Amayzine

The quite crazy Christmas traditions worldwide

People sitting at the Christmas dinner laughing
You take a tree, put some balls in it, slam the gourmet set on the table, attend a midnight mass and you're done. You would think, right? I think that if you ring the bell at many Dutch people's homes during Christmas, you could easily join them at the pans. But worldwide, people have some very special customs during the holidays. For example, Sweden has a Christmas goat and in Caracas, they skate to midnight mass. Just read along.

Eating a KFC meal on Christmas in Japan

In Japan, they are not into ten courses and a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but they do love the menu at KFC. In 1974, Kentucky called on the people of Japan to celebrate the evening with fried chicken. The rest is history, as this is still the day when most menus are sold in the country. You apparently even have to place an order. Okay, okay.

Baaa: Sweden has a Christmas goat

Look, that's something different than Rudolf. In Sweden, they have a straw goat that stands in the square in Gävle. Now, vandals see it as a challenge every year to set the goat on fire. This often succeeds, as nine times out of ten, the goat doesn't make it to Christmas. There was even a time when a moving car ran into it, and someone tried to bribe a security guard to fly the goat to Stockholm by helicopter. This is presumably also the only straw goat with its own Twitter account.

In Norway, they hide brooms

It has nothing to do with cleaning avoidance behavior around the holidays, but everything to do with the fear that witches fly around on brooms to spread evil. They apparently do this especially on Christmas Eve, making it necessary to bring all mops, brooms, and brushes inside.

‘Giving away ’The Fat One' in Spain

I was starting to worry about the Spaniards, but ‘the fat one’ in this case is the biggest prize in the Spanish lottery. The whole country comes to a standstill when El Gordo is drawn, because imagine going into the new year as a rich person. I think the chances are slim, as almost every Spaniard participates. But someone has to win it. The prize is usually announced by a children's choir of twenty-two singing kids on December 22.

Skating to midnight mass in Venezuela

How fun is this? In Caracas, streets are closed off so you can roller skate to church. I mean: rolling home suddenly takes on a whole new meaning. I would really trade my bike in a heartbeat.

Watching the Donald Duck Special with the whole family in Sweden

Well, I didn't see this one coming either, but on December 24, all of Sweden apparently shuts down for an hour to watch the Donald Duck Special around three in the afternoon. They say it's so popular that all other appointments are planned around watching TV.

Jak: decorating your tree with spider webs

What we do with balls, they do in Ukraine with spiders. Well, why not. It stems from the legend that a poor woman had no money for a pine tree, but suddenly one grew in her garden. She also had no money to decorate the tree, but on Christmas morning, the tree was covered in spider webs that sparkled beautifully in the sun, making it a picture.

And furthermore, around Christmas, the world is full of dressed-up trolls, monsters, and cats that eat naughty children (no joke).