Hello, lovely people,
and welcome.
I can’t believe we kind of almost made it.
[Sighs]
You can find the other videos in this series linked in the description down below.
Since we are now almost at the end of our festive time together,
and soon regular programming will resume on the channel,
I wanted to take this chance
to tell you about some of the other ways Christmas is celebrated around the world.
Since so many of you did seem to enjoy the weird British Christmas traditions video.
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This video is inspired by Clara,
my best friend and carer, who is Spanish,
and thus celebrates Kings’ Night; a tradition all but forgotten in England.
Clara is going to explain little about Kings’ Night and how it’s celebrated in her country
before I tell you about other interesting ways Christmas is celebrated around the world.
I didn't give her any prior warning of this – sorry.
Clara: Well, hello.
Clara: Spanish person
right here, explaining her traditions.
Clara: When I was a child, Christmas didn't used to be the big day
because our big day in Spain is actually January the 6th,
which is the day where the three kings, or wise men
(we call them kings - los tres reyes magicos -
"the three magic kings")
That's traditionally when the three kings would bring the presents to baby Jesus.
So that's when we would get our presents.
Christmas used to be - yes,
a day when you meet your family and friends and you get together
and all of that, and Christmas Eve -
but it was never really a present thing.
I don't know if other people in Spain - in the comments - actually got their presents then,
but I always got all my presents either
the night of the 5th,
which is Kings’…
Kings’ Day Eve,
or then on the 6th, which is Kings’ Day.
Pretty much like Christmas.
You meet your relatives and...
you have a lot of food.
My parents love to host it.
It’s a day of whimsy and magic for the children
and just like you would leave cookies and milk for Santa,
you would leave food for the camels.
'Cause, yes, the three wise men
- or the three kings - came by camel.
Yeah, that's basically it.
Clara: By the way, I forgot to mention, we also eat this traditional dessert; it’s called...
Clara: It’s this pastry that looks like a massive doughnut
and inside, it has two things:
one is a little figurine
and if you get it on your piece, you are the king and you get the crown;
and if you get black bean,
you lose and you have to pay for it the year after.
Christmas has become now the official day for presents, I would say,
but I think it's because of, you know, cultures getting together and movies and all of that.
Christmas just gets like earlier and earlier
every year.
Some kids are lucky and get presents both times.
Me and my family now exchange presents both days.
And yes, it’s obviously a Catholic thing
as Jessica explained before.
The 6th of January – Kings’ Night – is also known by the Epiphany, Denha, or Little Christmas.
Epiphany is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God as Jesus Christ.
In Western Christianity,
the feast commemorates principally the visit of the Magi, or three kings
as you’ll know them if you ever did a nativity play in school,
to baby Jesus and thus physical manifestation to the Gentiles
(which means non-Jews).
Denha is celebrated by Syrian Christians, who are an Eastern branch of Christianity
found in present day Lebanon, Palestine, Israel,
Syria, Turkey, Iraq,
and Iran.
Large area.
Of course, it is worth noting that since Christianity began in the Middle East
in Jerusalem among Aramaic-speaking
Jews and then spread to other Aramaic-speaking
Semitic peoples along the Mediterranean coast
and also the inland parts the Roman Empire
and beyond that into the Parthenon Empire and to the later
Thasian Empire, including Mesopotamia,
but it's not really…Eastern
so much that it is the epicentre and everything else is east
or west.
On the other hand, Little Christmas (also known as Old Christmas
and Women's Christmas)
is a traditional celebration amongst Irish Christians and Amish Christians.
Again, for the 6th of January.
Among some Anabaptists, such as the Amish, Old Christmas is celebrated as the Julian calendar
(remember those calendars from episode one?)
and was retained for liturgical feasts.
Interestingly, in the fourth century, the churches of the Eastern Roman Empire
were celebrating Christmas on the 6th of January
and those in the Western Roman Empire were celebrating on the 25th of December,
and thus the time between those two dates came to be known as the twelve days of Christmas, because…
Calendars: confusing.
In the Scottish Highlands, the term ‘Lttle Christmas’ is applied to New Year's Day
also known as [attempts pronunciation]
[Continues attempting pronunciation]
I mean, I'm deaf, so...
excuses all over.
Epiphany is also known as
another word I can't pronounce
Er, the Feast Day of Kings.
However, the Transalpine Redemptorists,
a part of the Catholic Church of Aberdeen and who are based
(it's really tiny)
on the Orkney Island of Papa Stronsay,
celebrate Little Christmas on the 25th day of every single month
except for December,
where the twenty-fifth day is celebrated as Christmas Day.
Think on that.
A Christmas
every month.
In even more out-there customs,
we have the Giant Lantern Festival of the Philippines
which is held each year on the Saturday before Christmas Eve
in the city of San Fernando,
the Christmas capital of the Philippines.
So, eleven different villages take part in the festival
and the competition is so fierce that everyone helps in the whole village in trying to build the most elaborate lantern.
Originally, these were really simple creations; they were about half a metre in diameter,
made from a type of Japanese origami paper.
And lit by a candle.
Kind of similar to the lanterns that I showed you in the…
video that I made about
candles; I'm gonna say that was day nine.
In the Brighton Festival, Burning of the Clocks.
Today, however,
the lanterns are made from a variety of materials and have grown to around
six metres in size!
They’re illuminated by electric bulbs
and have kaleidoscopic patterns and colours.
Slightly more traditional in the snowy Christmas sense,
we have Sweden's Gävle Goat.
Stop trying to pronounce things, Jessica.
Which, since 1966,
they've erected a 13-metre-tall Yule goat
in the centre of Gävle’s Castle Square
for the whole Advent.
But, the real tradition is actually people trying to burn it down.
Since 1966, the goat has actually been successfully burnt down twenty-nine times;
the most recent disruption was in 2016.
All in good fun, though.
Much like the apparently “fun,” yet actually terrifying,
Krampus in Austria.
He's a beast-like demon creature that roams city streets
frightening children and punishing the bad ones.
In Austrian traditions, St. Nicholas rewards nice little children,
while Krampus is said to capture
the naughtiest children
and whisk them away in his sack.
In the first week of December, young men dress up as Krampus
[disturbed shudder]
and frighten children with clattering chains and bells.
Related to Krampus, we have the Yule Lads
(which is a name I love)
in Iceland.
They're thirteen tricksy troll-like characters
and they come out to play in the thirteen days leading up to Christmas.
So, for each night of Yuletide,
children place their best shoes by the window
and a different ‘Yule Lad’ visits
('Yule Lad' - I can't get over it),
leaving gifts
for very good children
and rotting potatoes
for the bad ones.
...Oh.
Clad in traditional Icelandic costume,
these chaps are…pretty mischievous .
OK, yeah. So that's pretty ancient, I suppose.
But! Japan take the biscuit when it comes to modern times,
with their traditional
Kentucky Fried Christmas dinner.
Christmas has never really been a big deal in Japan; aside from a few small secular traditions, such as
gift-giving and
lighting displays, Christmas largely remains a novelty.
However,
they have a new quirky tradition:
a Christmas Day feast
...of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
From which we move to a tradition that dates back centuries:
the hiding of brooms on Christmas Eve in Norway.
People apparently believed that witches and evil spirits came out on Christmas Eve
looking for brooms to ride on.
So, to this day, many people still hide their brooms in a safe place in the house to stop them from being stolen.
Well, I suppose if you make it into a tradition, then yeah, people are probably gonna...
just want some brooms.
And, even more traditional:
is St. Nicholas Day in Germany.
Not to be confused with Father Christmas,
Nicholas travels by donkey in the middle of the night on December the 6th.
Saint Nicholas also visits children in schools
or at home, and in exchange for sweets or small present
a child must recite a poem,
sing a song, or draw a picture.
To be—actually, wait… Yeah.
No, one of the traditions in my Swedish family is that
on Christmas Eve you must perform in order to be given your dinner.
Well, pudding. You're not allowed pudding. Which is always rice pudding.
You’re not allowed rice pudding
until you have performed.
We don't have shy people in our family, clearly.
But it isn't always fun and games.
St. Nicholas often brings along Farmhand Rupert.
A devil-like character dressed in dark clothes covered in bells with a dirty beard,
Farmhand Rupert carries a stick or a small whip
in hand to punish any children who misbehave.
Children get punished a lot, actually.
Is Christmas really just a way to make children be good
by threatening them with pain?
Oh, and sliding in at the end,
we have the truly fabulous Venezuela;
where, for reasons utterly unknown,
every Christmas Eve the city's residents head to church in the morning on roller-skates.
A unique tradition.
but it's so popular that the roads across the city are closed to cars
so that people can skate to church in safety.
No one knows where that tradition’s come from;
it's just really cool.
Are you from one of these countries?
How do you celebrate Christmas?
Is it a little off the wall?
Please let me know in the comments down below.
I have loved learning about all of these.
[Gentle, jolly festive music]