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Mari Llwyd
Church
Christmas in Wales
Christmas in Bethlehem
The Welsh are great lovers of music and hence carol singing is one of the
most enjoyed activities of the Christmas season. Caroling is called eisteddfodde and is often accompanied by a harp to create a beautifully melodious musical experience.
In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, thousands of Christians from all
over the world gather at the Manger Square. Festivities lead up to the
Midnight Mass at St Catherine’s Church, which is right next to the fourth
century Church of the Nativity; built on the spot where Jesus was said
to be born. Natives and visitors alike also crowd the church’s doorways
and stand on the roof to watch the dramatic annual procession that takes
place. Galloping horsemen and police mounted on Arabian horses lead
the parade. They are followed by a solitary horseman who carries a cross
and sits astride a coal-black steed. Then come the churchmen and government officials. The procession solemnly enters the doors and places
an ancient effigy of the Holy Child in the Church. Deep winding stairs lead
to a grotto where visitors find a silver star marking the site of the birth
of Jesus. The church itself is ablaze with flags and decorations on every
Christmas day.
A unique Welsh midwinter tradition that is celebrated between Christmas
to late January is the Mari Lwyd which is seen as a luck-bringing ritual.
Here, an individual or groups of individuals walk around the village carrying a wooden mare’s skull fixed to a wooden pole, with a white sheet
fastened to the back of the skull. The group solicits permission to sing
and enter the house where they can be rewarded with food and drinks.
Usually, the Mari Llwyd practitioners challenge the home owners to improvised verses.
A tradition that went hand-in-hand with Mari Lwyd is that of drinking from
the wassail bowl. Similar to drinking mulled wine and punch at Christmas
parties, the Welsh would dink from this ornate and many-handled bowl
that was filled with fruit, sugar, spices and topped up with warm beer. As
the bowl is passed around, each drinker would make a wish for a successful new year.
Taffy making is another important custom during Welsh Christmas. Taffy is
a special kind of chewy toffee made from brown sugar and butter which
is boiled and then dropped into icy cold water. Families usually make this
on Christmas Eve night, and the taffy are curled into all sorts of shapes and
letters, to create the initials of the children or family members.
The Welsh people maintain most of the traditional customs associated
with England such as holly, mistletoe, pudding, carols, Christmas stockings, oranges, crackers and lots of snow. The carolers make their rounds
at dawn on Christmas morning, and families wake from sleep and invite
them in for refreshments.
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In the evening, Manger Square (right outside the Church of Nativity) is
filled with strings of lights, decorations and a 17 metre Christmas tree.
Vendors sell balloons, cotton candy and other treats to create a festive
mood. Children are dressed in holiday finery or in Santa costumes and
marching bands play in the street, while choral groups sing melodious
tunes of the world-famous Christmas carols.
Tourists and pilgrims wanting the experience of being close to the origins
of their faith make up a large portion of the crowd present at this celebration. Surprisingly, there are only about 50 000 Christians in West Bank,
which is less than 3 percent of the population, and Bethlehem’s Christians account for only a third of its residents. Nevertheless the remaining
Christians mark their homes by painting a cross over their doors, and each
home displays a homemade manger scene. A star is also set up on a pole
in the village square. Bethlehem has a high unemployment rate, but the
Christmas period offers a brief reprieve. All 34 hotels in the town are fully
booked for the season, with more being built to accommodate a larger
number of guests.
Summer at Christmas
Christmas Ornament in China
Christmas in New Zealand
Christmas in China
Similar to Australia, Christmas in New Zealand is combined with the summer holidays, and so is often spent in the outdoors, with activities such
as camping and trips to the beach. Despite the hot weather, shops and
houses continue to be decorated with images of Father Christmas in his
red clock and white beard, as well as the stereotypical snow scenes. The
New Zealand traditions of Christmas have mostly come through the English settlers who began arriving there in the late 18th Century. In the last
20 or 30 years however, the persona of Father Christmas has changed to
take on the image of Santa Claus as he is known in the United States and
Ireland. Many towns have a Santa parade with decorated floats, bands and
marching girls and this can be any time from mid November onwards.
While there are said to be around 16 million Chinese Christians in China,
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