The last blog post before Christmas – let’s just digress some of the topic and instead of looking at the business but rather on the traditions. Especially at Christmas, there are a lot of customs and even within individual countries, which can vary enormously. Some of these customs are beautiful and put a smile on many faces, while others are a little bizarre for some. The fact is: the world is full of Christmas customs and we go here for a short trip!

Irish are tough!
While many people are looking forward to spending Christmas in the warm and to devour the most egg nogg or champagne accepted, the Irishmen fall on Christmas day from cliffs in the ice-cold sea. Why? Some do it for a good cause, others probably just liked it.

Sea of ​​Lights in Finland
Even the Finns have some customs when it comes to Christmas. Of course, the sauna also plays a role, which is scheduled to be revisited on Christmas day. Even more beautiful, however, is the custom of burning candles to commemorate the graves of relatives on December 24th. In the dark, the cemeteries then turn into a sea of ​​lights.

Forget Burning Man – in Sweden, the goat is on fire!
No, do not worry, no real animals will be set on fire here. Rather, this goat is a 13-meter high goat made of straw, which is placed in the city Gävle. This is the real ritual – but another thing was added: there are attempts now every year to light the goat!

Christmas dinner at KFC
Although Japan has adopted a few western traditions, decorates and distributes gifts at Christmas, it does not necessarily have the same meaning there as in many other countries around the world. This is also reflected in the still-young tradition of eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas. KFC conquered Japan in the mid-1970s with a big Christmas campaign and since then, KFC and Christmas have simply come together for the Japanese.

In Venezuela you roll into the churches!
Roll into the churches? In Venezuela it is not necessarily like eating so hard at Christmas, that you have to roll instead of walking. It’s more like you strap on the rollerblades and roll into the church. So many do this, they even closed roads for traffic, to make sure the church visitors safely reach their destination.

What Christmas customs do you have?