions of other countries. One such being the difference in when Christmas is celebrated. 

Of course here many of those things we take to be Christmas traditions are performed on Christmas day. Whilst we may have traditions of our own such as perhaps ordering a takeaway on boxing day or singing around the Christmas tree on Christmas eve, the traditions which are held to be central to a UK Christmas, gift giving, emptying stockings and eating a large dinner all (or at least ideally) take place on the 25th of December. Whereas in other countries some of these traditional celebration start far sooner. 

For example perhaps one of the countries to start Christmas celebrations the earliest is Hungary. Whilst the majority of their Christmas traditions take place far closer to the 25th their version of leaving out a stocking and receiving presents from Santa begins on the 6th of December. Indeed, children will leave out a polished shoe in the evening and, like with our Christmas stockings, often awake to them being filled with gifts. These gifts of course come from St Nicholas, but they also often find sticks in their shoes too, left by Krampus to warn them of their bad behaviour. 

As noted Hungary conducts most of its Christmas festivities and traditions later on in December, this is on Christmas Eve. Many European countries such as those in Scandinavia as well as Austria largely celebrate Christmas on December the 24th. In Denmark, for example, most of the Christmas festivities happen on Christmas eve, beginning later in the day many will eat a traditional Christmas dinner, before moving on to open presents gifted by the family. Furthermore, Father Christmas known as Julemanden also wont leave you presents to open on Christmas day but will appear during the day on the 24th of December and distribute the presents himself to the children rather than leaving them by magic in the middle of night. 

But not all countries celebrate Christmas earlier than the UK does. In fact there are multiple countries that due to the prominent form of christianity in their country celebrate Christmas far later than we do, on the 7th of January. Indeed, this later celebration takes place in predominantly orthodox christian countries such as Ukraine and Ethiopia, where they follow the Gregorian Calendar, rather than the Julian Calendar, and therefore believe Christmas day falls 13 days later than December the 25th. These celebrations tend to be far less commercialised as perhaps the ones we are used to today and instead lean far more into the religion surrounding Christmas. In Ukraine  people tend to sing carols and decorate the tree rather than watching Christmas tv. Whilst they do have a Christmas dinner, it takes a far more sacred role than ours, they eat such a meal on their Christmas eve (January 6th) when the first star appears in the sky and the meal traditionally contains 12 dishes without meat or dairy.  Whereas in Ethiopia most go to church on Christmas day, they sing carols whilst walking around the church and wear white clothing. However, unlike most western countries they do not give gifts, as Christmas is largely restricted to religious ceremony and eating good food. 

Indeed, Christmas whilst being a tradition held by many countries across the world, differs vastly from country to country.