Blue Umbrella Official Blue Umbrella Winter 2018 Issue | Page 12

Ch ri stmas
around th
By: Monica A.
In America, many people
celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to
one another, decorating their
homes, putting up Christmas trees,
and singing Christmas carols.
However, Christmas looks a little
different in other parts of the world.
1) In the Ph ilippin es, the annual
Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul
Sampernandu) is held on the Saturday
before Christmas Eve in the city of San
Fernando. Appealing to many tourists from
all over the world, this festival consists of
eleven barangays (villages) competing to
create the most intricate lantern. The
competition is ruthless since everyone in
each barangay takes part in trying to
construct the most intricate lantern. At the
festival?s inception, the lanterns were two
feet in diameter and made out of bamboo.
Today, however, the lanterns are made
12
from a variety of materials and are around
fifteen feet across. Electric bulbs that
sparkle in a kaleidoscope of patterns
brighten them.
2) In Gävle, Sw eden, the 43-foot-tall
Gävle Goat looms high just moments
before it?s set ablaze. The Goat, built to
celebrate Advent, is the victim of a
vandalistic pseudo-tradition in which
arsonists try to set it on fire. Since 1966, the
Goat has been burned down 29 times, with
its latest destruction having taken place in
2016.
3) Over the 13 nights leading up to
Christmas in Icelan d, 13 troll-like
characters, the Yule Lads (jólasveinarnir or
jólasveinar in Icelandic), visit the children
scattered throughout the country. Each
night of Yuletide, the children place their
finest shoes by the window. After the
children have gone to bed, a Yule Lad visits,
leaving gifts for good girls and boys and
rotting potatoes for mischievous ones.