The world’s strange Christmas traditions include Iceland :yule cat, Ukraine: spinning webs, Austria: Scary Santa etc. All the countries around the world differ from one another due to difference of multiple factors including religion, tradition, customs, lifestyle and life phenomenon.
1.INDONESIA: THE CHICKEN FEATHER TREES
Lets begin with worlds strange traditions from Indonesia .Indonesia, an archipelagic country its Christian community celebrates Christmas in an outstanding way. On the holiday island, Bali there isn’t the sight of usual Christmas green or artificial trees around the island rather they are made of the chicken feathers in a mélange of shades. These special trees are structured and designed by the people of Bali in their homes and then are exported to homes in Europe.
2.WALES: BEWARE THE HORSE:
Mari Lloyd is “perhaps the weirdest part” of Welsh folklore and traditions, said North Wales Live. The tradition translates to “grey mare” in English and is celebrated around December and January.
Among the Strange Christmas Tradition is “It involves a horse’s skull,” the news site continued, “decorated with colorful reins, bells and ribbons.” This is then wrapped in a sheet, put on a pole, and “the creepy horse figure” is carried through villages to visit homes to try to gain entrance.
“Flanked by a procession of people” dressed in traditional garments, partakers sing and challenge one another to “a battle of rhyming insults in Welsh”, said North Wales Live. Those that let the Mari into their homes are brought good luck for the year ahead.
3.FINLAND: THE FESTIVE SWEAT
There’s “almost one sauna for every two people” in Finland, said Euro-news, therefore the major role played by the famous sweatbox in nations festive traditions shouldn’t be of great amazement. The celebration initiates with stop over into the sauna as it’s a ritual that signifies a feeling of intimacy and togetherness in the families. The Finnish creates a sense of relaxation by bringing the fresh bench covers, candles and lanterns likely to stick to their habit of indulging “even twice on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day”. But they have to time their visit right; according to folklore, the spirits of dead ancestor’s bathe in the sauna after the early Nordic sunset.
4.Germany: The Christmas Pickle
Every country has different ways of decorating their Christmas tree. For some people, it’s a certain color theme. While for other people, it’s a whole assemblage of sentimental ornaments. And among the worlds strange Christmas traditions is for people in Germany there’s one special adornment that always goes on the Christmas tree, it’s a pickle!
It’s a practice in Germany to hide a pickle ornament somewhere in the Christmas tree, within the deep branches of the tree. On Christmas Eve, the children all look up the tree for the pickle. And the one who spots it first is said to get a special present from St. Nicholas himself! Currently, people keep with this custom and adorn their tree with a pickle.
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5.Czech Republic: fortune-telling frivolity
A Christmas Eve custom invites single Czech women to stand with their backs to the front door and remove a shoe. Then women flip it over their shoulder towards the door and its way of landing anticipates predicts their romantic prospects for the year. If the toe of the shoe faces the door, the thrower is destined to marry. If it’s the heel, it’s another painful 12-month wait.
One of the other, fortune-telling tradition starts by cutting an apple in half. “If the core has four pointy corners, bad luck is on its way,” explained Culture Trip. Five corners, however, “indicate health and happiness”.
6.Ukraine: spinning webs
The traditional Ukrainian Christmas tree is adorned not with tinsel and baubles, instead with spiders’ webs – and in mostly with an artificial substitute. This custom progressed around the legend of a family so poor that their tree would have gone bare, had it not been for a spider spinning a beautiful web over it in time for Christmas morning. It’s still a “symbol of good luck to find a spider or spider web on your Christmas tree” in Ukraine, said Stylist magazine.
7.Japan: Kentucky Fried Christmas
During past few years, the custom grew up for the Japanese to tuck into a festive feast of KFC on Christmas Eve. This initiated because of “festive foreigners in Japan who couldn’t find a whole chicken or turkey elsewhere”, said The Telegraph.
KFC “seized upon the trend” with a successful advertising campaign in 1974, and branches in the entire country report that families will queue around the block to get their battered thighs and wings. This practice has currently developed so popular that orders for the KFC Christmas Party Barrel are taken as early as October.
Only 1% of the population in Japan is Christian, however Christmas is not an official holiday, writes the BBC. “So the idea that families are going to spend all day cooking a ham or turkey and side dishes just isn’t practical. “Instead, they show up with a bucket of chicken.”
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8.Venezuela: Christmas roller skating
On 16 and 24 December each year in Caracas, Venezuela, roads are closed to traffic to let people “barrel down the streets” on roller skates to get to the early morning Christmas mass, explained The Washington Post. On the way, skaters will tug on the ends of long pieces of string tied by children to their big toes and dangled out of the window.
9.Austria: Scary Santa
In most countries, we have Santa Claus, who usually brings gifts for kids all around the world on Christmas and likes to eat cookies and drink milk. Whereas in Austria, there’s a much more uncommon structures linked with Christmas.
On one hand, Santa rewards children that have done good all year and are worthy of treats and gifts, Krampus is the exact opposite. He’s a figure in the mythology of many Eastern European Countries, including Austria, and he comes during Christmas to punish children that have done bad.
10. South Africa: Fried Caterpillars
There exist some food dishes that seems strange and unusual to people who don’t belong there. Some of them comes out to be scrumptious once you give them a chance, but then there come others that we could never imagine trying.
In South Africa, there’s one really uncommon food that’s customary to be eaten during the Christmas season. It’s fried, crispy, and they say it’s delicious none other than Fried caterpillars! On Christmas Day, people in South Africa jumps on deep-fried caterpillars.
11.Iceland: The Yule Cat
As animals are a big part of our environment similarly are of our customs and customary mythologies. In Iceland, there’s a particular Christmas tradition that involves a very specific cat which roams the streets once per year.
However, this cat lacks the cute, friendly, four-legged characteristics that we may imagine roaming the streets of Iceland. In accordance with myths and legends, the Yule Cat is a ferocious creature that wanders around during the winter season on streets and eats anyone who hasn’t bought new clothes to dress on Christmas Eve.
12.INDIA: FRUITY FESTIVE TREES
The 12 World’s Strange Christmas Tradition belongs to India. Due to the lack of pine trees in India, it’s traditional for families to decorate a banana or mango tree instead. Whereas only 2.3% of the population of India is Christian, which become equivalent to more than 25 million followers in the country.
In many houses mango leaves are utilized for decoration, and place oil-burning lamps on their rooftops, which signify the light of Jesus. And “deviating from tradition just a little bit”, said The Telegraph, it’s also a horse and cart rather than a sleigh and reindeer that Santa will ride when delivering presents.