CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR CUSTOMS AROUND THE WORLD

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR CUSTOMS AROUND THE WORLD

✦ Andy Williams had it right when he proclaimed Christmas as the most wonderful time of the year and, as soon as his song hits the airwaves each year, we know that the festive season is well and truly underway.

It’s that magical time of year once again as we count down the days to Christmas and New Year! This year may be slightly different in how or even where we celebrate but, ultimately, it is the season of good will when families can reconvene to share gifts, love and indulge in a feast of fine food and drink.

But have you ever wondered how both occasions are celebrated around the world? Here we take a look at some of the lesser known traditions - some rather comical, some very whacky but all filled with joy and cheer!

From a Giant Lantern Festival in the Philippines where dazzling parols (lanterns) consisting of thousands of spinning lights symbolising the Star of Bethlehem can be seen lighting up the night sky to roller skating to church in Venezuela, there are some curious traditions out there!

Turkey dinners are certainly not the norm the world over. In Finland porridge is traditionally eaten as a festive treat and in Ukraine a local dish is thrown at the ceiling in the hopes it sticks in order to guarantee a healthy crop harvest for the coming year! Although Christmas is not traditionally celebrated in Japan, Kentucky Fried Chicken has become synonymous with the occasion as huge crowds pre-order and queue for their finger lickin’ good treats!

Iceland counts down 13 days of Christmas, brooms are hidden in Norway and families dance around the Christmas tree placed in the centre of the room while singing carols in Denmark.

Austria seems to somewhat blur Christmas and Halloween as a beast-like demon creature known as Krampus comes out to play during the first week of December, roaming city streets frightening kids and punishing the bad ones.

Once the Christmas festivities have subsided, New Year takes centre stage, a time to celebrate the old and embrace the new.

Fireworks are synonymous with New Year’s Eve and nowhere does it better than Sydney, the first major city to greet the New Year, setting the bar high for the rest of the world to follow. Local resident Karen Williamson has been taking photos of Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations for the last 13 years. You can see her wonderful range of photos:

In Japan, Buddhist temples across ring their bells a total of 108 times to represent the purging of the 108 human sins, while in Germany lead is melted into shapes to indicate one’s fortunes for the coming year. A common superstition in places like Italy and South Africa is to discard old items out of windows to make way for new and fortuitous luck. This typically entails ejecting light objects although sofas, tables and similarly heavy structured items have been known to be tossed from balconies in years gone by! Don’t forget though that it was Italy who popularised the New Year’s Eve smooch, a ritual warmly embraced the world over!

Wearing your lucky pants is serious business in places like Brazil, Mexico and Italy and in Spain and several Latin American countries, eating a grape on each of the 12 midnight chimes is considered to usher in good fortune and luck for the year ahead. Fitting 12 grapes in your mouth at once is regarded as not only an impressive feat in itself but pretty much guaranteed to bring luck! There is crockery smashing against neighbour’s doors in Denmark, bread banging against walls in Ireland, scarecrow burning in several Latin American nations and the desire to be surrounded by circular objects in the Philippines!

Pets and livestock are embraced in Belgium, sleeping next to graves in Chile is the done thing and eating 12 meals on New Year’s day in Estonia is a tradition. No doubt gym memberships there increase greatly on January 2nd! There are a wide range of traditions and customs that you can read more about on our blog. Wherever and however you celebrate New Year this year we at Brilliant-online wish you all the very best of health, wealth and happiness for a fantastic evening and an even better year ahead!