Published Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:00 AM
Updated Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:01 AM
Or does it?
Maybe we’re not reinventing the wheel so much as going back home. After all, we’re a young nation, and it’s possible that our brand of Christmas is, like most everything else we do, a bastardized version of a thousand other past traditions.
With that in mind, I thought I would do a little research on what folks elsewhere do this time of year. I mean, somehow I doubt they’re going a-wassailing in Botswana this year. Or are they?
Based on my exhaustive research, which consisted of nearly 15 grueling minutes on the Internet, I found some cool traditions that likely contributed to what we do today.
First, the very greeting, “Merry Christmas” – assuming you haven’t been castrated by the Politically Correct Gestapo – is used all over the world. Want to know what they say in Bulgaria? Try “Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo.”
The Philippines? Childs play! It’s, “Masaganang Bagong Taon.”
Losing big in the nearest Navajo casino? Try a hearty “Merry Kishmash” as you bolt out the back door. And if you’re ever in Northern Sotho, try, “Matlhatse le matlhogonolo mo ngwageng o moswa,” then write me a postcard immediately because I have no idea where or what Northern Sotho is.
Then there’s the Fat Guy Who Gives. Call him Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, or Weihnachtsmann, kids in countries across the western world are sweating out the year’s past sins.
In England, Father Christmas comes across on Christmas day, filling stockings of good kids everywhere with all manner of groovy loot. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, St. Nicholas, Sinterklaus or Pere Noel shows up on St. Nicholas’s Eve, Dec. 5. He’s arrived by boat from Spain wearing a red robe, riding a white horse and he’s sometimes accompanied by a companion, Svarte Pieta (Black Peter). If you’ve been good, he’ll load up your shoes, which you left outside the front door, with all manner of cool stuff.
In Italy, it seems Santa had a sex change; a kindly old witch named La Befana leaves gifts for the children on the eve of Epiphany, January 5.
In Asia, Christmas is not as popular, simply because Christmas is a Christian tradition and Christians are in the minority.
Then there’s Christmas dinner. As long as I can remember, my family gorged on standing rib roast with all the fixings, resulting in a den full of satiated people lying around in snoring comas for hours.
But that’s just us. In Poland, they eat a traditional Christmas Eve dinner of fish, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, and beet soup. Not anything I want, but then again, neither is fruitcake. In Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Christmas dinner includes rice pudding, called julgrot, which has an almond in it. By tradition, whoever gets the almond will have good luck throughout the New Year. I reckon that’s no weirder than hunkering down over a heaping helping of hog jowls and collards.
In Africa, as in Asia, most Christmas traditions came from Europe, so those who celebrate it kind of do it our way; they go to church services, give gifts and sing Christmas carols. Personally, I think it would be pretty cool to hear something like “Deck the Halls” sung in Swahili, or even better, that clicking language the Bushmen use.
Speaking of carols, it won’t be long before neighborhood groups soak their feet in a big ol‘ punchbowl and go a-wassailing ’round the neighborhood. This tradition began a long time ago when people would sing carols in return for a drink from the wassail bowl, which contained hot punch made from ale, apples, eggs, sugar and spices.
Many carols, by the way, originate from pagan traditions although it is said that some, such as “The 12 Days of Christmas,” were underground teaching tools for Catholics living in Roundhead-occupied England.
And just in case you need to know, the word wassail comes from “Was haile,” an old Saxon greeting that means “Be healthy.” That should be good for a free beer at Team Trivia night.
Enjoy the holidays, and a hearty, “ne mpumelelo e nyakeni” to you and yours!