Did you know Christmas is actually celebrated around the world? Christmas isn\u2019t just an exclusive American holiday but a day celebrated internationally with many different and unique interpretations. One of the best aspects of traveling is getting to experience first hand the differences and unique characteristics these cultures hold, no matter the time of year.<\/p>\n
The Forum-Nexus Study Abroad program features an extensive itinerary to many European countries including stops in Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. Since those are our summer travel destinations, let\u2019s explore how Christmas is celebrated in Europe! Here is how these culturally unique countries diversely celebrate the Christmas holiday:<\/p>\n
In Barcelona, Spain, also known as a Catalonia province of Spain, the Spaniards have a Christmas character called \u00a0‘Ti\u00f3 de Nadal’ which means the Christmas log. Tio de Nadal is a small hollow log propped up on two wooden legs with a smiling face painted on the front end. Starting December 8th, Catalan families give the log a few morsels of food to \u201ceat\u201d and a blanket to keep it warm. On Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, the log \u00a0\u201cgives out\u201d small gifts. People usually sing songs and hit the log with sticks to help its ‘digestion’ and the log drops sweets, nuts, and dried fruits.<\/p>\n
In France Christmas is known as Joyeux No\u00ebl. A popular custom of the French is to burn Yule Logs made of Cherry Wood.The logs are carried into homes on Christmas Eve and sprinkled with red wine which give a nice fragrance while it burns. The tradition behind leaving the log and candles burning all night, along with some food and drinks, is in case Mary and baby Jesus come past during the night.<\/p>\n
During December in Switzerland, Christmas markets selling a variety of specialty Christmas foods and decorations are very popular in many towns and cities. Traditional Christmas trees are also popular in Switzerland but are not bought and decorated until the eve of Christmas. It is common for the trees to be decorated with real candles which are lit while presents are opened.<\/p>\n
In Italy, the Italians hold the story of Christmas near and dear to their hearts and demonstrate this through the use of the Nativity crib scene. Many families display the Nativity scene in their homes with a real wooden crib. The cribs are left empty until the night of December 24th when a figure of baby Jesus is placed inside. After Christmas Eve Mass, a slice of Italian Christmas Cake known as \u201cPanettone\u201d and a cup of hot chocolate is a very popular treat!<\/p>\n
Though it may never truly feel like Christmas in Greece, that doesn\u2019t stop the Greeks from celebrating! On Christmas Eve, children, typically go out singing \u201ckalanda\u201d (carols) in the streets while playing drums and triangles. They \u00a0also carry model boats decorated with nuts which are painted gold. Carrying a boat is a very old custom in the Greek Islands. If the children sing well, they are often given money, nuts, sweets and dried figs to eat.<\/p>\n
It is amazing to see the differences and similarities of the same holiday celebrated across the world. Each country and city, the Forum-Nexus program visits, holds many customs and traditions which are a delight to experience and learn. Join us this summer to expand your International IQ of Europe. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did you know Christmas is actually celebrated around the world? Christmas isn\u2019t just an exclusive American holiday but a day celebrated internationally with many different and unique interpretations. One of the best aspects of traveling is getting to experience first hand the differences and unique characteristics these cultures hold, no matter the time of year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,170],"tags":[159,35,181,107,41,44,211,47,64,67],"class_list":["post-15115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explore-european-cultures","category-travel-tips-2","tag-christmas","tag-europe","tag-featured","tag-forum-nexus","tag-france","tag-greece","tag-holidays","tag-italy","tag-spain","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15119,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115\/revisions\/15119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-nexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}