‘Tis the Season

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At about this time of year people all around the world are finding something to celebrate. According to reindeerland.org about one third to one half of the world’s population celebrate Christmas, whether they are Christians or not. I am not sure about the authenticity of their “facts” but other sites also suggest that arriving at the number of people who celebrate Christmas is problematic.

As explained by Education World December: A Month of Multicultural Holidays Celebrations and National Geographic Kids Winter Celebrations , for example, many other celebrations occur at this time of year.

Christmas is the holiday that I celebrate with my family and friends. I was surprised to find, by reading a guest post, written by Gordon Le Pard on Geoff Le Pard’s blog TanGental, that many of the traditions celebrated at Christmas time are more recent in origin than I would have thought. It is not surprising, though, that the way Christmas is celebrated differs from country to country, and even from household to household, around the world. Sherri Matthews wrote a beautiful post about a Christmas tree festival hosted by a church in Dorset, England. I haven’t seen anything quite like this.

In a previous post I’m (not) dreaming of a white Christmas I talked about some of my family’s Australian ways of celebrating. Sadly most “Australian” resources are simply innovations on, or adjustments to, the European traditions. There are not enough that recognise the summer celebration and “traditions” unique to Australia. I guess our small population keeps us in the minority so it is not economically worthwhile to create alternative resources.

So from my hot sunny days in Australia I wish you and your loved ones happy and safe times, whatever your celebration.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts about any aspect of this post.

Best wishes,

Norah

celebrations Christmas December celebrations

Comments

12 responses to “‘Tis the Season”

December 31, 2014

Sherri

Haha…oh Norah, I love it!!!…you are so clever with all your vids, Looks like you had lots of fun playing in the virtual snow over there 🙂 I’m just having a very quick catch up before returning to blogging properly next week and wanted to thank you so much for linking my post to yours, what a lovely surprise! Again, I’m really glad you enjoyed the pics from the Christmas Tree Festival so much 😉 And now, here we are and it’s the last day of the year, Christmas all over and done with…already Fascinating facts and figures you have here, I read Geoff’s post too and like you, was very surprised at how recent our traditions actually are. I can well believe how far I’ve walked this year. I actually have a theory that I lose weight over Christmas…well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, ha! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Norah, I’ll be back to catch up with you properly next week, but until then and once again I wish you a very Happy New Year…have fun tonight and see you in 2015 🙂

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1. January 2, 2015
  
  Norah
  
  Thank you so much Sherri. I look forward to your being back in the blogosphere soon! Glad you enjoyed Christmas. Happy New Year! Wishing you many good times ahead! 🙂
  
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December 28, 2014

Sarah Brentyn

Love the dancing Norah, too! 😀

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1. December 28, 2014
  
  Norah
  
  Thank you, Sarah. 🙂
  
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December 25, 2014

lorilschafer

I’ve never been able to adjust to the California Christmas, myself. Not living in New England anymore has seriously diminished my enjoyment of the holiday. Snow is such a part of the most popular Christmas traditions that I think it can be hard for cultures in other climates to feel as though they have the same investment in Christmas the way it’s celebrated today – which is ironic when you consider that the point of the holiday derives from events in the Middle East!

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1. December 28, 2014
  
  Norah
  
  That’s true. I guess when 90% of the world’s population live in the Northern Hemisphere, then the few of us celebrating Christmas in the Southern summer are in the minority! We can still have fun though! 🙂
  
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December 24, 2014

Annecdotist

17 percent will embarrass themselves at Christmas parties! Surely an underestimation. Hope you enjoy yours.

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1. December 24, 2014
  
  Norah
  
  I try hard to not be one of those. Sometimes that can be even more embarrassing!
  Thank you Anne. You enjoy yours too! 🙂
  
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December 24, 2014

TanGental

A dancing Norah! What a splendid lead in to Christmas! Bon Noel. Did you know that, in franglais we are all Australians? The franglais definition of the well known French expression Moi Aussi is I am an Australian. Happy to second that!

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1. December 24, 2014
  
  Norah
  
  Thank Geoff. I didn’t know that. You are always teaching me new things. Thank you! 🙂
  
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December 24, 2014

Bec

Hi nor, cute “snow angle”!! The lappy has been offline so haven’t been able to comment recently. I have read 2 articles recently which I think speak to a few of your remarks here – wish I could link to them but can’t from the phone (I think!). One about Christmas in Australia, and another about the place in I think China where most of the world’s Christmas decorations are made (unsurprisingly not in the working conditions which would be expected in most of the consumer countries). One of the factory workers commented something like “maybe its all for a foreign version of Chinese new year??”. I thought it was a funny and interesting perspective!

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1. December 24, 2014
  
  Norah
  
  Thanks Bec. i was missing your voice on my blog. We both seem to be suffering from technology hassles! Maybe it’s time to take a break! 🙂
  That is a sad tale you tell about the Chinese factory, but I think it is an important one to share. Thanks for doing so! 🙂
  
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