Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The World’s Strangest Christmas Traditions

Starting point is 00:00:00 Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate traditions that have been handed down to us over the centuries. However, traditions can vary from place to place, and not all traditions are old. Some traditions are very modern, and some traditions are downright bizarre. Learn more about the world's strangest Christmas traditions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day, or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nixon, I created nothing much happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well,

Starting point is 00:00:48 nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. And millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. Christmas is a time of year for traditions, but the traditions we celebrate aren't necessarily universal.

Starting point is 00:01:29 The traditions surrounding the holiday can differ between countries, religions, and even families. So, without any further ado, let's get into some of the oddest and strangest Christmas traditions around the world. Any discussion of odd Christmas traditions has to include Catalonia. I've already done a complete episode on Catalonian Christmas traditions, but I'll give it a quick overview. They have two which stand out. The first is the Cagatio, which is a log that children feed in the lead up to Christmas, and then beat it until it poops presents and candy. The other is the Cogonar. The Cogonar is a part of every nativity scene in Catalonia. It depicts someone, usually a shepherd, who is defecating off in the corner of the nativity scene. This has become

Starting point is 00:02:08 a big thing in Catalonia, and now there are shops that sell them year-round. As I mentioned, I've done an entire episode on this, and I go into far more depth on the subject. Another very odd Christmas tradition can be found in Japan. Japan is in a Christian country, so Christmas doesn't have any long-standing traditions. One rather modern Christmas tradition, which has found a place in Japan, is eating at KFC. The tradition of going to Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas started in the mid-80s. The 70s and 80s saw a huge rise in the Japanese economy and an expansion in Western fast food restaurants. One of the most popular Chains is Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC. In 1974, they began a marketing campaign called Kentucky

Starting point is 00:02:50 for Christmas, where they touted fried chicken as a traditional American meal for Christmas to encourage sales. Images of Colonel Sanders would appear dressed as Santa Claus, which, if you think about it, really isn't that much of a stretch. He's a white guy with a white beard, and all you have to really do is put a red Christmas hat on him. Fried chicken also isn't really a stretch for Japanese taste, as fried food such as Timpura is popular as is chicken. Chicken buckets became the thing to get for dinner on Christmas Eve. Today, the average KFC restaurant in Japan will do 10 times the business on Christmas Eve as they would do on a normal day, and it isn't unusual for people to be lined up

Starting point is 00:03:26 around the block to wait for Christmas chicken. Japan isn't the only country with modern Christmas traditions. Another country with a very unusual modern tradition is Sweden. Every year on Christmas Eve at 3 p.m. on Swedish. television, they will air a 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, which was originally titled, From All of Us to All of You. In Swedish, and I'm not even going to try to pronounce it, it's titled Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas. The show is Jiminy Cricket, introducing a series of Disney cartoons from the 1930s to the 1960s, and only a few of them

Starting point is 00:04:02 have really anything to do with Christmas. The program has been aired every year at the exact same time, on the exact same date, without commercial interruption since 1959, on Sweden's SVT1, the main public television station. Back when the show first aired, there were only two television stations in Sweden, so it garnered a significant audience. Over time, it became a regular event and part of everyone's Christmas Eve. It is estimated that up to 50% of everyone in the country of Sweden tunes in to watch the show.

Starting point is 00:04:31 Many families will plan their Christmas Eve around the show, so they aren't eating or cooking while it's aired. The only difference with the original broadcast is that instead of Walt Disney himself hosting the show, a Swedish TV personality will usually host it. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, just search for From All of Us to All of You, and you can watch it in its entirety on YouTube. Another modern tradition has sprung up in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela is a predominantly Catholic country, and in many such countries, it's a pretty common occurrence to attend Mass on Christmas Day. What makes a tradition in Caracas unique isn't waking up early to go to Mass, which happens in many places. What makes it unique is how they get to church. Masses of people in Caracas will go to church by roller skating.

Starting point is 00:05:15 So many people will roller skate to church that many of the streets are closed off for roller skaters before 8 a.m. No one's really sure how the tradition got started, but it's been a thing for years. One best guess is that kids got roller skates as presents and then wore them when they went to church. From there, it just kind of became a thing. In Norway, there is a pretty ancient tradition that is still practiced today. It used to be thought that witches and evil spirits would come to your house in the night of Christmas Eve. If they found any brooms, they would take them to fly around in the sky. So, in Norway, before you go to bed on Christmas Eve, you're supposed to hide all of the brooms in the house so the witches don't find them.

Starting point is 00:05:53 What is amazing is that eating ludophis isn't the weirdest Christmas tradition in Norway. Odd Christmas traditions aren't just modern ones. Some are traditions that were honored years ago, but no longer are today. There's one in particular that I found very odd. It was a parlor game played around Christmas in Victoria and England that was called Snapdragon. To play Snapdragon, you would take a bowl and put about one or two dozen raisins in it. Then you would fill the bowl with brandy or rum, and light it on fire.

Starting point is 00:06:22 The game was to try to pick the floating burning raisins out of the bowl and pop them into your mouth. I don't know when this tradition died out, but if there's one, Victorian Christmas tradition I would like to bring back it is this one. Granted, it should probably be done outdoors. I'm not saying I would play Snapdragon, but I'm also not saying that I wouldn't do it either. They also played a similar game called Flap Dragon. With Flap Dragon, they would put a lit candle in a mug of ale such that it would float. Then, the players would try to take a drink from the mug without burning their hair or eyebrows.

Starting point is 00:06:56 Speaking of flames, I'll end with one tradition that people really don't want to be a tradition. This one again takes place in Sweden, but in particular in the town of Yavla. Every year the town of Yavala builds a giant goat made of straw, and I do mean that this is a really giant goat. They're around 40 feet high and weigh over three tons. They have done this every year since 1966, and every year someone tries to burn it down. This isn't one of those things where city officials try to make a token effort to stop the arsonist in the name of tradition. They really don't want the goat burned down. Yet, almost every year, it's burned down, or someone at least tries to burn it down.

Starting point is 00:07:36 Since 1966, it has been burned down 38 times. And since 1984, the town has had two goats built by two different groups. After four consecutive years of survival of the goat, arsonists succeeded on December 17th of 2021. This is despite having a double fence surrounding the goat with cameras and a 24-hour guard. Next year, the perpetual battle between the city's goat builders and the anti-goat arsonists will begin anew. To the members of the Underground Yarvla Anti-Gote League, I have one word of advice for you. Drones. Regardless of whether it's skating to church, burning down straw goats, or making a log poop out candy,

Starting point is 00:08:16 Christmas traditions are really different all over the world. Even when we can't make sense of them, they are cherished by the people who celebrate them. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media Podcast. podcast. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so over at patreon.com. And remember, if you leave a review or send in a question, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The World’s Strangest Christmas Traditions

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