Baba Me Merry Christmas From Around the world
Here we are a day to Christmas eve,
With so many of us travelling all over the world to visit family and friends I thought today is a good day to share our cultural Christmas experiences with you! We have a range of Nationalities in the Baba Me office and we have been experiencing the highs and lows of multicultural events this year.
As I saw Andreanne's face this morning in the office I got a bit of a shock! The wee lovie was supposed to fly back to Quebec the day before yesterday and thanks to the ice-ice-ice cold weather we have been experiencing here her flight back to Canada was cancelled until the 26th :-(, ahh well I can try my best to reconcile her grief!
We start chatting about Christmas traditions Canadians open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Some only open their stocking on Christmas Eve. Others choose one gift to open, then save the rest until Christmas Day. "Sinck Tuck" is a festival started by the Inuit that is celebrated in some provinces of Canada. This celebration consists of dancing and gift exchanging.
At the end of the Christmas season, January 6th, people in the province of Quebec have a celebration called "La Fete du Roi" They bake a cake and place a bean in the middle. Whoever is the lucky discoverer of the bean, gets to be the king or queen, according to tradition. This is similar to a tradition in Spain.
Today, few treat the old traditions seriously, but some survive as family fun. "Maidens" interested in their marital future and older people, who try to predict next year's weather based on the sky's aura between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night (Jan. 6), sometimes cling to past superstitions.
As Celine Jets off we talk about the French Christmas On Christmas Eve, children leave their shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts from Pere Noel. In the morning they also find that sweets, fruit, nuts and small toys have been hung on the tree.In cathedral squares, the story of Christ's birth is re-enacted by both players and puppets. Nearly every French home at Christmas time displays a Nativity scene or crèche, which serves as the focus for the Christmas celebration.
The crèche is often peopled with little clay figures called santons or "little saints." In addition to the usual Holy Family, shepherds, and Magi, the craftsmen also produce figures in the form of local dignitaries and characters. The craftsmanship involved in creating the gaily coloured santons is quite astounding and the molds have been passed from generation to generation since the seventeenth century. Throughout December the figures are sold at annual Christmas fairs in Marseille and Aix.
And that's it the rest of us get to celebrate with a true Irish/English style traditions, turkey, baked spuds, pavalova, mince pies, stockings, Christmas trees, Santa, Ice-Ice-Snow, wine, beer, whiskey, toys-toys-toys!
Until January for the sales... Happy Christmas
Caoimhe & all at the Baba Me team!
With so many of us travelling all over the world to visit family and friends I thought today is a good day to share our cultural Christmas experiences with you! We have a range of Nationalities in the Baba Me office and we have been experiencing the highs and lows of multicultural events this year.
We start chatting about Christmas traditions Canadians open their gifts on Christmas Eve. Some only open their stocking on Christmas Eve. Others choose one gift to open, then save the rest until Christmas Day. "Sinck Tuck" is a festival started by the Inuit that is celebrated in some provinces of Canada. This celebration consists of dancing and gift exchanging.
At the end of the Christmas season, January 6th, people in the province of Quebec have a celebration called "La Fete du Roi" They bake a cake and place a bean in the middle. Whoever is the lucky discoverer of the bean, gets to be the king or queen, according to tradition. This is similar to a tradition in Spain.
Our Polish counterpart Eliza left last night winging her way back to Poland to celebrate with her family For Poles, Christmas Eve is a time of family gathering and reconciliation. It's also a night of magic: Animals are said to talk in a human voice and people have the power to tell the future. The belief was born with our ancestors who claimed that Dec. 24 was a day to mark the beginning of a new era. It was bolstered by sayings such as, "As goes Christmas Eve, goes the year." Hoping for a good 12 months, everyone was polite and generous to one another and forgave past grievances.
Today, few treat the old traditions seriously, but some survive as family fun. "Maidens" interested in their marital future and older people, who try to predict next year's weather based on the sky's aura between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night (Jan. 6), sometimes cling to past superstitions.
As Celine Jets off we talk about the French Christmas On Christmas Eve, children leave their shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts from Pere Noel. In the morning they also find that sweets, fruit, nuts and small toys have been hung on the tree.In cathedral squares, the story of Christ's birth is re-enacted by both players and puppets. Nearly every French home at Christmas time displays a Nativity scene or crèche, which serves as the focus for the Christmas celebration.
And that's it the rest of us get to celebrate with a true Irish/English style traditions, turkey, baked spuds, pavalova, mince pies, stockings, Christmas trees, Santa, Ice-Ice-Snow, wine, beer, whiskey, toys-toys-toys!
Until January for the sales... Happy Christmas
Caoimhe & all at the Baba Me team!
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