Subject: It's secular, but there's one tradition in my town.
Author:
Posted on: 2015-12-25 11:35:00 UTC
Until... basically until anyone can be bothered to put them away, all the yachts and little boats in the marina are bedecked in coloured lights. It's only small, and there's no really organization to it, it just sort of... happens, really. And it's beautiful.
Merry Christmas to you all.
So, since today's Christmas Eve, or a regular Thursday to some people, and a lot of Boarders are from different countires, I've been wondering: What is common for you to do around this time of year? I'm asking all the holiday customs and traditions mostly but hey, if you don't celebrate anything just let us know what you're gonna do today! :D
I'll start:
Well, the first difference that I can think of is, because Poland is 95% Roman Catholic, there's fish instead of turkey as a main Christmas dinner meal. Usually, there's also 12 dishes - which are meant to grant you good luck next year, if you try all of them.
But there is one custom which I believe is unique to Poland, and maybe Lithuania (or Italy, too... Sergio, care to confirm or deny?). Right before the big Christmas dinner, the eldest member of the family gets a specially baked wafer - an oblat - and breaks it into smaller pieces. Then, everyone takes a piece and exchanges wishes with the rest of the family, eating a small chunk of the oblat for every wish they make or receive.
First off, for every Christmas my family has the same special breakfast: egg San Francisco. It's a combination of eggs, bacon, angel hair pasta, and Hollandaise. Trust me, it is far better than it sounds. But probably just as unhealthy as it sounds, as well.
There is also the movie tradition. My family watches multiple holiday films during the run up to Christmas, ranging from classics like White Christmas to slightly more modern fare like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It all caps off with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas Day itself.
Some of my family's traditions have fallen by the wayside due to the inexorable march of time, unfortunately. Cookie baking and stockings have both been allowed to lapse this year. Same with putting up the venerable artificial tree (my folks bought that thing in the 1980s). But that's how things go, I suppose.
There is a tradition of both Christmas entries for the logs and also for New Years. ;) Some people even fight for the right to be on watch for that turnover just to do that entry.
Until... basically until anyone can be bothered to put them away, all the yachts and little boats in the marina are bedecked in coloured lights. It's only small, and there's no really organization to it, it just sort of... happens, really. And it's beautiful.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Singing songs, baking cookies and pie, enjoying each others company. Although, this year, we all admitted to not really being in the holiday spirit. Not that we're all grumpy or anything. Just sorta... Collectively apathetic. Still, we're trying, and still enjoying each other, even if it's not particularly festive.
Although, thinking on it, I suppose we do have a couple of traditions that are different. Some with a story too.
The biggest one is actually all my fault. When I was about five or six, I was practically bounding with excitement for Christmas. There were so many presents under the tree that year! Big, tall boxes, full of goodies, surrounded by wrapped books and CD's (even back then, I was an avid PC gamer. LEGO and Humongous games were the best, man!) Well, and cloths of course. Never liked those. But the toys! I decided, I could not wait a whole eight more hours. I had been patient for over a month! (We don't play the Santa game, so I had to endure seeing those wrapped goodies since Black Friday.) No, I had to have one, now. I begged my mother. Begged and pleaded. "Just one, mom! Just one present!"
"No, not until the morning."
"But there's so many! Just one of them, mom! Please!"
Eventually, she relented. "Fine then. One present."
I was about filled to burst with joy! What would it be? A LEGO set? A castle? A robot dragon!? When she came back with the present, I descended upon the poor wrapping paper like it was my personal enemy. And, what was inside?
A vacuum.
A small, blue, portable vacuum.
My heart shattered.
"Why?"
My mother laughed. "So you can clean your room easier!"
"That don't count! Where's my real present!"
I want to quickly defend my character, and insist that this was a particularly greedy year. Usually, I'm happy with whatever I get. Were it Christmas day, I would have probably liked the vacuum. Not loved, but liked. But this was such a letdown, such a blow to my hopes and dreams!
Rather then chastising me, my mom thought of another idea. "Alright. But no more! This is all you get until morning."
She walked back to the tree and looked through the mound of colored paper. At that point, I would have taken just about anything. After the low that is a vacuum, there's only up, right? When she came back, she held a bulky bundle of paper in her hand. I carefully pealed the paper, cautiously optimistic.
Inside the second present, was a set of brand new, warm pajamas. While it wasn't disappointing, it wasn't exactly thrilling ether. "Thanks, mom," I said, unable to hide the lingering letdown from my voice.
Mom pushed the pajamas closer. "Now, while you sleep, you'll have a warm new pair of jammies. That way, you'll be nice and warm when you wake up! I want to see you wear them in the morning, OK? Now, go to bed. I'll see you in the morning.
Ever since then, we all get one present on Christmas eve. No, not a vacuum. A brand new par of pajamas and slippers, to wear on Christmas morning.
Let's see, what else do we have? Well, Mom's family used to drive around the city, singing Christmas songs, and looking at the decorations. Sadly, Anchorage has very few people who decorate their houses at all, much less elaborate decorations for neighborhood lights completions. So, that slowly died out, though we still try to find some houses.
I can't really think of anything else we do that most others don't. Still, thinking back on previous years has made me a little more into the spirit of things. This was a nice exercise. Thank you.
Anyway, merry Christmas to all, have a happy holidays, and a merry new year.
From what I figure, it is usually on Christmas Day that people go to church.
Not so with us Haitians; we go to church on Christmas Eve. To be exact, my church usually has a service on Christmas Eve starting from 7:00 PM to around 11:00 PM or 12 midnight. And when we were younger, my little brother and I would head straight for our presents once we arrived home from church, given that it's technically Christmas Day when we return home from church.
My church has a Christmas Eve service, although it starts at 5:30 and goes to 6:30. The main attraction is a Christmas story play the children put on. I've been in it most years (I recently grew too old for most of the roles, so I didn't have a part this year) and played an angel (several times), the inkeeper, and Mary.
My brother and I loved it because we'd fall asleep in the car on the way home and presents would magically appear under the tree sometime between mass and the morning after. :P I used to alter serve for the midnight masses when I got older until one mass when I found out the smell of the incense they used made me faint, so we started going to the children's mass in the afternoon after that happened.
I live in Seattle, and to my limited knowledge the closest thing we have to a christmas tradition is going to see Pacific Northwest Ballet's yearly performance of The Nutcracker.
Even though I live in the Central Iowa area!
I also have plans with the gift cards I'm getting this year.
Certain plans include getting a LINK to a good time in a certain game myself and Des play.
(Feel free to shot me and/or request anything under 100p Des)
Consider me intrigued. And confused, but mainly intrigued.
(Thanks for the offer, BTW, but you needn't give me a thing. Unless you can force DE to change the sortie drop tables' RNG, that would be most welcome — I have two Dera Vandal Barrels and one Blueprint sitting in my inventory gathering dust, despite having the completed weapon in my possession (it kinda sucks, but it looks good); I'd rather have gotten more Lenses or something.)
Mattman lives in Iowa, but for some reason has no snow
He's planning on getting the "Link" Prime Access pack in Warframe, of which he's planning on getting Des, who plays the same game, something up to 100 Platinum, the premium currency of said game.
Seriously, around this time of the year we'd all be huddled inside around a fire and watching the snow fall.
I went out to get the mail in my pajama shorts and tank top. I miss the cold. :(
So that's what you meant. Now I get you!
So I live in Kentucky which you can imagine is just about as Christian as a state can be. Christmas Eve is a pretty regular day where I live. For people with multiple families to visit, today would be one of those days that would be spent with extended family. The only thing out of the ordinary would be every single store closing about five hours early.
For my family, I usually spend Christmas Eve with my mom's side. We have a brunch with my German grandmother and my mother's sister. We also usually have a Christmas Eve dinner with my grandmother. So I guess, for me, Christmas Eve is the "Oh God, time to spend time with your cousins" day.
Fortunately, I like my family, so it's less "Oh God, time to talk to my cousins" and more "Yay, my cousins are here! Let's talk about nerdy stuff and play video games!"
Darkotas and I are in southern Indiana, just a few minutes north of Louisville.
I live in Louisville! What a small world!
Have you been across the new bridge yet? It looks like something off of New New Earth. :P I'll be so glad when all the construction is finally finished, though; traffic's been absolutely horrible. :/
I have to drive through downtown every morning for school. But once the East End bridge is finished, there'll be no more trucks and THAT will be worth all the pain & suffering.
I live in Iowa
My family used to identify as Roman Catholic up until a few years ago when I got Confirmed, had an absolutely horrid time of it, and went "**** this I'm outta here" and declared myself agnostic. It just so happened that around the same time, my parents became atheists, and my brother was only going to Sunday Mass so he wouldn't get grounded. He's not got a label or anything for himself; he just doesn't care either way.
We still enjoy a good bit of holiday cheer and mom's got a ton of traditional Christmas songs on her iPod for when we're making cookies, and we put up the tree and everything this year, but we celebrate just a general time of being together with family and friends. So... for us, it's like Thanksgiving, but with presents and music. And presents. :3
(And after I counted the ornaments on our tree and found only nine of them weren't fandom related, I decided to declare December 25 as "The Doctor Saves London From Aliens Yet Again Day", since we celebrated Regeneration Day on Easter. What can I say, we're in it for the commercialism.)
The "with presents and music. And presents." part cracked me up. :P
Btw. Ix, you mind checking your mailbox?
We don't have Christmas here — Christians are a minority group and a small one at that. Most people celebrate Hanukkah, but DawnFire could probably tell you more about it, since she actually celebrates it (I don't, I'm irreligious, secular and a bunch of other things). Today and tomorrow are just regular days for me.
Though, I did see that the café I frequent decorated the bushes they have outside with strings of little lightbulbs, and that cheered me up quite a bit; I spent the next half an hour humming (foreign) holiday tunes.
However, I consider Christmas a time of tranquility; a time, when you can make amends to your enemies and live through the next year with a slightly lighter conscience.
Also, Des, Dawn, and everybody - what do you think of [THIS]? I personally love it, not only because it's my favourite musician, but also how it mixes up one of my favourite Christmas songs, and Middle Eastern (?) music? Is there something you guys recognize here?
The bit of Arabic in the beginning is "Allahu Akbar" — Allah is great. The bits of Hebrew are "שלום חברים" (shalom khaverim) — lit. "peace, friends" but actually closer to "hi guys" — and "שלום עליכם" (shalom 'aleikhem) — "peace be unto you". The music, well, it's like the music Hollywood uses to denote Middle-Eastern settings.
For comparison — actual Oud music; contemporary Israeli Mizrakhi (that, is, Eastern) music (I must say that I despise the genre); a sample of Darbukah music (it's a sort of drum, not a style of music). I could go on and on, but you guys can Google as well as I can.