- How well do we know our
international Christmas traditions?
- Let's talk about that.
(alarm rings) (playful music)
(fire blasts)
Good Mythical Morning.
- There are a lot of interesting Christmas
traditions out there.
For instance, my father-in-law has a tradition
of reliving the time I cut myself opening a Barbie
and fainted into his arms. - Mm-hm.
- It's a fun tradition that we all cherish.
- Yes, do not give this man a knife,
especially on a festive occasion, but the point is,
there's no one way to celebrate Christmas.
Different places have different traditions
based on different cultures and historical periods.
- Yeah! - But can we tell
which traditions belong where?
It's time for--
♪ Where in the world ♪
♪ Do these international Christmas traditions come from ♪
- The Mythical team will come out and present us
with a Christmas tradition from somewhere on the globe.
- Somewhere. - And we're gonna guess
what that tradition is by throwing a dart at the country
on that map over there.
You moved out a lot earlier.
- [Chase] Yeah 'cause you picked up the dart a lot earlier.
- Yeah, smart!
- Our resident Rudolph the red-nose cartographer Chase
will measure the distance from each dart
to the correct country.
- And as always, whoever has the shortest distance to,
the total shortest distance wins the game at the end
and Link, you know what, you returned to your losing ways
and so you are going to get another life-line.
It's in your stocking.
- I have a stocking. - I have one too
but I don't have a lifeline in it.
- The loser has to endure punishment on Instagram
related to one of the rounds.
- Okay. - So let's get to round one.
- Yeah let's bring in our first tradition.
♪ Mm buh bah bah bah bah ♪
- All righty.
- Hello. - What do we have here?
- Well I am a Christmas witch who pops down chimneys,
hence all the soot, and delivers gifts to children
on the feast of the Epiphany.
Though I look sinister, my sack is actually filled
with goodies. - Is it?
- Where do I come from?
- So you're a witch Santa Claus?
(Rhett chuckles) Okay.
Now Rhett, because you're hollier than I am jolly,
I'd love for you to go first.
It also gives me another advantage.
- Is that because of the crush I had on Holly Womble
all those years? - Yeah.
- Oh.
Good one, that's a deep cut. (chuckles)
Okay. - That's heavy.
- Yeah. - You said the feast
of the Epiphany? - Of the Epiphany.
- The Epiphany is often used in
the names of Catholic churches,
like The Church of the Epiphany.
So this feels like a Catholic tradition,
which that could be right there in Italy,
but as you know, Catholicism was exported to
South America and Central America in great quantities.
But this feels like something that might come from
the source but I don't know so I'm going to aim
between them in somewhere in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
(grunts)
- Ope, a little low. - Okay.
- Yeah, I have an epiphany that this is Italy,
so I'm going right for Italy.
- Whoa-ho! - Ukraine!
Me kraine, you kraine, we all kraine.
(chuckles)
Where you from, Santa witch?
- I am Befana.
Thought to be descended from the Roman goddess Strenia
but now incorporated into the Christmas tradition
in Italy. - Oh.
- Yeah! - Okay.
I should have just gone with the instinct!
- Boom-a-da-boom-a-da-boom-a-da-boom-a-da-boom.
I take the early lead, which doesn't mean much usually.
(Rhett chuckles)
- All right Link, you had six, Rhett you had 11.
- Oh wow okay. - Very close.
- Not bad to start.
♪ Mm buh bah bah bah bah bah bah ♪
- Oh who do we have here?
Wee-ho!
- It's Satan himself.
- Yes, in the first week of Advent,
local men in this country wear devil costumes
and chase children around in the streets.
Isn't that fun?
(Rhett laughs)
But December 7th marks the end of terror
with the burning of the devil where people pile
objects they no longer need against an effigy
of the devil and set it ablaze in order to cleanse
evil from the home, so, you'll need that to light on fire.
- They burn what?
- They burn an effigy of the devil.
- Look at the chest hair on this devil.
- Yeah it's to scale, everything's there.
- Very flammable too.
Devil chest hair goes up like that.
- Yeah that's gonna smell great when we burn that later.
Hm, I'm gonna go first.
Man.
- Not a lot to go on here, I'll just say that.
- Is hell on the board?
- Yeah right under the board.
- For no reason whatsoever-- - Good that's great.
- [Link] I'm drawn to South America.
Colombia and Bolivia are speaking to me equally.
- [Rhett] Hm.
- [Link] Hm, not a bad throw, huh?
- [Rhett] It was equidistant from Colombia and Bolivia.
- What are you thinking?
What's speaking to you?
- I don't know what it was,
but please Satan don't look at me while I'm thinking
about you and talking about you, but the idea of,
I'm definitely not thinking like, this doesn't feel like
an Africa thing or South Korean thing.
The whole Satan thing, it's a very western European
and then exported to South America thing,
sort of a similar deal.
- You're agreeing with me?
- [Rhett] You know what, I'm actually gonna hit Colombia.
- Whoops! - Okay nope,
I'm gonna hit Mexico.
- More for Guatemala.
All right Alex.
I mean Satan, who's right?
- So this is La Quema del Diablo.
- Oh!
Okay we're in the right region.
- A tradition (chuckles),
a tradition that derived from a colonial lantern ceremony
celebrated in Guatemala.
- Oh dang it!
You lucky dog! - Woo!
Me and Satan are like this, man.
- Yeah, there you go.
- There's one more thing. - That's your doll, huh?
- He directed my hand.
- If you lose this game, I'm gonna chase you around
on Instagram, so that's another thing.
- [Rhett] Oh.
- And I didn't just come up with that,
that's on here for sure.
- (laughs) It's on the card. - Yeah yeah.
- All right, so Link you had 14 and Rhett you had three.
- Oh, okay well, I didn't mean to. (chuckles)
♪ Mm buh bah bah bah bah bah bah ♪
- All right let's see who we've got next.
- What is this, Halloween or Christmas?
- [Goat] Hark, it is I, the fabled Yule goat.
I was once thought to be an invisible spirit
that would appear before Christmas to make sure
the Yule preparations were sent.
Young men would dress as me and go from house to house
singing songs of merriment and pulling pranks
of scaryment.
These days, I'm most often represented
with a straw ornament hung from a tree.
- Okay. - Very straw-y.
Glad you handed it to him--
- [Goat] But where oh where do this custom be?
(Rhett laughs)
- Was that whole thing a poem?
- Yeah, the goat has to show up to make sure
you're ready for Christmas?
I like that. (chuckles)
Nothing wrong with that at all.
- I am pretty disturbed. - Is the goat here yet?
- [Goat] I'm afraid to move because my vision is impeded.
- Yeah, you've got human eye slits right below
your goat slits. (chuckles)
- [Goat] Don't touch my goat slits.
- [Link] You can take one step back there.
There you go. - You can tell a lot
about a man from his goat slits.
- [Link] Move for me that way, there you go.
- Okay, goat culture.
- Goat culture.
- They got goats everywhere.
To me it has a little bit of like a
South American feel to it, like a Colombia or Bolivia.
'Cause we didn't go there last time.
We tried to.
But I don't know, something about a goat
that shows up to tell you to be ready for Christmas
seems like something that might happen in Africa.
I don't know why.
- [Link] You going for South Africa or Ethiopia?
- I'm going for the middle of Africa.
- Ooh! - Or Ethiopia.
- Man this is a tough one.
(sighs) I mean not all goats are mountain goats.
- I see where you're going with that.
- That could actually be Ukraine.
- A lot of mountain in Sweden. - A lot of mountains,
but it's real cold in those mountains.
- He has a sweater on.
- It could also be Bolivia.
I don't know why.
I'm going for the Ukraine.
Don't you think? - Go for it.
- I'm just messing with you now.
All right.
Ooh. - Barely.
- [Link] Italy is always on my mind I guess.
- All right Mr. Goat-- - Where you from?
- [Goat] The Yule goat AKA Yule blocken
is believed to be connected to two goats
ridden by the Norse god Thor,
but these days, celebrated at Christmastime
in Sweden. - Sweden.
- [Goat] Also part of Scandinavia.
- Right, Link you had eight.
Rhett, you had 21.
- Oh. - Nice.
Woo!
♪ Mm buh bah bah bah bah bah bah ♪
- Hope it's not another goat.
- I kinda do.
- It's just Christine with Corn Flakes.
(Rhett laughs)
- Welcome to the Mass of the Rooster.
At midnight mass on Christmas Eve,
some churchgoers bring a rooster to celebrate
the rooster's crow that allegedly announced
the birth of Jesus.
- Okay. - When they return home,
they traditionally eat chicken stew
which is a little sadistic.
Anyway, a live rooster costs $900 to rent for the day
so went with a box of Corn Flakes with a rooster on it.
- Oh.
- What country is this tradition from?
- Mm, okay, so don't be distracted by the Corn Flakes.
That's just because we can't get a rooster.
- So a rooster still sounds very Catholic.
- It does, why?
- 'Cause of something she said that I forgot.
- But when I think of rooster, I think of like voodoo.
- You can do that. - Okay.
- [Link] You know what, I think this is the result of
a Catholic tradition being exported and Ethiopiaized.
- Interesting.
- I'm feel Ethiopia.
Ope. (Rhett chuckles)
- [Rhett] Wow.
- [Link] But I'm throwing South Africa.
- [Rhett] You almost went off the map.
- [Link] It was a weak one.
- Okay. That's not a good spot.
- I don't think that Africa is a bad,
I don't think it's a bad guess.
But I think your reasoning is sound with the whole
sacrificial idea that you might find in Catholicism,
being exported, but I see this mixing with the animist,
animistic, is that a word, religions of the Native peoples
of South America.
(dramatic laugh)
- Ha ha ha ha.
- And you know what happens when you do that?
- What are you laughing at?
- Corn Flakes!
I don't know if it's Colombia or Bolivia,
so I'm gonna aim at Brazil.
And I'm going to hit the ocean.
- Boy, that's a tough throw.
All right Christine.
- All right so the Mass of the Rooster,
AKA La Misa Del Gallo, is a tradition whose origins
date back all the way to the year 300
but is celebrated in a few Spanish-speaking countries,
chiefly, Bolivia! - Whoa!
(mimics rooster clucking) Yes!
(mimics rooster clucking)
- That's the sound the rooster makes
when you're sacrificing him.
- All right Link, you had 28.
Rhett, you had nine.
- Oh, got the lead back, bro.
- It ain't over.
♪ Mm buh bah bah bah bah bah bah ♪
- All right let's see our final tradition.
- It all comes down to this thing.
(Rhett yells)
- [Creature] Ooh, what's up guys?
- What's up? - Such an intimidating look.
Not a very intimidating voice.
- [Creature] Oh hello.
You want me to be more spooky, wooh.
- What is that, a donkey face?
- [Creature] Well let me tell ya.
- [Link] I think it's a horse.
- [Creature] Every Christmas, groups of people
travel around to pubs and homes with a horse skull
on a stick covered in a white shroud.
They sing songs and spread good luck.
Where does this delightful equine tradition take place?
- Okay, well-- - You're going first.
- Okay this is a place that horses would be used
in a tradition, but you also said pub.
You said they go around to pubs.
I think they have pubs in lots of places,
but they usually call them bars in other places
outside of the United Kingdom.
- [Link] That's a good throw, Rhett,
but you were aiming at the wrong country.
- Okay.
- I believe this is Ethiopia, but I'm going to--
(Rhett laughs)
Oh you laugh now. - Okay all right.
You can move back over.
Actually you know what, stay right there.
- They have pubs in Ethiopia.
And I have a lifeline.
What's in my stocking?
I do not know.
But when it's brought, I will show.
(crew laughing)
- Oh, okay it's just a fart. (bell ringing)
- You had, oh it's a five dart throw.
- So how is this gonna-- - I think you just take 'em
out of the sheet.
Hold on, I've got a stocking. - These are nice too.
- What's in my stocking?
I don't think I have a lifeline but it looks like
there's some girth in there.
- [Chase] Here you go.
- If there's a girth in your stocking,
reach in and find out what it,
it's ham. (chuckles)
- Oh wow. - It's just straight up ham.
- Seems that you've already won, Rhett.
- I'm just gonna peel off a piece and go to town.
- These are heavy darts.
- That's good ham, I'm willing to share it with you.
You might have to throw better.
- All right so I'm going for Ethiopia
which is the correct answer,
but I'm also gonna hit a little of the United Kingdom,
where they also have pubs.
Pub culture.
- Why would they have a horse tradition?
Okay, you know what, aim for Ethiopia.
- Watch for the camera people.
- Three, two, one.
(crew laughing)
- What happened? - How did that happen?
- [Rhett] I wish North America was an option.
- You know what, throwing five darts is actually
a disadvantage, you maniacal, can I have some ham?
- Yeah it's really, I mean, I know you're a ham man.
And it's really good ham.
- All right dead horse, tell us if I was right,
but still am gonna lose.
- [Creature] Okay this is the Mari Lwyd.
A type of wassailing tradition which is
when people travel door-to-door,
singing and exchanging gifts.
This particular wassailing tradition happens in Wales,
which is in the UK.
- Ha ha ho!
Ha ha!
- You earned it. - Where the pubs are!
- Link had 24.
And Rhett had four.
- Oh wow.
- Good work, man. - Sorry Link.
But you know what you get to do,
you get to be chased by the devil on Instagram.
That'll make you feel better.
- Head on over there and see it.
Thank you for liking, commenting and subscribing.
- You know what time it is.
- I'm Parker from Indiana and this is Santa Claus
and it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- Yep he's real.
Click the top link to watch us explore some of
the oddest Santa art on DeviantArt in Good Mythical More.
- And to find out where the
Wheel of Mythicality's gonna land.
- [Rhett] Heading outside?
Cover your melon with these hats we're selling.
Three different styles to choose from now
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