Enjoy your Christmas traditions

Christmas Day will arrive shortly.
My friend, David Iwanyszyn, posted a photo on Facebook on Sunday night showing off the Christmas tree in his home loaded with gifts and wishing everyone a “Happy St. Nicholas Day”—a Ukrainian tradition.
On the eve of Dec. 19, children receive gifts from St. Nicholas.
The traditional Ukrainian Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 7 (following the Julian calendar). Dave’s family follows many traditional Ukrainian celebrations.
Throughout the world, there are many Christmas traditions. Some of these go back to the Roman holiday of Saturnalia—a week-long period of lawlessness celebrated in the eight days leading up to Dec. 25.
At the conclusion of the festival on Dec. 25, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness.
It was in the 4th century that Christians adopted the Saturnalia festival in hopes of enticing the pagan masses to join in with it. They succeeded and Christian leaders renamed Dec. 25 as Jesus’ birthday.
Those earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked (caroling) in the streets, and food.
Trees long had been worshipped by the Asheira cult and they, too, were enticed into the Christian church by sanctioning decorated Christmas trees in the home.
The Catholic Church, meanwhile, approved the giving of gifts by approving the work of Saint Nicholas. Today, Saint Nicholas has many names around the world but in most parts he is known as Santa Claus.
From the earliest of recorded times, the Christmas season has included the indulgence of food. It has become the celebration of the Winter Solstice, where crops are in, animals fatted, and fish catches dried and preserved.
Throughout the Christian world, attending Christmas services leading up to Christmas, or Christmas Eve services, are a common thread.
Across Canada, we have adopted many traditions: English fruitcake, plum pudding, stuffed turkey, perogies and cabbage rolls, turnips, wild rice casseroles, vegetables, and salads.
As we embrace more cultures’ foods, our Christmas meals have grown to include flavours from the Middle East and the Orient.
The rituals and foods of Christmas are varied. In Sweden, for instance, Christmas Eve is important and that is when the main meal is eaten. A buffet of cold fish, including herring, gravlax, and smoked salmon, and other treats of salads, pickles, breads, sausages, and lutefisk will be found on the buffet.
Presents are brought by “Jultomten” or by gnomes.
In Greece, children go out singing “kalanda” (carols). If they sing well, they are given money and things they would like to eat like nuts, sweets, and dried figs.
Midnight mass is very important and following the service, they return home and end their Advent fast. The main Christmas meal often is pork or lamb, either cooked in an oven or on a spit, and served with a spinach and cheese pie, various salads, and vegetables.
Other Christmas nibbles include Baklava, Kataifi, and Theeples (a kind of fried pastry).
Coastal countries often rely on the bounty of the sea for their Christmas meal. In Italy following mass, people will come home and enjoy a slice of Christmas cake called Panettone.
For many Italians, a meal of different fish dishes is popular. It is known as the Feast of Seven Fishes. In the Maritimes and New England area, lobster, cod, clams, and calamari are found on the Christmas dinner table.
In a country that is made up of only 25 percent Christians, Korea does have a public holiday on Dec. 25. Presents are exchanged (usually it is money) while a popular Christmas food is Christmas cake that really is a sponge cake covered in cream.
Attending church is important and churches will have multiple services to accommodate their parishioners.
Have a merry Christmas. Enjoy the traditions that your heritage brings to your family and embrace new ones. Christmas continues to evolve.
The birth of the Christ child brings hope and light to the darkness, just as the earliest Roman celebrations brought hope to the darkness.