by Anishametra Saravanan

If you’ve ever wondered where the tradition of bringing trees to celebrate Christmas or where advent calendars come from, we’ve tracked some popular festive traditions – as well as some lesser-known ones – back to their country of origin. Here are a few Christmas traditions from around the world!  

Source: Lonely Planet  

Tradition: Hanging of advent calendars 

Advent, meaning “to come”, is the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas. In the 19th Century, German Protestants counted down the days until Christmas by marking 24 chalk lines on a door and rubbing one off every day in December. Paper advent calendars grew to popularity in Germany in the early 20th century when Gerhard Lang, thought to have produced the first printed Advent calendar and began to mass print them. Inspired by a calendar his mother had made, Lang made one with illustrations attached to a piece of cardboard and added doors that could be opened to view the images underneath. Despite the commercial success of advent calendars, it wasn’t until the late 1950s that advent calendars included chocolate.  

Today, you will see giant advent calendars on the facades of buildings in many European towns and cities. Some of the prettiest can be found in Hattingen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; Bernkastel-Kues in Germany’s Moselle Valley and the old town of Innsbruck, Austria. 

Tradition: Decorating fir trees 

The custom of bringing a fir tree into the home during the winter solstice was common among pagan Europeans. In Scandinavia, people decorated their homes and barns with greenery for New Year to ward off evil. Since evergreens symbolize eternal life, greenery helped remind Europeans that spring was just around the corner. 

It’s not known exactly when fir trees began to be used by Christians as Christmas trees, but the cities of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia lay claim to the first documented use of a public tree at Christmas and New Year celebrations in the 16th century.   

Tradition: Gifting of poinsettia 

Blooming brightly in the midst of winter, Poinsettias are indigenous to Central America, specifically to southern Mexico around Taxco del Alarcon and the state of Oaxaca. 

A Mexican legend tells of a girl who had nothing to offer baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services but a bunch of weeds. When she knelt down to offer the weeds by the nativity scene, the bouquet burst into a beautiful heap of bright red flowers. Since then, poinsettias, with leaves are thought to be shaped like the star of Bethlehem, are known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, and have become synonymous with Christmas. 

Tradition: Midnight mass  

Midnight Mass originated in modern-day Israel. In the late 4th century, a Christian pilgrim from Rome joined a group of Christians in a vigil in Bethlehem on the night of 5th January – Christmas Eve in the Eastern tradition. The vigil was followed by a torchlight procession to Jerusalem, culminating with a dawn gathering. When the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built in 5th century, Pope Sixtus III instituted a Midnight Mass in the chapel, a tradition that today has spread to many Christian countries worldwide. 

Source: Pulzo

Tradition: Noche de las Velitas (Night of the Little Candles)  

On the night of 7th December, Colombia honors Mary and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with an enchanting celebration of lights that marks the start of the holiday season. Colombians illuminate their homes and streets with millions of white and colored velas (candles) in patterned paper lanterns. 

The “Night of the Little Candles” was once a small-scale, family-centric affair and celebration. Over the years, the decorations have become more creative and sophisticated as electric lights are more often used. Celebrations have become increasingly public, with music and firework displays as well as food markets. 

Source:

Lonely Planet