Holiday Traditions Around the World
Since the beginning of time every culture, religion, and race have had their own set beliefs, holidays, and superstitions. These can determine how you spend Christmas or what you eat for Thanksgiving and provides the world with diversity and insight on just how different everyone is. If you celebrate Christmas or not, whether your family makes turkey for Thanksgiving or a traditional family recipe passed down through generations, every single person’s holiday traditions are valid and deserve to be celebrated and talked about.
Although there are many traditions globally, some are talked about more than others, so the goal is to illuminate and bring attention to those that are less popular, such as certain unorthodox traditions in different countries and places in the world. This tradition is likely to be one of the most unheard-of tradition unless you originate from around Norway. This Christmas Eve tradition from Norway surprisingly enough focuses on brooms and hiding them.
“Perhaps one of the most unorthodox Christmas Eve traditions can be found in Norway, where people hide their brooms. It’s a tradition that dates back centuries to when people believed that witches and evil spirits came out on Christmas Eve looking for brooms to ride on. To this day, many people still hide their brooms in the safest place in the house to stop them from being stolen,” According to 11 Weird and Wonderful Christmas Traditions from around the World.
To some this custom may seem that it would belong during Halloween time. No matter how strange this tradition may seem, this is a perfect example of the variation of celebrations in today’s society.
In addition to other eccentric practices, there are also many to what is commonly known as New Year’s Eve, a night where we celebrate the past year in hopes of an even better one to come, and finding ways to better ourselves. In Ecuador, a common way of celebration is dressing up a straw man, and then burning him.
“In Ecuador, families dress a straw man in old clothes on December 31. The straw man represents the old year. The family members make a will for the straw man that lists all of their faults. At midnight, they burn the straw man, in hopes that their faults will disappear with him” stated Holidays: A Sampler From Around the World.
Overall, no matter what part of the world you are from, or what you believe in, it is evident that each culture has its own traditions that will be passed down for many generations to come.
Haven Gutierrez is a Senior at Ripon High school. This is her fourth year in journalism, and she is excited to consistently improve her writing skills...
