Christmas Around the World

 I thought this would make an interesting blog. Since Christmas is right around the corner, I decided to see if and how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world, out of curiosity.

Australia: they celebrate Christmas outside because of the warm weather, they don't have snow, and their Christmases are alot like ours, they decorate with tinsel, and out up trees, only it might be palm trees instead of evergreen trees or whatever tree people usually decorate around here. And here, Christams mass is huge! Everyone goes to Christmas mass here, no choice about the matter like here. Alot of people go to Bondi Beach, one of the bigger beaches in Sydney and enjoy the caroling there. And the day after Christmas, they have something called Boxing Day, which started when employees would box gifts and give them to someone. On this day, they all watch people play a game called Cricket, which is like a British version of baseball, and they also watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in Sydney Harbor.

Italy: Here it lasts 3 weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas called Noventa and ending on the Feast of Epiphany, and if it wasn't painfully obvious, alot of people here are Catholic, so that is why Christmas is such a big deal here, and here they don't worry about the greed of Christmas like over here, they celebrate for the true meaning, the birth of Christ! And you know the tradition of setting up the Nativity Scene? That actually started in Italy, and poor kids would dress up as shepherds and go door to door singing carols, like here. And like all traditions, Italy has their own version of 'Santa'. Here 'Santa' is a woman called La Befana, and she is often shown as a fairy queen, a crone or an ugly witch on a broomstick, she flies around looking for the Christ Child and leaves presents at every house in case he's there. She slides down chimneys, fills socks with goodies for the good kids, and charcoal for the bad ones, so La Befana here is Santa's Italian cousin. Buon Natale(Merry Christmas in Italian)

Mexico: Ayos Mio! It's huge here. Christmas here begins on December 12, with the birthday of the Virgin of Guadalupe and ends January 6. Kids wake up to find gifts under a tree and figures of the 3 Kings as well. And here where kids get gifts on December 25, in Mexico kids get gifts on January 6, the Epiphany. They also have the setting of the Nativity Scene, it's very big here. On Christmas Eve, small children dress as shepherds and go to the big Nativity Scene in the middle of town and they sing Ave Maria among real shepherds and to lull the child who plays Jesus to sleep, they sing El Rorro(Babe in Arms). Everyone goes to Midnight Mass and after that, go home to eat traditional Mexican food, tamales, burritos, etc. Feliz Navidad(Merry Christmas in Spanish)

China: Yeah, they celebrate it here too!: The people of China decorate their houses with twinkling lights, trees which they call trees of light decorated with paper lanterns, paper chains and paper flowers, they hang up stockings with the hopes that Dun Che Lao Ren(Santa's Chinese cousin) will fill them with presents.
愉快的圣诞节(Merry Christmas in simplified Chinese)

Japan: Yeah, they celebrate it here too!: Like in the US, Christmas in Japan is on the 25th of December, only about 1% of the people here are Christian, the major religions here are Buddhism and Shintoism, and Santa's Japanese cousin takes care of the little kids in Japan, his name is Hotei-Osho, who is a Buddhist monk who leaves presents in the houses for kids, and is said to have eyes in the back of his head. And in Japanese, Merry Christmas is Meri Kurisumasu.

England: Here it's celebrated on the 25th of December, like all other places. Christmas trees here are a big thing, decorating it has been around since the 1850s, it's considered bad luck to have the decorations up after January 6, the Epiphany.The tradition of stockings was actually started here, Santa's British cousin is said to wear a long red or green robe, the stockings are usually pillowcases hanging at th end of beds and he fills them up with goodies on Christmas Eve and on the afternoon of Christmas Day, that's when these little kids open their gifts. And here it's practically required to attend Midnight Mass or mass on Christmas Day.
And that is just some of the places that Christmas is celebrated in, I really didn't expect to hear that China and Japan celebrates this holiday. England I'm not suprised, alot of the traditions we celebrate on Christmas come from here.