See how to celebrate Christmas around the world!
We invite you to see how to celebrate Christmas around the world as every country and region has its traditions. There are millinery customs and some recent ones too: gastronomy, myths, and legends — all of these things inside the Christmas mysticism.
That last moment of the year when we have all our hopes in humanity at its 100% finally arrived. For some people, it means a reflection time. For some others, time to connect with other souls. Even though, in essence, it’s the same idea, every region of the world gives this moment a piece of its own.
Celebrate Christmas
There are quite plenty of traditions in the world, you could also think that the world has even one per country. We can notice what they have in common is that flowers are part of every one of them. Either gift flowers or decorate with them, they bring the perfect Christmas energy that people need.
We live in a world with almost 200 countries, so we choose a much shorter globe traditions list. Here, we bring you an exciting list with Christmas curiosities from more than 20 countries.
In Australia, summer is around December. Christmas is celebrated on the beach, and its traditional food is grilled fish and seafood. Students are in their most extended break, so outdoor activities related to Christmas are right at the perfect time.
Australians take Christmas Carols very serious. There’s even a national festival on TV, and it’s the main event in Australian Christmas.
The festival tests its participants because they are used to change some carols lyrics to funny phrases based in their current summer.
As flowers can’t be missed in this important tradition, every home is filled with flowers called Christmas Bells. This kind of flower is a variation of Lillies, its trumpet flower is facing down. This look makes it similar to bells, the reason for the name, and usage in this celebration.
Belgium has 4 important celebration dates. The first celebration is for little children because, on December 5 and December 6, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklass) and his assistant Black Peter (Zwarte Piet) are coming by horse.
Children wait for their gifts putting shoes in front of the chimney with drawings and some bread as an offer to Saint Nicholas and his assistant, and a carrot for his horse.
Zwarte Piet keeps a list of each child’s behavior. If the child was good all year, they will receive his gift. If they were bad, Piet will put them in his bag and leave them in Spain.
Christmas is celebrated on December 25, but it is not a date of gifts, this date is reserved for religious and spiritual purposes. A dinner between family and very close friends.
Then there is New Year’s Eve, the date on which adults could receive gifts. They celebrate it with a vast and formal dinner. Upon receiving the new year, three kisses are given to wish the best for next year.
The last significant date is January 6, where children dress up as Magi and go door to door singing a concise song to ask for money or candy.
White and red Wildflowers, accompanied by pine cones and red candles, are usually the most chosen in Belgium to decorate the tables and give away. They are the ideal complement to build an advent wreath. If you are invited to a Christmas dinner, you can give an arrangement of this style accompanied by a sparkling drink to share in the evening.
This African country uses 66 different languages, and each language has some variation of the custom when celebrating Christmas. It begins to be celebrated from December 20 to the first week of January. Framing a large number of activities and traditions.
On December 24, the festivities begin on the street, where children make plays alluding to Christmas, as well as choral groups and drums that make up a street party all day. At night there are fireworks, and then they go to their homes to sleep.
On December 25, they enjoy Christmas Mass in the morning, and at the end of the ecclesiastical service, it is that gifts are delivered and opened. Directly, without other mystical characters.
On December 31, they meet again at Mass and not only ask for blessings for the new year. They also remember the dead of the year and pray that every inconvenience that person spent that year will be eradicated for all the following year.
Poinsettia is the name of the typical flower that is given at Christmas in almost all the tropical regions of the world. Ghana is no exception. It only blooms in December, and its colors combine perfectly with the Christmas spirit.
The Philippines loves Christmas so much that its celebration begins in September when the radios start to play Christmas carols and Christmas decorations both in houses and on the streets, offices, and shops are not waiting.
It is the only Asian country that has Christmas as a national and important celebration. The mixture that has of Portugal and Spain added to the Asian, results in a fascinating symbiosis of customs.
Flashlights of all sizes with striking shapes and colors are an excellent example of this. They are the typical and modest oriental lanterns, with that spirit of the Spanish party adding the large sizes of Portugal.
Most people make them in a star form to symbolize the stars that guided the three magic.
The act of giving flowers in the Philippines is not a marked habit, and yet the flowers blend with their culture. One of the certain motifs in its lanterns is the replica of the Christmas Flower, only that they call it: Euphorbia. They also usually decorate their houses with the plant, only that most of the time, they are made of plastic.
The famous flower that almost all countries use at Christmas, is originally from Mexico. They call it Flor de Nochebuena and currently Mexico is the 4th largest producer and exporter in the world. The largest plantation on the continent is in Taxco and is the productive pride of the region. Its exchange dates back to pre-Columbian times.
Between Christmas and its eve at 10 p.m., party guys come to their friend’s house to wake them up with Christmas party songs to encourage them to join the parade and wake up more friends.
Actually, everyone knows that they are going to their houses, but tradition says that they’re going to their homes to wake them up, so everyone is ready when they arrive and pretend that they were awakened up.
At the end of the year, they eat a grape for each bell before giving each other a happy New Year. Each grape is a wish for the following year and has to be made precisely to the rhythm of each bell.
In January, they celebrate the epiphany from 5 to 8. On January 5, children leave a shoe box full of hay under their beds so that Magis camels can eat and rest while they bring their gifts.
On January 6, the Magi arrive with gifts for the little ones, and then you have to celebrate each King: 6 to Gaspar, 7 to Melchor, and 8 to Baltazar.
The Christmas Flower is the central gift when giving flowers. Another similarity is that it is taken to the house of the person who invited us to dinner, and this is as an indoor plant for the family until almost the month of February.
Christmas is not the main course in Russia, but the new year. This is because, at the time of the Soviet Union, Christmas was banned, so all the energies to celebrate were concentrated at the end of the year.
In fact, there is no Christmas tree but the New Year tree, and it is that day that gifts are distributed, and great meals are made. Whoever wanted to celebrate Christmas, had to do it secretly and with family.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, Christmas ceased to be prohibited, and the New Year remains the main event in December, leaving Christmas as a private and religious event.
Orthodox Catholics celebrate Christmas as a special event on January 7, as they use the old Julian calendar as a reference for their celebrations. This group of believers has its own Christmas traditions celebrated on January 6 and 7.
Wildflowers and roses are the focal point in Russian culture at the end of the year. From that day until mid-January, it is reasonable to give flowers to women in the family or close friends. The important thing about these gifts is always to ensure that the number of flowers is odd since only even number of flowers are delivered at funerals.
Some Curiosities from other countries
