Holiday Cultural Traditions Around the World

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The Menorah a candle is lit every day for the seven days of Hanukkah.

Marcus Howell, Staff Writer

How do you celebrate the holidays? All around the world, many people celebrate winter holidays, with those feelings of joy and happiness, and those chapped lips and cold toes. But different countries and religions are able to express themselves and their beliefs through the way they celebrate the winter holidays.

The most common way of celebrating the holidays is through celebrating the Christmas holiday. This involves the good old white-bearded, chimney-hopping man himself: Saint Nick. This is the man who leaves you amazing presents under your decorated evergreen tree… unless you were bad, and then it’s a lump of coal for you.

We all know how Christmas is celebrated, but what a lot of us don’t know a lot about is the commonly talked about Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which is the Festival of Lights, according to James Cooper, creator of the website whychristmas.com. This is an 8-day celebration that always begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Jewish calendar. In 2017, Hanukkah is to begin on December 12th and continues on until December 20th. The legend goes that the Greeks had outlawed Jewish religion and were forced to worship Greek gods. This eventually led to the Jews rising up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt, thus leading to the celebration of Hanukkah.

Now, a lot of other countries like to take the traditional Christmas and adapt it to blend in with their own society. In Sweden, for example, they celebrate December 13th, which is St. Lucia’s Day. This is also the shortest day of the year. This turns into a festival of lights, because it gets dark more quickly. On this day, Cooper writes that girls are to wear a white dress with a red sash around their waist and a crown on their head. They even have a festival that consists of a main course that is either turkey, ham, or a roast. They also have side dishes like cheeses, salads, pickles, bread and butter, meatball sausages, and more.

James Cooper also states that in Japan, Christmas isn’t viewed as a religious holiday, and it has only gained widespread celebration in the last few decades. So, Japan celebrates Christmas as more of a time or occasion to spread happiness. Christmas Eve is often celebrated more than Christmas Day in Japan, and it is viewed as a romantic day where couples spend time together and trade gifts.

Now in France, people often decorate their house with a Nativity crib with clay figures in them. In addition to the normal Nativity figures from the Christian faith, French Nativity cribs also include figures of a butcher, baker, policeman, and priest. They drip red wine on wooden logs and burn cherry wood, and instead of leaving cookies and milk for Santa, they leave food and a drink for Mary and baby Jesus. Speaking of Santa, they call him Père Noel, which means Father Christmas. They even celebrate with 13 different desserts.

The winter holidays can be celebrated in many different ways whether it is the Catholic Christmas or the Jewish Hanukkah. Even in different countries, the winter holidays is about spending time with loved ones and spreading happiness and joy no matter what you believe or celebrate.