Poland<\/h2>Back to the topic. The most important days in the Polish celebrations are the 24th<\/sup> and the 25th<\/sup> of December, on both of these evenings, Christmas Masses take place. But for many people, Christmas is more about love and family. Especially, the meal on Christmas Eve is the time to celebrate that. Personal messages and wishes are exchanged along with wafers. Family members who can’t attend the celebration send their wishes and wafers by mail. Already passed family members are part of the festivity too as there is a particular setting laid out to honour them. And now to my favourite tradition, I’ve been waiting long enough to share that with you! In Poland, it’s common to prepare the table for one person more than there is actually attending. As Christmas is a celebration of love, no one in Poland should have to be alone. Every family is prepared for unnamed visitors and will warmly welcome them with an already prepared place at the table and enough food for all. Even if no one knocks on the door, it still is a beautiful gesture!<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n \n ![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-elina-volkova-19213922-768x982.jpg\")
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n \n \n Catalonia<\/h2>Oh, I said something about the supposedly interesting Catalonian Christmas traditions, I should finally explain “the pooper” right? So, this little guy is part of Catalonian Christmas decorations and can be found along with Mary and Joseph in the Nativity scene and he’s well… taking a poop. This tradition dates to the 18th<\/sup> century and is supposed to bring good fortune and fertility for the next year, although the meaning is debated. In Catalonia they are called “Caganer” and can be found at every Christmas market, maybe there is something to the good fortune. They can come with a traditional Catalonian hat or with a not-so-traditional face of famous politicians, actors or musicians. Along with the Catalonian Christmas stew “escudella i carn d\u2019olla” or the gift-giving day on 6th<\/sup> December comes another tradition related to pooping (even though this one is kind of cute) but that’s a story for another advent.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n \n ![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-ioana-motoc-19149264-768x1152.jpg\")
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/FAQ-side-bar-03-1.png\")
<\/div>Christmas Riddle<\/h3>You need to find two separate words again:
\r\n
\r\n1 . I’ve spotted another anagram! tsacsmihr!
\r\n_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
\r\n
\r\n2. This one is a treasure hunt… a little one at least:
\r\nLook for the first word in our article about Procrastination! _ _ _ _<\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n \n \n Iceland<\/h2>Now, our Christmas journey takes us to the icy north. In Iceland, there are tons of Christmas traditions to preserve a good mood during the cold and dark winter months. During the Christmas season, the Yul Lads comes down from the mountains into the villages and Cities but for now, I want to shine some light on the gifting traditions. (We’re gonna come back to the 13 little Santas on another Advent.) There is the so-called Yul book flood in Iceland. It is customary to receive at least one book for Christmas so that in the evening everyone can calm down and end the day with the cosiness of readying. While everyone is caught up in their own adventure, you are still together enjoying the magic of stories. No wonder Iceland is one of the top nations in bookselling!<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \n \n ![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-ioana-motoc-19149210-768x1152.jpg\")
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nBesides books, it is also common to get at least one piece of new clothing, especially for Children. Why? Well, to save their lives! According to Icelandic stories, there is a giant, black cat that only appears on Christmas Eve, the Christmas Cat. And for no particular reason, the Christmas Cat enjoys feasting on little children who have not received new clothing among their gifts\u2026 There are many theories about where the legend comes from, but no one seems to be exactly sure. So get comfortable with your book on Christmas Eve, but don’t forget to wear that new pair of socks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \n \n\n \n \n Georgia<\/h2>After a flight over Europe, we are going to make a stop in Georgia. Here, Christmas is based on the Georgian Orthodox Church and therefore on the old Julian calendar. So, Christmas is celebrated on 7th<\/sup> January. On this day, many people, especially children (they’re getting sweets, that’s a valid reason to participate) are part of the Alilo Parade. People are dressed in special clothes or portray people from the Nativity Story, many carry icons or Georgian Flags.<\/p>\nA traditional Christmas tree is also part of the celebration but it might look different than most Christmas trees you know (although the “western” Christmas tree is gaining popularity too). It consists of dried hazel or walnut wood, that is shaved into curly stripes, arranged in the form of a tree and decorated. Burning the tree on the day before the Georgian Orthodox Epiphany is meant to burn the old year’s worries.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \n \n ![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-ekaterina-bolovtsova-6690728-768x512.jpg\")
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThere is a tradition of gift giving too. If you are familiar with the Julian calendar, you can guess on which day they are exchanged. It’s not the 7th of January. It’s the 31st of December, the most popular day of Georgian Christmas Celebrations. An Evening filled with food, family and fireworks. It is said, that someone (who varies from region to region) comes down from the Caucasus mountains and brings gifts for the children, so a lot of presents are exchanged on that day. You will also find people giving a lot of sweets to each other since it is meant to represent youthfulness and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \n \n\n \n \n Ukraine<\/h2>Oh and while Ukrainian traditions are relatively similar to the Georgian Christmas (the Orthodox Christian Church is very popular in Ukraine too), there is a tradition, that I just couldn’t leave unmentioned! Not many people like Spiders right? (That’s at least true for me: There is one living on my windowsill and I have been afraid to open the window for weeks…)<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \n \n ![\"Foto](\"https:\/\/the-fizz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pexels-valeria-boltneva-19208320-768x1151.jpg\")
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn Ukraine, there is a story about a poor mother and her children, who spend all year growing a Christmas tree. But though they had a beautiful three by the end of the year, there was no money for decorations. Throughout the night a spider spun their web in the branches. As the family saw the tree in the light of the next morning all the threads encased the tree in beautiful silver! Since this Christmas good luck was upon the widow and her children. Therefore it is a tradition to decorate the Christmas tree with spiders and glittery threads to represent the spiderwebs. Spiders in general are not seen as scary or nasty but rather as lucky (this is also true for Poland and Parts of Germany). I am in love with this story and it definitely does make the spider on my window sill a little more likable\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So these were a lot of different ideas and approaches for the festivities around Christmas. Or, if you will, a lot of random facts to share this December in Christmas small talk \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All photo rights by International Campus GmbH<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get an impression of different Christmas traditions all over the world! And solve the riddle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":130320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"city":[53,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,209,76,79,78,77],"custom-author":[191],"class_list":["post-130311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-record-en","city-aachen","city-berlin","city-bremen","city-darmstadt","city-frankfurt","city-freiburg","city-hamburg","city-hanover","city-leiden","city-munich","city-prague","city-utrecht","city-vienna","custom-author-hannah"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130311"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130372,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311\/revisions\/130372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"custom-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-author?post=130311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Back to the topic. The most important days in the Polish celebrations are the 24th<\/sup> and the 25th<\/sup> of December, on both of these evenings, Christmas Masses take place. But for many people, Christmas is more about love and family. Especially, the meal on Christmas Eve is the time to celebrate that. Personal messages and wishes are exchanged along with wafers. Family members who can’t attend the celebration send their wishes and wafers by mail. Already passed family members are part of the festivity too as there is a particular setting laid out to honour them. And now to my favourite tradition, I’ve been waiting long enough to share that with you! In Poland, it’s common to prepare the table for one person more than there is actually attending. As Christmas is a celebration of love, no one in Poland should have to be alone. Every family is prepared for unnamed visitors and will warmly welcome them with an already prepared place at the table and enough food for all. Even if no one knocks on the door, it still is a beautiful gesture!<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n Oh, I said something about the supposedly interesting Catalonian Christmas traditions, I should finally explain “the pooper” right? So, this little guy is part of Catalonian Christmas decorations and can be found along with Mary and Joseph in the Nativity scene and he’s well… taking a poop. This tradition dates to the 18th<\/sup> century and is supposed to bring good fortune and fertility for the next year, although the meaning is debated. In Catalonia they are called “Caganer” and can be found at every Christmas market, maybe there is something to the good fortune. They can come with a traditional Catalonian hat or with a not-so-traditional face of famous politicians, actors or musicians. Along with the Catalonian Christmas stew “escudella i carn d\u2019olla” or the gift-giving day on 6th<\/sup> December comes another tradition related to pooping (even though this one is kind of cute) but that’s a story for another advent.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n Now, our Christmas journey takes us to the icy north. In Iceland, there are tons of Christmas traditions to preserve a good mood during the cold and dark winter months. During the Christmas season, the Yul Lads comes down from the mountains into the villages and Cities but for now, I want to shine some light on the gifting traditions. (We’re gonna come back to the 13 little Santas on another Advent.) There is the so-called Yul book flood in Iceland. It is customary to receive at least one book for Christmas so that in the evening everyone can calm down and end the day with the cosiness of readying. While everyone is caught up in their own adventure, you are still together enjoying the magic of stories. No wonder Iceland is one of the top nations in bookselling!<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n Besides books, it is also common to get at least one piece of new clothing, especially for Children. Why? Well, to save their lives! According to Icelandic stories, there is a giant, black cat that only appears on Christmas Eve, the Christmas Cat. And for no particular reason, the Christmas Cat enjoys feasting on little children who have not received new clothing among their gifts\u2026 There are many theories about where the legend comes from, but no one seems to be exactly sure. So get comfortable with your book on Christmas Eve, but don’t forget to wear that new pair of socks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a flight over Europe, we are going to make a stop in Georgia. Here, Christmas is based on the Georgian Orthodox Church and therefore on the old Julian calendar. So, Christmas is celebrated on 7th<\/sup> January. On this day, many people, especially children (they’re getting sweets, that’s a valid reason to participate) are part of the Alilo Parade. People are dressed in special clothes or portray people from the Nativity Story, many carry icons or Georgian Flags.<\/p>\n A traditional Christmas tree is also part of the celebration but it might look different than most Christmas trees you know (although the “western” Christmas tree is gaining popularity too). It consists of dried hazel or walnut wood, that is shaved into curly stripes, arranged in the form of a tree and decorated. Burning the tree on the day before the Georgian Orthodox Epiphany is meant to burn the old year’s worries.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n There is a tradition of gift giving too. If you are familiar with the Julian calendar, you can guess on which day they are exchanged. It’s not the 7th of January. It’s the 31st of December, the most popular day of Georgian Christmas Celebrations. An Evening filled with food, family and fireworks. It is said, that someone (who varies from region to region) comes down from the Caucasus mountains and brings gifts for the children, so a lot of presents are exchanged on that day. You will also find people giving a lot of sweets to each other since it is meant to represent youthfulness and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh and while Ukrainian traditions are relatively similar to the Georgian Christmas (the Orthodox Christian Church is very popular in Ukraine too), there is a tradition, that I just couldn’t leave unmentioned! Not many people like Spiders right? (That’s at least true for me: There is one living on my windowsill and I have been afraid to open the window for weeks…)<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n\n In Ukraine, there is a story about a poor mother and her children, who spend all year growing a Christmas tree. But though they had a beautiful three by the end of the year, there was no money for decorations. Throughout the night a spider spun their web in the branches. As the family saw the tree in the light of the next morning all the threads encased the tree in beautiful silver! Since this Christmas good luck was upon the widow and her children. Therefore it is a tradition to decorate the Christmas tree with spiders and glittery threads to represent the spiderwebs. Spiders in general are not seen as scary or nasty but rather as lucky (this is also true for Poland and Parts of Germany). I am in love with this story and it definitely does make the spider on my window sill a little more likable\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So these were a lot of different ideas and approaches for the festivities around Christmas. Or, if you will, a lot of random facts to share this December in Christmas small talk \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n All photo rights by International Campus GmbH<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Get an impression of different Christmas traditions all over the world! And solve the riddle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":130320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"city":[53,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,209,76,79,78,77],"custom-author":[191],"class_list":["post-130311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-record-en","city-aachen","city-berlin","city-bremen","city-darmstadt","city-frankfurt","city-freiburg","city-hamburg","city-hanover","city-leiden","city-munich","city-prague","city-utrecht","city-vienna","custom-author-hannah"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130311"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130372,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130311\/revisions\/130372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=130311"},{"taxonomy":"custom-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-fizz-old.testpage.click\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-author?post=130311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Catalonia<\/h2>
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>Christmas Riddle<\/h3>
\r\n
\r\n1 . I’ve spotted another anagram! tsacsmihr!
\r\n_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
\r\n
\r\n2. This one is a treasure hunt… a little one at least:
\r\nLook for the first word in our article about Procrastination! _ _ _ _<\/div> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\nIceland<\/h2>
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Georgia<\/h2>
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Ukraine<\/h2>
<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n