Christmas 1950!

[GodSistah]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDM0G613kP4

:)

[TiminOhio]

Thank you,
Peace.
Tim

[hoops]

very interesting, thanks Sistah!
peace
hoops

[Dee]

Strange Christmas traditions around the world

Gizelle Lau, TripAtlas dot com

As if cutting down a tree, bringing it into your house, and decorating it with glitter wasn't strange enough . . .

Bring your roller skates to Caracas, Venezuela, where they block the streets on Christmas Eve so that locals can roller-skate to church for Christmas service.

Don't swat the tree in Ukraine, where a fake spider and spider's web are placed on Christmas trees for decoration. It is believed that a spider web found on Christmas morning is a sign of good luck for the coming year.

On Christmas Eve in Norway, all the brooms in the house are hidden because it was believed that witches and evil spirits would come out on this night to steal their brooms for riding.

Make a wish when stirring in all the ingredients for Christmas pudding in England - but it will only come true if you stir in a clockwise direction.

In Japan, it's considered bad luck to give red Christmas cards or envelopes as funeral notices are usually written in red.

In Italy, locals celebrate Christmas - not by decorating a Christmas tree with tinsel and ornaments - but by decorating small wooden pyramids with fruit.

When in Belgium, you celebrate two Santa Clauses: St. Nicholas, the Santa that spies on children to sort them into naughty and nice; and Pere Noel, who does all the Christmas delivery work.

In Brazil, it's believed that Santa lives in Greenland, that the shepherds that sought out Jesus were actually women, and that the animals in the manger spoke when Jesus was born.

The oldest Christmas tradition in Estonia takes place on Christmas Eve when the whole family goes to visit the sauna together.

In Latvia, "Big Zimmer," the Latvian Santa Claus, brings presents not on just one day, but 12 days in a row. It's also here in Latvia that the Christmas tree tradition was first celebrated, although the holiday doesn't celebrate Jesus, but the re-birth of the Sun Maiden.

In the town of Urbania, Italy, an ugly witch named La Befana parades around town on her broomstick bringing gifts to children on Christmas Day. The tradition is believed to have come from the Vatican - who couldn't prove the existence of Santa Claus so decided to tell children that it was witches that delivered the presents.

During the Middle Ages, boar's head was known as a traditional Christmas dish. The custom began when a bear attached a student who saved himself by forcing Aristotle's books into the bear's mouth. The bear choked to death and the student cut off his head and brought it back to college.

In coastal towns like Brighton and in London's Serpentine Lake in England, many communities take part in a Christmas Day swim in frigid waters.

On Christmas Eve in Remedios, Cuba, locals celebrate Parrandas, a religious festival remembering the priests who would send altar boys into the streets to bang on pots and pans to awaken the townspeople for mass at midnight.

[TiminOhio]

Dee,
I remembered your special post, at least this morning. So when I went to get some warm laundry - always seems to be my socks - can't get the image of a sockless Janis Ian out of my head (I read her autobiography) a friendly spider decided to drop down on his web in front of me - right onto my warm lundry...she was hoping I was a delicious mosquito, nat,etc..which due to the cold weather have vanished till the spring....so up she? went back to her secret place. If the spider were a cat I'd put out a small saucer of warm milk & some tuna , but how do you feed a spider without bugs? Well anyway I remembered your post Dee and gave the spider a break on this special morning.
But this spider owes me big time now...and I better not get bit by any mosquitoes this spring/summer when I work on my bicycles in the basement! LOL:D
TiminOhio