Holidays Traditions around the World #holidaychallenge

[Silvi]

Happy New Year people!!!

I hope everyone here have had a peaceful Holidays surrounded by your loved ones.

Is a new year and also a new year of #statechallenge in this case for the first 2023 meeting, next Saturday 7th we will be talking about Christmas and New Years Eve traditions around the World. As you know the series #statechallenge is currently being run by @jayasimha78 and @Denise_Barlock

Christmas & New Year’s Eve traditions in some countries:

USA

*Christmas in North America is like we see in the movies, big trees, candies, gingerbread and so many lights. They have an annual Tv show called “The Great Christmas Light Fight” where families all over the States are decorating their houses full of lights in a big way to win.

*Watching the ball drop. The most popular New Year’s Eve celebrations created by New York Times owner Adolph Ochs to kicking off in 1907 to ring in January 1908.

Spain:

*Eating the 12 grapes one per second before midnight.will bring to you good luck in the next 12 months. The tradition is called “Las 12 uvas de la suerte” and thanks to my Spanish ancestors is very popular in Argentine too. I do it every year, is not easy, you need to be fast to eat the 12 grapes in that short time.

Argentina:

*The 12 grapes tradition as Spain.

*A new tradition is starting here, in NYE after midnight you must go for a walk around the block with a suitcase to have many trips in the new year.

*We came together to have a dinner on Christmas Eve and after midnight toast we open Santa’s gifts. Well, Papá Noel is our name for Santa in Argentina.

*In families with little children is common to see one person of the family dressed as Santa to left the gifts under the tree.

*Is usual to give pink underwear between women to be used in New Year’s Eve celebrations, to wish good luck in the New Year.

Italy

*In Italy is considered good luck to be wearing red underwear in New Year’s Eve and New Year celebrations.

Ukrania:

They used to decorate Christmas tree with spider’ webs. The tradition comes from a mith of a poor widow who was unable to afford Christmas tree decorations. So spiders around her house starting to spum shinning spider’webs in her tree and when the widow and her child woke to this beautiful and shine Christmas tree.

Ukrainians thinks that spiders webs bring good luck.

United Kingdom

*Watch the Royal’s Christmas Day speech on TV after lunchtime.

*Crack Christmas’ crackers before you start your meal on Christmas Day. These are filled with jokes, silly gifts and small toys.

*Boxing Day is a tradition that take place in December 26th, originated as a Holiday to give gift to poor people nowadays is used to take advantage Boxing Day sales.

India

*In Bombay building a sculpture of an old man an burning it down meanwhile singing “Auld Lang Syne” is a tradition that come together people of all ages and faiths. It’s symbolize the passing of grievance from the old year and new year to be born.

Mexico

Mexico families come together in New Year’s Eve to prepare food, specially tamales, and then hand them out to loved ones on dinner celebrations.

Funny and weird ones

*In Norway people hide their brooms to stop evil spirits to stolen them and ride on Christmas Eve.

*If you’re in Austria or Germany during these Holidays you can meet Krampus, an evil demon who roams the city scaring bad children.

*In the evening of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve the long and principal meal in France is called Rèveillion.

*Venezuelans eat hallacas on Christmas Day. They also eat the 12 grapes on New Year’s They used to put rice and money in their pockets in NYE in hope to have an abundant and whealthy New Year.

*There’s a modern tradition in Japan, is getting a KFC takeaway for lunch on the 25th. You need to preorder your chicken in advance if not you will be in line at the closest store waiting for hours.

*In Greece, on New Year’s Day, it’s tradition to hang an onion outside your door to have fertility and growth.

*In Colombia three potatoes are placed under the bed of each member of the family. One peeled, one not and the last only partially. At midnight of NYE each person grabs one with closed eye and your good, bad or a mix of both luck will be in the potatoe selected.

*Banging bread against the walls is a tradition on Ireland to have a prosperous New Year.

*A traditional cake named Kransekake is made in Denmark and Norway to celebrate the New Year’s Eve. Is made with at least 18 layers.

*Poland: families use to serve 12 dishes in the Christmas dinner table and you must to try each one to have a fulfilling New Year.

Also there are seven countries where Christmas is not celebrated: China, North Korea, Brunei, Somalia, Iran, Tajikistan and Algeria.

If you want to know more about Argentinian tradition in Christmas & NYE check this post about our. Traditional Food

What about you? Feel free to share your traditions for this Holidays in the comments below.

Happy New Year!!!

Silvy.

#christmasinmycity2022

Sources

[Christmas & New Year tradition around the World](https://www.st-christophers.co.uk/travel-blog/christmas-and-new-years-eve-traditions-around-the-world/ 19 New Year's Traditions From Around the World | Glamour )

[mockata2]

Here’s to many years and a Happy New Year @SilvyC ! Of all the international traditions for the Christmas and New Year holidays, we Bulgarians come closest to the traditions of the Poles.

Here’s how we celebrate Christmas Eve in Bulgaria
It is important to have a certain number of dishes on the table in the evening. Most often they are 7, 9 or 12, which symbolize respectively the seven days of the week, the nine months of pregnancy or the months of the year. Home-made bread with a coin, which is traditionally broken by the head of the family, must be present. Whoever lands the piece with the coin will be the luckiest in the coming year.

Bulgarian traditional dishes for the Christmas Eve table are necessarily lean: sarmi, bean salad, stew, stuffed peppers, nut crackers, pickles, wheat, oshav, pumpkin. In addition, honey, walnuts, a variety of fruits and wine are added.

For the new year, we Bulgarians greet each other with the greeting “For many years” and Cheers

Best Regards!

[MariaNgo]

Hi @SilvyC Thank you for sharing about the Christmas and New Year Traditions around the world. I was wondering if you would mind if I were to share the link of your post to my world wide #ChristmasInMyCity 2022 challenge? https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/World-wide-ChristmasInMyCity-2022-challenge/td-p/3521258

I love the photos of your Christmassy cats by the way.

[MariaNgo]

@mockata2 I love your Christmas eve tradition - esp the multi dishes.

[Silvi]

Thanks for sharing about your Christmas traditions @mockata2 in some point everyone here can find similarities with another country.

I loved to know more about Bulgarian traditions, I liked the one of the bread with the lucky coin. Is it a sweet bread like the Panettone in Italy or the Pan Dulce in my country?

Silvy.

[Silvi]

Hola @MariaNgo Feliz Año Nuevo!!

Gracias por tus palabras sobre mis gatos y claro que me gustaría participar de tu desafío Navideño, aunque sea un poco tarde ya.

Silvy.

[Gezendunyali]

Hello @SilvyC , let me be with you in a tradition. In Turkey, at exactly 12 o’clock at night, a pomegranate is thrown in front of the door and it is broken.

[Maximilianozalazar]

@SilvyC que lindos los gatitos

[Silvi]

Thanks for sharing your tradition @Gezendunyali it’s funny, I assume is to have good luck in the New Year?

Silvy.

[Gezendunyali]

yes @SilvyC , it is believed that the more the grains are scattered, the more luck it will bring.

[IamJoseFelixAranda]

@SilvyC Happy new year.Good 2023 Local Guides Connect.Here it is a wish or the intention to do better…It is called each one’s NEW YEAR PURPOSE,INPROVEMENT.So anyone can say “next year I will learn english”,Next year I will go to the gym weekly",“next year I will not smoke any more”,etc.And I wonder,WHAT’S YOURS?.Let me now,please.

[Silvi]

Gracias @IamJoseFelixAranda me gusta ésa costumbre porque siempre es bueno tener un propósito y más aún cuando el año está comenzando. Así que mi propósito para éste año es perder peso, 10 kilos, no será fácil pero tengo que lograrlo para tener mejor salud y calidad de vida.

Feliz 2023 José!

Silvy.

[MariaNgo]

@SilvyC Thanks! I’ll add it to the list. It’s not too late because people write retrospectively to leave nothing out.

[MrFreez]

Beautiful story you have here @SilvyC . The most interesting for me is the tradition od India (burning sculpture) and Ukrainian (decoration with Spiderweb).
I shared how Christmas is celebrated in Nigeria in my post.

[IamJoseFelixAranda]

@SilvyC estoy seguro que lo conseguiras.Por favor tu y todos en LGC tened buen 2023 y que todos vuestros propositos se hagan realidad.

[TerryPG]

Great post @SilvyC Now I am hungry, see you Saturday.

[JeroenM]

Happy New Year @SilvyC !

In the Netherlands, they eat what is called ‘Oliebollen’ and ‘Appelflappen’ on New Year´s Eve. The latter is a bit like appel beignets, and the 'oliebollen are deep-fried special dough balls (made with dark lager)`.

Some people also spend tons of money on fireworks that you are legally allowed to ignite on this one day only.

In addition, Dutch comedians look back on the year with a special type of stand-up-comedy.

[SoniaK]

That is a hilariously great post @SilvyC . Learned a lot of funny traditions along with beautiful facts. eating 12 grapes before midnight sounds interesting. Tradition of wearing red underwear for New Year seems weird, but funny. Spider web considered to be good luck in some part of our country too. Well, in Bangladesh, we do not have any specific tradition for New Year per se. But we celebrate New Year according to Bengali calendar, which is typically on April 14 as per Gregorian calendar. We wear white and red for the new year. As for food, a lot of people cook rice on the New Years eve, once cold, they pour water in it and eat that rice the next morning, i.e. New Year’s day with fried hilsa, some mashed potatoes, dried fish, etc. Our New Year celebration is totally different than the Western World.

[Silvi]

Happy New Year to you too @JeroenM and thanks for sharing about Netherlands traditions.

In Buenos Aires, a lot of money used to be spent on fireworks for the holidays, but every year this has been decreasing, perhaps people have become aware of how bad they do to children with autism and pets. It is also true that fireworks are very expensive and that the current situation of many people in my country is one of extreme poverty.

Silvy.

[Silvi]

Thanks @SoniaK for sharing about your different Holidays celebration. Also it is a custom here to wear read for Christmas and white to New Year’s Eve dinner haha.

Silvy.