![]() Since it is the evening of December 5 (i.e. Paradoxically, New Year is the day most like a traditional Western Christmas, as the New Year is the time when families get together, have a special meal, pray and send out greeting cards. Although Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, schools are often closed on the 25th because they are close to the start of the New Year holidays.Ī piece of music is particularly famous around Christmas and at the end of the year in Japan: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and his “Ode to Joy”. The most eaten dish during this day? The fried chicken. In many ways looks like Valentine’s Day celebrations. This day, in fact, is thought of as a romantic day, in which couples spend together and exchange gifts. Eve is often celebrated more than day 25. In Japan, Christmas is known more as a time to spread happiness rather than a religious celebration. Several customs, however, have come to Japan from the United States, such as sending and receiving postcards and, of course, Christmas gifts (we can do the same with the Halloween tradition). It is not yet seen as a religious holiday or celebration since – just like in Egypt or China – there aren’t many Christians. Japan, Christmas or Christmas-San?Ĭhristmas has only been widely celebrated in Japan in the past few decades. In Egypt, Santa Claus is called Baba Noël and it is described exactly as his most common view: children hope that he climbs out of a window and leaves gifts, in return they leave kahk on the windowsill. On Orthodox Christmas Day, people gather in their homes bringing “kahk” (special sweet cookies to give as gifts) with them. Once the big day arrives, all foods can be eaten which contain meat, eggs and butter, which were “banned” in the days before Advent. They don’t eat anything that contains products from animals. For the 43 days before Christmas, from November 25 to January 6, Coptic Orthodox Christians have a special fast in which they basically follow a vegan diet. The Coptic month leading up to Christmas is called Kiahk. For example, the festival is not celebrated on 25 December but on 7 January. In Egypt, only a fraction of the population truly celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, as most Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church and have some truly unique traditions. Before this, jul (or jòl) was celebrated in the middle of winter, a celebration of the gone harvest and a way of looking forward to spring in honor of the ancient Scandinavian pagans. Another tradition – which differs from ours – in some parts of Norway is that families light up a candle every night from Christmas Eve to New Year.įor the inhabitants it is a “relatively young” holiday, as Christmas was not celebrated in Norway until about 1000 or 1100, when Christianity first arrived in the area. Instead of milk and cookies, a sheaf of wheat is often left out for birds to eat on Christmas Eve and sometimes a type of rice porridge is also left for the gnomes, which are believed to guard the farm animals. These are known as Adventsgave or Kalendergave and are, in short, the version of our – more commercial – “Advent Calendar”. In the country it is tradition to offer small gifts every December day preceding Christmas. For children in Norway, as well as for most European countries, gifts are brought by Santa Claus and also by the little gnomes called “Nisse”. ![]()
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