Christmas in Sweden

Christmas in Sweden is the biggest and the longest holiday of the year.
In anticipation of the holiday, shops begin selling Christmas articles as early as November. Streets and trees in cities and towns are decorated with festive lighting, and in many places a giant Christmas tree is put up in the main square. Officially, celebrations in Sweden begin on Advent Sunday, when stores display their Christmas shop windows and when many people decorate their own windows with electric Advent stars and candlesticks that light up the home. This is also the day on which the first of four candles is lit and children open the first window on their Advent calendars.
As a prelude to Christmas, many people bake thin ginger biscuits and saffron bread. Each Sunday in Advent, as anticipation grows, a new candle is lit and each day a new window is opened in the children's calendar. During this period, a popular beverage is glögg, a hot mulled wine spiced with nuts, raisins and cloves. It warms both body and soul in the cold,dark Swedish winter.

Very important day is the 13th of December. That day ,before dawn on the morning, the youngest daughter from each family puts on a white robe with a red sash. She wears a crown of evergreens with tall-lighted candles attached to it. She wakes her parents, and serves them with coffee and Lucia buns. The other children accompany her. The boys dressed as star boys in long white shirts and pointed hats.
The custom goes back to Lucia, a Christian virgin martyred for her beliefs at Syracuse in the fourth century. The Saint Lucia ceremony is fairly recent, but it represents the traditional thanksgiving for the return of the sun.
After Lucia, Christmas preparations begin in earnest. People exchange Christmas cards, clean the home and shop for Christmas presents and Christmas food. Each year brings record sales in the shops. A few days before the holiday begins, a Christmas tree is brought into the home and decorated with coloured balls, tinsel and lights. Some people hang up a sheaf of grain outdoors so that birds can also join in the celebrations. Homes are decorated with red curtains and tablecloths, candles, straw figures and little gnomes. People also buy special Christmas flowers for the home, or to give away, such as hyacinths, poinsettias or amaryllises. Candles are lit and wreaths laid on family graves.
Christmas food is prepared ahead of Christmas Eve. People usually try to cook as much of it themselves as they can. The most popular kinds of food are ham, brawn, sausage, rice pudding and pickled herring, but in recent years healthier fare has found its way onto the Christmas table, including salads. Meals are accompanied by root beer or a special Christmas beer, which is slightly darker than the ordinary kind. People also like to down a shot or two of vodka with their pickled herring.
Another important Christmas Eve tradition is somewhat American! At three o'clock in the afternoon all the children stop to watch the Disney special "From All Of Us To All Of You." Dinner and presents must sometimes wait until after Kalle Anka (Donald Duck). Children in Sweden look forward on Christmas Eve to gifts brought by Jultomten (today a cross between a little gnome and the German/British Santa Klaus). They make sure to leave him a bowl of porridge. They also put candles in the windows so he can find his way to the children's homes.

Christmas Day in Sweden is spent in church. December 26 is St. Stephen's Day (Staffen) in honor of the patron saint of animals. An old tradition on this day was to give the farm animals extra food to eat.
The festive season officially ends on Knut's Day, 13 January, when Christmas trees - which have usually turned from green to a dry, brittle brown - are finally thrown out, the children having played and danced round them for one last time.
Prepared by Joanna Lejko

Christmas in Italy

Christmas in Italy is rich in traditions which have, for the most part, a religious history.The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks , starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena .
Before the Festivities begin Christmas trees and Nativity scenes are prepared and a lot of food and presents are bought.
All towns and cities are lavishly decorated and wonderfully lit which serve as backgrounds for local Christmas shows.
Besides the Christmas tree another typical household decoration is the Nativity Scene, foundin particular in the South

.

During the XVI and XVII centuries the preparation of the Nativity Scene became a household tradition . It is a religious symbol describing the birth of Our Lord Jesus.
The Nativity Scene is left in every home until the Epifhany when the "Magi", or the three Kings, bring presents for the Baby Jesus.
In the week before Christmas children go from house to house dressed as shepherds, playing pipes, singing and reciting Christmas poems. They are given money to buy presents.
Christmas Eve dinner is very plentiful, consisting of lamb and turkey which are cooked differently according to the region. A strict feast is observed for 24 hours before Eve ,and is followed by a celebration meal.
Typical Christmas Italian cakes are Panettone, Pandoro and Torrone. Panettone is rich in sultans and candie fruit and often filled with several fillings and chocolate.Torrone is kind of nougat with toasted hazelnuts,honey and sugar.There are many kinds of this candy:soft,crisp,chocolate etc.Pandoro is a Veronese cake which according to a famous Venetian children’s story,is eaten by angels in paradise!
In every Italian region there are many kinds of home-made cakes, connected with local traditions.

At midnight on Christmas Eve the youngest in every family puts the Baby Jesus in a manger.
After Christmas Eve dinner everyone plays bingo or cards until midnight. When the clock strikes twelve, Christmas presents are unwrapped and after that everyone goes to Midnight Mass.
In Italy the Christmas holidays end on 6th January, the Epiphany, a celebration in remembrance of the "Magi's" ; or the Three King’s visit to the Baby Jesus.

In Italy the children wait until Epiphany,January 6,for their presents. According to tradition, the presents are delivered by a kind ugly witch called Befana on a broomstick. It was said that she was told by the three kings that the Baby Jesus was born, she was busy and delayd visiting the baby.She missed the Star,lost her way and has been flying around ever since,leaving presents at every house with children in case he is there.She slides down chimneys,and fills stockings and shoes with good things for good children and it is said leaves coal for childrenwho are not so good.

NEW YEAR IN ITALY

On New Year’s Day everyone fires petards and fireworks that light up the sky and welcome the New Year. Many people throw old things out of the window hoping to forget all bad things of the past year and have luck and fortune in the new. At Midnight everyone proposes a toast to the New Year but only with Italian sparkling wine!
Nowadays, there is a custom of serving lentils in restaurants and at homes on New Year Eve.

Prepared by Aneta Skotnicka