December 18th, 2009 by dee

Hurry up! Christmas is around the corner. What? Getting bored? So, do you want to celebrate Christmas in another way? Or are you curious about how other people around the world spend their Christmas. No more waiting, now, let’s take a look at how people in other countries celebrate it.

America: You are too familiar with these songs-Jingle Bells”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Silent Night”. But in America, you just hear them on every street, in every corner and never get bored. It’s like a tradition. Since America is an immigrant country, its celebrating style is diverse. But in general, they all pay much attention to the decoration of the house. Christmas trees, stockings, gifts, turkeys, lights are indispensable.

Poland: In Poland, Christmas tree is a necessity for any household. Little ornaments are sold all over the neighborhood. Greetings are exchanged, as well as gifts. They will put some grass on the table-cloth to show the birth of Jesus. You have a lot of delicious food to eat on dinner, except for one thing-meat. After the midnight, the whole family will go to church.

Switzerland: Four weeks before Christmas, Swiss will light four giant candles, one for each week. They put the candle into a circle decorated by braches. When the fourth one has been burned out, Christmas is coming.

Italy: Italian people like to place some models of the story-Jesus being born. On the Christmas Eve, family members get together and eat a fancy meal. After the midnight Christmas Mass, they will visit some relatives and friends. Gifts are only for children and the elderly. Italy has a very good custom for Christmas, before Christmas meal, children will hide some of their compositions or poems in napkins, tablecloths or dishes, then read them loud after the meal. The main idea of those writings is expressing thanks to his or her parents.

Sounds quite interesting, right? Anyway, to some extent, the traditional meaning of Christmas has faded away. So the fundamental task for you is just to be happy. Enjoy Christmas and enjoy yourself.

Tags: Christmas

December 5th, 2009 by dee

We all know that the day before Christmas is called Christmas Eve. At that night, the whole family will be reunited in the living room, and sing Christmas songs and exchange gifts around the Christmas tree next to the Christmas carols

, sharing their joys and sorrows of life over the past year, expressing their blessings and love. In this evening a group of cute little boys and little girls will be seen holding poetry and playing the guitar and singing the poetry to report good news to one family after another. But do you know where this festive event of the good news team come from and how the Christmas Eve came into being? There is more than one version of stories about the origin of Christmas Eve, and the following is just one of them:

On the night when Jesus was born, a group of shepherds who had been guarding the sheep in the wilderness suddenly heard a voice come from heaven to report to them the good news of Jesus’s birth. According to the Bible, Jesus had come here to be the king of the world, so the Angel made the message known to more people through these shepherds.

Later, people follow the example of the angel and in go everywhere to report

the message of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve. And today reporting the good news has become indispensable program for Christmas.

The good news team is usually composed of about 20 young people, plus a little girl dressed as the angel and a Santa Claus. After about 9:00 pm on the Christmas Eve they will start to report the good news to one family after another. When the good news team goes to a family, they will firstly sing a few

Christmas songs that people are all familiar with, and then it is the girl’s turn to read out the words in the Bible so as to let the family know that tonight is the time of Jesus’ birth. After that everyone will make a prayer together and sing one or two poems. Finally the generous Santa Claus will deliver Christmas gifts to the small hall of that family son, and the whole process of reporting good news is complete!

The whole activity of reporting the good news will not end until around 4 o’clock the next morning.

But today most people have forgotten the stories of many festivals or they don’t mind knowing them or not, as long as they can enjoy themselves at each festival. And with the development of the science and technology, many religious festivals have lost their meaning of religion. People are more and more practical, and more and more confident. But knowing more about the festivals will just enhance our fun, and many of the festival stories are very beautiful.

Tags: Christmas, Xmas