Galway Advertiser 1991/1991_12_19/GA_19121991_E1_014.pdf 

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As we prepare for Christmas, Mary O'Connor looks at how children celebrate the event in other countries.

CHRISTMAS ABROAD
MEXICO
Children in many parts of the world act out the story of Christmas in nativity plays. Mexican children like to perform the part of the story where Mary and Joseph look for an inn to spend the night. They dress up for a procession called a posada, which is the Spanish word for " i n n " More information on Christmas Customs is There are nine posadas. The first one is on December 16th. Houses are decorated with available in the book "Merry Christmas" evergreens, moss and paper lanterns. A board is Children At Christmastime Around The World. made to carry painted clay figures of Mary, riding Heinemann, London. on a donkey, Jospeh, and sometimes an angel GERMANY guarding them as well. Children are given lighted candles, and sent off German children start preparing for Christmas in a procession, carefully holding the board with at the beginning of December with Advent calen the clay figures on it. They call to neighbour's dars. houses and stop to sing outside. The song asks for An Advent calendar has twenty-four numbered shelter for Joseph and Mary. doors to open, one for each day of December up They try other houses until at last they find the to Christmas Eve. Inside each door is a Christmas posada where they are made welcome. Doors are picture. opened and the children say prayers of thanks with the innkeepers. After that they have a party, with delicious food. The last of the posadas is on Christmas Eve. Mexican children receive their presents after Christmas on January 6th. The heat of all the ovens at this time is supposed to make the first heavy snows of winter melt. Norwegian children also remember the Nisse, a little gnome who guards farm animals. They put a bowl of special porridge out for this small Father Christmas. If they forget, he may play small tricks on them. Another kind of Advent calendar is made of a wreath of fir branches on which twenty-four little boxes are hung. Each box, wrapped in brightlycoloured paper, has a number on the outside and a tiny present inside. One box is opened on every day of Advent. In some parts of Germany, children write to the Christ Child, asking for presents. To make the letters sparkle and catch His eye, the children sprinkle the envelopes with sugar. They spread a little glue on to each one, then, while it is sticky, they shake sugar on to it. The glitter ing envelopes are left on the window sill, and the children go to bed on Christmas Eve, hoping for presents the next day. Presents are given secretly sometimes on Christmas Eve. While the family is gathered round at home, the door is suddenly pushed open just wide enough for small presents to be tossed inside on to the floor. Each family member opens a package to find inside another package bearing the name of someone else. Packages are passed back and forth until at last each gift reaches the person for whom it was intended. No one must ever find out who gave the presents, as that brings bad luck! One of the most exciting moments of the holi day is Christmas Eve, when German children see their Christmas tree for the first time. It is usually decorated secretly by the children's mother.

HOLLAND
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children and his feast day is on December 6th in Holland. It is said on that day he sails to Amsterdam in a boat from Spain. With him travels his servant, Black Peter. Church bells ring as he comes ashore. He wears a bishop's red robes and looks rather like Santa Claus. He rides a white horse and leads i colourful procession into the city to meet the queen Black Peter holds Saint Nicholas's horse. Dutch children are told that Black Peter keeps a record of what they do in a big book. Good children will be given presents, but Black Peter will chase the naughty ones with his stick. Sometimes Saint Nicholas and Black Peter ride over the roof tops to give out presents to children Often Dutch children put their clogs or shoes by the fireplace, hoping that Saint Nicholas will drop presents down the chimney. If they fill the clogs with hay and carrots for Saint Nicholas's horse, Saint Nicholas will also leave them some good things to eat. There is also a treasure hunt for presents, with poems providing the clues. Gifts are wrapped and carefully hidden. The children then have to follow a trail of clues to find their presents. All these lit tie gifts come from Saint Nicholas.

Greek boys often go out carol singing on Christmas Eve. They beat drums and tap triangles as they sing. If they sing well they may be given money or nuts, sweets and dried figs to eat. Sometimes a group of children decorate model boats with gold painted nuts, which they carry as they go from house to house. This is an old custom which children in the Greek islands still enjoy.



ITALY
An old custom for Italian children is to go before Christmas from house to house playing songs on shepherds' pipes, and wearing shepherds' sandals and hats. They are given money to buy Christmas food. But on Christmas Eve, Italians do without food for a day. Then, that night, after a midnight ser vice, they have a huge feast which will include the special Ialian cake called pane tone. Italian children have to wait for their Christmas presents until Twelfth Night, the Epiphany. This is when the three kings arrived in Bethlehem to worship the Christ Child. That night, children wait for the good witch, la Befana, to come down the chimney. Bad children find pieces of charcoal in their shoes, but good ones find presents.

The Indians who have become Christians have mixed together their own customs with those from other countries. Instead of Christmas trees they decorate banana or mango trees. They may also decorate their houses with mango leaves. In some parts of India small clay lamps burning oil are used as Christmas decorations. They are put out along the edges of flat roofs, or on the tops of walls. Churches in India are decorated with bright red poinsettia plants and lit with candles for the special Christmas Eve service.

A crib is often found in French homes, with small clay figures, standing for Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the shepherds, the three kings and the animals. At Christmas, French families sometimes burn a log of cherry wood as a yule log. They carry it to the house on Christmas Eve. Then it is lit. Wine may also be sprinkled on the cherry wood log. There is also a custom that the fire is kept alight, candles burning, and food and drink on the table in case Mary should pass that way with the Christ Child.

AUSTRALIA
Christmas comes in the middle of summer in Australia. Many Australians have a traditional Christmas dinner with roast turkey followed by rich Christmas pudding. Others may have a cold turkey and salad at a picnic on the beach or in the country. Most Australian homes have decorated Christmas trees and evergreens as well.

JAPAN
Some of the Christmas customs were brought to| Japan from the United States and other countries Japanese children enjoy Christmas carols, sen ding Christmas cards and most of all, giving and receiving Christmas presents. Parties are held, with children playing games and dancing. The Japanese Christmas cake is a sponge cake, decoratd with trees, flowers and a figure of Santa Claus, all made of creamy icing.

NORWAY
Christmas preparations begin early in December in Norway, when families start their Christmas baking. Many different kinds of biscuits and cakes are made as well as a rich Christmas bread called julekake. It is filled with raisins and candied peel.