Whatever your thoughts are on Christmas it can’t be ignored and is all about celebrating with family and friends, giving and receiving gifts. Whilst Christmas is a Christian festival, you will find some extremely bizarre international customs. Here are 5 Strange Christmas Traditions From Around The World.
If you are Ukrainian, seeing a spider on the morning of Christmas is considered lucky. As a result, instead of tinsel on Christmas trees in Ukraine, they are covered with cobwebs and artificial spiders. This is certainly not the best place to be for arachnophobia sufferers.
This started off as just a marketing campaign for the Colonel about 40 years ago. Since the initial promotion in Japan, Christmas celebrations would not be complete without visiting a KFC fast food store. These days during the festive celebrations almost a quarter of a million barrels of chicken will be consumed.
On a more sombre note, if you live in Finland, then this is a time of year to visit the graves of family ancestors, and light candles in their memory. Christmas eve sees cemeteries all over Finland lit up with candles, which is an unforgettable sight.
The Italians have Santa Claus but also cling on to a much older tradition called the Befana. The Befana is a good, but ugly witch, that delivers candy and small toys to well behaved children, who leave their stockings out to be filled. Watch out, however, if you have been bad, because she will fill up your socks with coal, and leave you crying.
In the Catalonian region of Spain, the Caga Tio is a long established traditional method of giving gifts to children. The Caga Tio, which is a hollow log with a smiling face, quite literally means ‘pooping log.’ From December 8, the log is placed by the warm fireplace, covered in a blanket and treated like a family pet. It rewards the family by ‘pooping-out’ gifts.
