Christmas elsewhere

I love Christmas. And in spite of my advancing age, this is one time of the year that the child in me comes bounding out, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I love the profound holiness of Christmas and the celebration of joy.

I have also been fortunate to celebrate Christmas in many other parts of the world, and have always found foreign traditions fascinating, particularly the golden threads that are common to all.

In Denmark, for example, Father Christmas, known as Julemanden, arrives on a sleigh pulled by reindeer with a sack full of gifts. Danish children know the elves as Juul Nisse and believe that they live in the attics of their homes. Instead of mince pies and glasses of milk, they leave rice pudding and saucers of milk out for them.

From England we have acquired several customs. The first is the use of Christmas trees. This was made popular during the reign of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Coming from Germany, Albert missed his native practice of bringing in trees to place on the tables in the house, so the royal couple put a tree in Buckingham Palace, and the rest is history.

England also gave us Boxing Day, remembered in other parts of the world as the feast day of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Boxing Day traditionally was celebrated the first weekday after Christmas. What this means is that small wrapped boxes with food and sweets, or small gifts, or coins are given to anyone who comes calling that day.

In France, Father Christmas is known as Père Noël. He is accompanied by Pre Fouettard, who keeps track of who has been good or bad during the year. This tradition of blackmailing children to behave themselves seems to be pretty much global. In some parts of France, Pere Noël brings small gifts in the beginning of December and comes back to deliver more on Christmas Day. Children may open their gifts on December 25, but parents and other adults have to wait until New Year.

In Italy, the main exchange of gifts doesn’t take place until January 6, the day the Wise Men are believed to have reached the baby Jesus. Italy has La Befana who brings gifts to for the good and punishment for the bad. (South Africa’s football team Bafana-Bafana has nothing to do with Christmas in Italy.)

La Befana is the same character as Russia’s Babouschka, who refused to give the Wise Men food and shelter. The tradition has it that she failed to give food and shelter to the Three Wise Men and so she now scours the countryside searching for the baby Jesus, visiting all children and giving gifts as she goes.

The children of Spain leave their shoes on the windowsills filled with straw, carrots, and barley for the horses of the Wise Men, who they believe re-enact their journey to Bethlehem every year. One of the wise men, called Balthazar, leaves the children gifts.

Young Spaniards call Christmas Eve Nochebuena, a day on which families gather together to rejoice and share a meal around the Nativity scene.

The Swedish people call Santa Tomte, and see him as a gnome who comes out from under the floor of the house or barn carrying his sack of gifts for them.

Just before Christmas, Swedish homes are decked out with all manner of ornaments—candlesticks, runners and wall hangings, Father Christmas figures, angels and perhaps a gingerbread house as well. Winter greenery, such as lingonberry and pine sprigs, are part of the scene. Christmas flowers are mostly red—poinsettia, tulips, begonias—but also pink, white and pale blue, as with that pungently fragrant Swedish favourite, the hyacinth.

Some people who celebrate Christmas in China started doing so after having spent time in Japan, where Christmas is becoming a booming business. This small percentage of Chinese erect artificial trees in their apartments, decorated with knick-knacks from southern China’s export zone. Christmas trees are called “trees of light” and are decorated with paper chains, paper flowers, and paper lanterns. Children hang up muslin stockings in the hope that Dun Che Lao Ren will fill them with presents.

A festival of peace and renewal known as Ta Chiu is celebrated in Hong Kong. Taoists summon their gods and ghosts. People make offerings to their patron saints. Festivities close with the reading of the names of every person who lives in the area. The names are then listed, attached to a paper horse, and burned in hopes that they will rise to heaven.

While many millions of people probably don’t understand why or what they are celebrating, maybe one day they will. Which, in my opinion, suggests that Christmas has become one of Christianity’s most important methods of global evangelisation.

nMore traditions can be found in the “Fun Facts” Christmas section on The Southern Cross website (www.scross.co.za)