Christmas and advent traditions

In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, a rather unusual costum occurs shortly after midnight of Christmas Eve. One of the main streets fills with hundreds of roller-skaters who skate together until time for a special church service in the early morning. After that, they skate home for a delicious hallacas (like a tamal) breakfast.


An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on
Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is
believed to bring good luck.



In chilly Greenland of course most of the costums and traditions are in some way related to ice. In spring a bird called “whole small auks” is wrapped in greasy seal skin and buried in the permafrost to rot until Christmas. Then, the “Kiviak” is dug up, the bird’s head is biten off and the fermented intestinal juice, the tart guts, which is slightly toxic, is eaten directly or served as sauce. This delicious Christmas dish is said to taste like old blue cheese…

Even though the whole process of preparing this Christmas delikatessen sounds kind of disgusting, it’s actually the same concept that is being used to produce other fermentation products such as alcohol, cheese, yoghurt or bread – controlled rotting.

Krampus

Every December 5th and 6th people in Austria remind their barbarian ancestry.
(On the picture, a drawing from 1896).


Imagine you are 7 years old on December 6th. Your family has gathered in the cosy living-room, the smell of cinnamon and cloves filling the house. All of the children, sitting on the couch, are pale and nervous. You are waiting for the warm-hearted and friendly St.Nikolaus to come and reward you for having been such a nice kid this year. Suddenly you remember that some weeks ago you had a fight with your little sister – what if the bearded man remembers that day? Will he show up with the Krampus? This horned, shaggy and grotesque looking guy, that scares the hell out of even the meanest of the children (and of the adults, who are happy not to be children anymore…)?

In some Austrian villages, if a family’s children have been naughty during the year, their parents may hire not only a bearded Santa Claus-like man acting as St.Nikolaus, but also his evil companion - a monster (or two) that could perfectly cast a Lord of the Rings or Saw-movie called the Krampus. Whether or not he is the henchmen of St.Nikolaus or his adversary is never made totally clear. However, imagine on of the guys on the photo entering your living-room and “punishing” you in front of your parents and cousins.


My father, being a child, was taken away be the krampusses in a sack! They drove him to the next village, together with other kid-napped children they had recollected earlier. He was lucky and could cut out his way and escape thanks to a Swiss army knife he was carrying.

Following an ancient pagan rite, krampusses riot in the streets of some Austrian localities like a punch of Orks on December 5th. Young boys take the opportunity to measure their strength and bravery getting mixed up in the battle after having some cups of hot and strong Glühwein. And the next day, the hangoverish krampusses are hired to assist good old Santa Claus to teach little children what is right and wrong!
I would like to know what a typical krampus does during the rest of the year. Is he the butcher? The baker? Or maybe the village’s priest experiencing a strong need for revenge…?
We can all guess which movies had seen the guy who made the following video. I can’t wait to learn that “Krampus – The Movie” is being exhibited in my neighborhood’s theatre.



Don and Carol Richardson, a missionary couple from Canada, preached the tribes of Papua New Guinea about the Holy Son of God in 1962. They talked about how God sent his only son to be the peace child. They took the whole story quite literally and started the custom of exchanging an infant son among the tribes known as the Peace Child.

In reality, this is the best that can happen to a child in a society that has just left the stage of cannibalism and headhunting, whose value system was based on ever-increasing treachery and where a young life isn’t worth as much as in other countries: the adoptive tribe has to do the best it can to keep the little Peace symbol alive; otherwise, the renewal of wars would be the consecuence.



Of course, one of the most exciting ways to celebrate Christmas is to spend a wonderful evening at the nearest McDonald's or Burger King restaurant. A very popular option in some Asian countries, where a fast-food restaurant is a perfect place to spend this special night with the beloved ones.

In China, where Christmas celebrations are a recent phenomenon lacking the actual religious meaning, the day of Christ’s birthday is just a good excuse for spending money, consuming and copying all the worst of Western Xmas kitsch.

For sure there are high society establishements that important authentic European Christmas trees with Swedish pedigree. Japanese style, let's say.



There was also this funny Catalonian tradition - a puppet or something that is fed candy during December and then has to poop it out at Christmas Eve, am I right? I wish there was a reader from that region who could provide me with more information - leave your comment (in any language!).

See you next week with more Christmas oddities!