Christmas traditions worldwide

A lot of people celebrate Christmas, but not all celebrate it the same way, let's explore a few countries and discover how they celebrate Christmas:

Let's begin with the Philippines. In this tropical country they have several traditions which include from eating a rice cake to setting a giant lantern in the street. Filipinos are so keen on this celebration that they will start playing Christmas songs and preparing everything for December already in September? That is some serious business, there is no doubt on whether they prefer Christmas or Halloween. In the Philippines, there is a special desert which is a steamed rice cake, they eat it in any possible occasion such as birthday parties or any celebration, but they specially eat this during Christmas, people will go to Church early every morning (if they are Catholic) and when they get out, they will eat the rice cake. As for the Christmas dinner in Christmas Eve, families meet up and they all contribute to the dinner, they gather different dishes and enjoy their meal altogether. Finally, they hold a huge lantern festival called LigLigan Parul in the city of San Fernando with bright lanterns, symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem. 

If we now travel to Japan, and explore their Christmas traditions, we can see that instead of gathering around a turkey table, they gather around a KFC table. Isn't that interesting? Families meet up in KFC and celebrate there, although Christmas is not a festivity as such, they still come here all together. This tradition started in 1974 when KFC launched a campaign known as "Kentucky for Christmas!" or "Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!" in Japanese. This tradition has existed ever since, and today people even order their chicken boxes months in advance creating huge lines in the street to ensure they receive theirs by Christmas. According to the company, Okawara once attended a Christmas party in KFC dressed as Santa, and the kids fell in love with it, so the man saw a business opportunity, and that is were everything started. 

Regarding Spain, they have a tradition celebrated the 5th of January where they will eat a donut-like cake known as "Roscón de Reyes" which contains three little figures and a bean inside. They would eat the cake and anyone can find the three figures, which are the three wise men, but the person who finds the bean needs to pay for the whole cake! This tradition comes from a story told in the Gospel of Saint Matthew where three kings coming from the East were guided by a star to a baby, the new king of the Jews and they brought him three gifts: gold, incent and myrrh. 

Let's finish with the French Caribbean island, Martinique. During Christmas, people from this island visit their neighbors during Advent and New Year's, bring them traditional food such as boudin créole or they sing Christmas carols all together until the dawn, adding their own lyrics to the traditional songs. This tradition is known as La Ribote. The purpose of this is to spread love around their neighborhood by singing together traditional carols and create a sense of family and community. They not only visit their neighbors, but also police stations, firefighters or hospitals in solidarity, to thank them for their everyday work to ensure security and health to everyone. 

All of the above are incredible Christmas traditions, and there are plenty of more different customs, backgrounds and stories behind other countries' traditions. These are only a few examples, but there are other interesting and surprising traditions, they go form a creative and beautiful activity such as making your own advent calendar with your family as they do in Switzerland, to Krampus, an evil Santa Claus that brings you candy if you were good but you never know what he is going to give you if you were bad, as they celebrate in Austria.