Topic: Christmas Customs

If all you want for Christmas is a long vacation, move Down Under. Christmas is the world's most widely celebrated holiday, but those celebrations can be very different from the American idea of Santa and snow. Christmas comes during summer in Australia, so kids get a six-week vacation, and Christmas dinner may be served on the beach! What do you know about Christmas customs around the globe?

Try this quiz by Kenneth C. Davis, the author of "Don't Know Much About History." Answers below.

1. What is Boxing Day?
2. In what country do children put out their shoes in January instead of hanging stockings in December?
3. Where do bad children risk a visit from Father Spanker?
4. In what land do people fear prankish Sprites that supposedly emerge from the center of the earth at Christmastime?
5. Where are you likely to be served an eel on Christmas Eve?
6. Where do children wear lighted candles on their heads?

QUIZ ANSWERS
1. An additional day of gift giving, celebrated on December 26 in Britain and several of its former colonies. The name is said to come from the custom of noblemen boxing up gifts for their servants that day.
2. On the evening of January 5, Spanish children put their shoes near a window or by the front door. The next day is Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. Legend has it the Wise Men arrive in the night and fill the shoes with small gifts.
3. On Christmas Eve, French children put their shoes by the fireplace, hoping Father Christmas (Pere Noel) will come. His partner, Father Spanker (Pere Fouettard), delivers a spanking to naughty children.
4. Greece.
5. Italy, especially Rome.
6. Sweden, where seasonal festivities begin on December 13, St. Lucia Day. In the morning, the eldest daughter in the home dresses in white and wears a wreath with seven lighted candles on her head. She serves the rest of the family coffee and buns in bed.

Article Reference:
Title: Christmas Customs Around The World
Data Source: Wit And Wisdom at http://www.witandwisdom.org by Richard G. Wimer

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