How Christmas 2009 Traditions Were Recognized Around The World
First, let us visit Africa, The Mother Land. In Africa, Christmas day was spent with groups of carolers walking to and from the village, along the roads, by the houses of the missionaries. People were awaken by a group of carolers. They return home to put on clothes for Christmas worship service. The most important part of the worship service is the love offering. This is the gift in honor of Jesus. About 8:00 or 9:00 o’clock everyone makes their way to the celebration of the birthday of Jesus. Everyone who attends the service goes forward to lay down their gift upon a raised platform near the Communion table. Not one person will attend the service without a gift.
Christmas in South Africa is a summer holiday. There is no snow, but there are many beautiful flowers. The homes are decorated with pine branches; they all have the decorated Christmas fir in the corner, with presents for children. During Christmas Eve, children may also hang up their stockings for presents from Father Christmas. In Ghana, of Africa’s west coast, most churches celebrated the coming of Christmas by decorating the church and homes beginning with the first week in Advent (four weeks) before Christmas. This is a time of wealth when everyone returns home. It does not matter where they are such as farms or mines they return home.
Furthermore, In Africa, it is the traditional dinner of either turkey, roast beef, mince pies, or suckling pig, yellow rice with raisins, vegetables, and plum pudding, crackers, paper hats, and all. In the afternoon, families go out into the country and usually there are games or bathing in the warm sunshine, and then home in the cool of the evening.
Next, let us visit the Christmas traditions of Mexico. Like many parts of the world, Christmas is celebrated on December 25. The Mexican traditions of Christmas are not influenced by the American style of celebration. “Posadas” is based on Mexico’s form of Roman Catholicism. Interestingly, Christmas celebration begins on December 12, the birthday of “La Guadalupana” –Virgin of Guadalupe and ends on January 6 the following year. It is on January 6 children wake up in the morning to find toys or gifts in their rooms along with figures of the Three Magic Kings at “El Nacimiento.” It is believe the Three Wise Men bring gifts not only to baby Jeses ( Jesus) also to millions of Mexican children who place their written request in their shoes. Mexican kids receive their gifts on the 6th of January.
the “Nacimiento” or “El Nacimiento”(Nativity scene) is a popular custom here. On this occasion, almost all family creates a Nativity scene in their home. On Christmas mid-night, a figure of baby Jesus is placed in the nacimientos to commemorate the birth of the Lord. This represents Christmas celebration in Mexico as a whole.
Then we visited the United Kingdom. The English Christmas celebrations included the beautiful Christmas music, decorated Christmas Trees and hang up evergreen branches. The English gift giver is called Father Christmas and he wears a long red or green robe, and leaves presents in stockings on Christmas Eve. However, the gifts are not usually opened until the following afternoon.
In England the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day because boys used to go round collecting money in clay boxes. When the boxes were full, they broke them open. In England Christmas dinner was usually eaten at Midday on December 25, during daylight.
In England the traditional Christmas dinner is roast turkey with vegetables and sauces. For dessert it is rich, fruity Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. Mince pies, pastry cases filled with a mixture of chopped dried fruit.
Lastly we visited Japan. The celebration of Christmas in Japan is quite different from western countries like US and Australia in which the population has a large percentage of Christians. The major religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto and the estimated population of Christians is only ½ of 1%. In spite of this, Christmas is a popular festival in Japan.
The main celebration of the festival revolves around Christmas eve and not Christmas day. Though December 25th is not a national holiday in Japan, Japanese tend to celebrate Christmas especially in a commercial style. People of this country celebrate this festival by eating a ‘Christmas cake’. In recent years, the Christmas Chicken Dinner has become quite popular.
In summary, Christmas traditions are celebrated around the world, differently. Some countries celebrate Christmas traditions similarly to the American traditions. There are more countries to lean about Christmas traditions, but that would be very extensive. This was a glimpse of how Christmas traditions were celebrated around the world. Wonderfully, Christmas traditions were not only celebrated in America, but throughout the world.
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