In Yugoslavia, children play tricks on their parents on Mother's Day and Father's Day near Christmas. Families ensure their Christmas log stays lit all night for good luck. They eat roast pig and look for coins in chestnitsa cake. In Italy, Christmas lasts 8 days before and 3 weeks after with special foods and cakes. In Greenland, kiviak is eaten and cake is important. Swaziland celebrates on January 7th with soup and fish. Most Chinese do not celebrate Christmas. In Poland, Advent is important and they tell fortunes from wax shapes on water. They eat 12 vegetarian dishes including mushrooms and dumplings.

1. Christmas Around the
World
By 7A

2. Yugoslavia
In Yugoslavia, children celebrate the second Sunday before
Christmas as Mother's Day. The children creep in and tie her feet
to a chair and shout, "Mother's Day, Mother's Day, what will you
pay to get away?" She then gives them presents. Children play
the same trick on their father the week after.
Those Yugoslavs who live in the country fear bad luck if their
Christmas log burns out and so someone has to stand over the
log all Christmas night to ensure it stays lit up.
A Christmas cake called chestnitsa, contains a gold or silver coin
and is said that whomever gets it can expect lots of good luck.
The Yugoslavs eat roast pig as their Christmas dish and it must
be carved a particular way, according to old customs.
Every household has a Christmas crib. According to old customs
they go on an expedition to the forests to gather moss with
which to line the crib. Also families would have an old-fashioned
music box that plays Christmas carols

3. Italy
Italy goes 8 days before Christmas and ends 3 weeks later.
The Xmas is called Novena. Children go around 1 week before
Xmas in shepherds costumes and play the Pipe , and receive
money to buy charismas presents. At noon the pope gives the
people blessings. 24 hours before charismas eve, there is a
celebration meal they have a cake called Panettone and a
chocolate one. Another famous cake is the pandoro. The Xmas
eve meal is called Cenone. Christmas lunch is Tortellini in
Brodo which is filled pasta parcels in broth, also served is
cappone which is boiled capon, or roasts served from Italy.

4. Greenland
Kiviak is a special dish for Christmas in
Greenland. Cake is really important in
Greenland on Christmas. They just wear
modern day clothes.

5. Swaziland
Swaziland celebrates Christmas on
January seventh. They eat cabbage soup
and usually have a fish dish along the side
of their meal.
Some people In Swaziland wear traditional clothing others wear
modern day clothes.
They have no traditional song for
Christmas.

6. China
Most Chinese people do not celebrate Christmas
because the majority of Chinese people are not
Christian.

7. Poland!
Traditionally Advent is an important season In the polish year, with
special church services.
During Advent and in some homes on Christmas eve bees wax or plain
wax is poured on water and fortunes are told from the shapes which
emerge.
Christmas Eve, Wigilia, is an important part of the Polish Christmas, in
fact the most important rituals are celebrated on this day.
A traditional food found in Poland is Oplatek which is a piece of bread
pressed with a holy picture on the surface. Oplatek is more symbolic
than real food. We celebrate with at least 12 different vegetarian dishes
like: mushroom soup, carp, cabbage with pea, stuffed dumplings, and
shells macaroni with poppy "makielki". In some homes some hay is put
under the tablecloth.

8. Norway
Norwegian children always remember a little gnome Nisse
at Christmas time. He guards all the farm animals and he
plays tricks on the children if they forget to place a bowl of
special porridge for him.
A favorite holiday cookie is called a sand kager is made by
mixing 2 cups of butter and sugar, 4 cups of flour, and 1
cup of chopped almonds. This pressed into a tin, baked
until golden brown, and cut into squares.

9. Pakistan!
In Pakistan the 25th of December is a public
holiday it is however in memory of Jinnah the
founder of Pakistan.
In Christian homes they celebrate Christmas
with the exchanging of gifts and cards, the
wearing of new clothes and the visiting of
houses of friends.
The traditional meal in Pakistan is Kabaabs and
chicken or mutton or biryani.

10. Christmas in Mexico
Christmas in Mexico.
The Christmas song in Mexico is Silent Night in Spanish. The
Christmas dinner in Mexico is Stuffed turkey or ham, corn with
raisins or sweet beans, or strawberry flavored. Peanuts, Beans,
and bananas. They have 12 day’s of Christmas. They wear red
on Christmas for a costume and Santa comes to see children.
They have fireworks.

11. Christmas in Greece
St. Nicholas is important in Greece as the patron saint of sailors. According to Greek tradition, his clothes are
drenched with brine, his beard drips with seawater, and his face is covered with perspiration because he has
been working hard against the waves to reach sinking ships and rescue them from the angry sea. Greek ships
never leave port without some sort of St. Nicholas icon on board.
On Christmas Eve small boys to the beating of drums and the tinkling of triangles usually sing carols. They go
from house to house and are given dried figs, almonds, walnuts and lots of sweets or sometimes small gifts.
After 40 days of fasting, the Christmas feast is looked forward to with great anticipation by adults and children
alike. Pigs are slaughtered and on almost every table are loaves of christopsomo or "Christ Bread". This bread
is made in large sweet loaves of various shapes and the crusts are engraved and decorated in some way that
reflects the family's profession.
Christmas trees are not commonly used in Greece. In almost every home the main symbol of the season is a
shallow wooden bowl with a piece of wire is suspended across the rim; from that hangs a sprig of basil
wrapped around a wooden cross. A small amount of water is kept in the bowl to keep the basil alive and fresh.
Once a day, a family member, usually the mother, dips the cross and basil into some holy water and uses it to
sprinkle water in each room of the house. This ritual is believed to keep the Killantzaroi away from the house.

12. Christmas in
Ireland
Christmas in Ireland lasts from football matches and meetings going on.
Christmas Eve to the feast of the For children, the Wren Boys Procession
Epiphany on January 6, which is referred is their big event. Boys go from door to
to as Little Christmas. Ireland's door with a fake wren on a stick,
Christmas is more religious than a time singing, with violins, accordions,
of fun. harmonicas and horns to accompany
them. The reason for the ceremony is to
Lighted candles are placed in windows ask for money 'for the starving wren',
on Christmas Eve, as a guide that that is, for their own pockets.
Joseph and Mary might be looking for
shelter. The candles are usually red in
color, and decorated with sprigs of holly.
Children often put out Christmas sacks
instead of stockings.
Irish women bake a seed cake for each
person in the house. They also make
three puddings, one for each day of the It is tradition to leave mince pies and a
Epiphany such as Christmas, New Year's bottle of Guinness out as a snack for
Day and the Twelfth Night. Santa .
After the Christmas evening meal, bread
and milk are left out and the door
unlatched as a symbol of hospitality.
St Stephen's Day, the day after
Christmas, is almost as important, with

13. Brazil
Brazilians are a mix of different ethnic people,
and as a former Portuguese colony, they have
Christmas morning! On December 25th,
Catholics go to church, but the masses are
many Christmas customs which originate from mostly late afternoon, because people enjoy
this heritage. sleeping late after the dinner called Ceia de
Natal or going to the beach.
One tradition is to create a nativity scene or
Presépio. The word originates from the Hebrew Decorations include fresh flowers picked from
word "presepium" which means the bed of the garden. Fireworks go off in the skies over
straw upon which Jesus first slept in the cites and huge Christmas "trees" of electric
Bethlehem. The Presépio is common in lights can be seen against the night skies in
northeastern Brazil. Nowadays presépios are major cities such as Brasilia, San Paolo, and
set up in December and displayed in churches, Rio de Janeiro.
homes, and stores.
Papai Noel or Father Noel is the gift-bringer in
Brazil. According to legend, he lives in In Brazil there is folk dancing and singing and
Greenland. When he arrives in Brazil, he the festivities go on until January 6th, which
usually wears silk clothing due to the summer the Brazilians refer to as Three Kings Day.
heat. January 6th is supposed to be the day when
three wise men visited Jesus to bring him gifts.
A huge Christmas dinner includes turkey, ham,
colored rice, and wonderful vegetables and
fruit dishes.
Devout Catholics often attend Midnight Mass or
Missa do Galo. The mass has this name
because the rooster announces the coming day
and the Missa do Galo finishes at 1 AM on

14. Indian
Christians in India decorate banana or mango trees.
They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas
decorations and fill their churches with red flowers.
They give presents to family members and baksheesh, or
charity, to the poor people.
In India, the poinsettia is in flower and so the churches
are decorated with this brilliant bloom for the Christmas
Midnight Mass.
In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the
rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as
the Hindus do during their festival called Diwali.

15. Wales
Caroling is called eisteddfodde and is often accompanied by a harp. In some rural areas a
villager is chosen to be the Mari llwyd. This person travels around the town draped in white
and carrying a horse's skull on a long pole. Anyone given the "bite" by the horse's jaws must
pay a fine.!!
The Welsh people maintain most of the traditional customs associated with England such as
holly, mistletoe, pudding, carols, Christmas stockings, oranges, crackers and lots of snow.
Christmas is spent with lots of people gathering in the public square for the announcement
of who, during the year, has won the prize for submitting the best music for a new carol,
and the formal pronouncement of it as the carol of the year. This carol is now added to
those already known and sung in Wales.

16. France
On Christmas eve children in France leave there shoes by the fire
place to be filled with toys and candy. And in the morning they eat
there candies and play toys. Not very many family’s celebrate
Christmas in France. The traditional food is, Grout, turkey ,corn ,
eggnog, salads. They also sing Christmas carols.

17. Hungary
 In Hungary the main Christmas celebration take place on
Christmas eve December 6th when they open presents, left by
baby Jesus, and the angels. They eat chicken, apple sauce,
corn, raisons , ham ,stuffed turkey, and salads. They perform
puppets shows and Hungarian Christmas traditions, performed
by adults children or the elders, often combined with puppets
and songs!

18. Egypt
The traditional meal in Egypt is Fast they hardly eat for
forty days. There traditional X-mas song is Gipsy Christmas
Carol. They where any dress they want.

19. Syria
In Syria on December 6, a special
Mass is held in churches in honor of Saint
Nicholas Thaumaturgus, who legend has said
was a kind and generous man not dissimilar to
Saint Nicholas after who Santa Claus is
modelled. On Christmas Eve everyone in the
family, carries a lit candle, to stand around an
unlit bonfire outside their house. The youngest
child usually the son of the family reads the
Christmas story, after which the bonfire is lit.
The way the flames spread shows the luck of the
house in the coming year. When the fire burns,
psalms are sung, and when it sinks, everyone
leaps over the embers making wishes.
Christmas dinner is chicken, oranges, nuts and
pastries. But it is on New Year's Day that
children receive presents. They are brought
their gifts by the youngest of the camels that
carried the Three Wise Men to Bethlehem. The
children leave water and hay outside the house
of the camel. In the morning the water and hay
are gone, replaced by presents.

20. Venezuela
In Venezuela on December 16th
families bring out their pesebres
which is a specially designed and
thought out depiction of the nativity
scene. It is a custom to attend at one
of nine carol services is observed by
most Venezuelans. Firecrackers
explode and bells ring to call
worshippers from bed in the predawn
hours. The last of the masses takes
place on Nochebuena de Navidad
Christmas Eve. Families attend a
mass on this night and then return
home to a huge and fancy dinner. On
January 6th when the children
awaken they will discover that the
straw that they had left beside their
bed the night before has gone and in
its place are gifts the children know
that the Magi and their camels have
been and when they go to look in the
mirror if they have a black smudge on
their cheek they know that Balthazar,
King of the Ethiopians has kissed
them whilst they slept.