The bizarre Catalonian tradition of caga tió (or “defecating log” in English) involves creating a character out of a small log – often complete with a grinning face and hat – which sits on the dining room table during the fortnight leading up to Christmas. It has to be fed every day with fruit, nuts and sweets, and then – on Christmas Eve – the entire family beats the log with sticks, while singing traditional songs, forcing the log to excrete its treats. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/8214909/The-worlds-weirdest-Christmas-traditions.html?frame=1790284
http://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/world/13-unusual-holiday-traditions-around-world THERE APPEARS TO BE A CONTINUING THEME HERE.
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Reveillon France (but also New Orleans. And Quebec) it is the gluttonous ceremony of ‘reveillon’– a Christmas Eve banquet to end all banquets. The idea is to stay awake (roughly the translation of the word) until after midnight, cramming as much luxurious grub as possible. This may include the 13 desserts. Yes, 13 – one for each of Jesus and the 12 Apostles.
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Every Dec. 23, the Mexican state of Oaxaca presents the most impressive display of carved vegetables in the world. The radishes are grown especially for this event, and remain on display through Christmas day. The miniature exhibits depict the Nativity scene and other events from Mexican folklore. Originally, the tradition of radish carving was done by shopkeepers who wanted to entice people into their stores. Today, it’s a three-day festival.
CHRISTMAS IDEA:
Publix recommends that you try: Hosting a full sit-down holiday meal, collaborate on a family/friends potluck or appetizers-only gathering—finger food is fun and festive but not so hard on the budget. PUBLIX FAMILY STYLE: DEC/JAN 2015/16
Czech women predict on Christmas whether they will marry in the next year by throwing a shoe over their shoulders while standing with their backs to the house door. If the shoe lands with the heel toward the door, the woman will stay single for another year.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/weird-holiday-traditions_n_4482210.html
Today I’ve been giving you some ideas on strange Christmas (at least to us) Traditions. I grew up in West Virginia and it wasn’t till I moved further north that I heard of opening presents on the night before Christmas, I being an eager kid thought it was a great idea, but my parents never bought it. A friend of mine says her mother always decorated the tree on Christmas Eve. Seems a lot of effort for one day but…
Mari Lwyd
In Wales, a person is disguised as a horse, complete with a horse’s skull and parades through the streets, going from door to door singing as part of a luck-bringing tradition
One thing I remember from being a kid was that everything was closed on Christmas except the hospital and police department. I thought just for fun I’d see what’s open in the Orlando area on the holiday:
I found 34 restaurants with Christmas menus: There’s the usual on International Drive catering as we always have tourist for the theme parks and where you have large number of people staying in hotels they tend to h to stay open no matter what as you have to feed them….it look bad to have complaints about near starved visitors. But the are some other places all about all about including the Twisted Tuna in Stuart. http://thetwistedtuna.co
Then there’s the BoJangles franchise (8 stores) that just shot down a few weeks before Christmas, here in town with no prior notice to his employee just because he could–http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/bojangles-closes-all-8-central-florida-restaurants/npdPp/ but that’s a whole other story and one can only hope that Christmas spirits are included in his near future.
Italy – La Befana
Pre-dating the modern Father Christmas story by a long way the witch La Befana has some remarkable similarities with St Nick including climbing down the chimney, rewarding good children with presents and giving bad children coal. So similar in fact we wonder if Chris Kringle might possibly have nicked his greatest hits. https://www.statravel.co.uk/travel-blog/2014/12/6-weird-christmas-traditions-from-around-the-world/
