Celebration of Christmas in every part of the world has its specific markings. As a consequence strange traditions of unknown origin appear. Tradition connected to Christmas is in fact a collection of many traditions of pagan people from all over the world. Catholic Church in attempt to baptize as much pagan people as it can and to attract as much followers as it can accept all their traditions. So, traditions such as putting a pine tree in the house, greasy food and hanging lights all over the house became the traditions that we know today as Christmas traditions.
Those traditions were in fact a universal reaction of pagan people to harsh colds and dark winter days. Some of those traditions changed throughout centuries until they were unrecognizable, some of them are still respected, while some are made up for marketing purposes.
Sometimes Christmas celebrations don’t really have anything to do with the birth of Jesus, but are still respected in most countries. About which traditions are we talking about, you will find out if you look at 10 unusual Christmas traditions.
10
Arizona's Scottsdale Gun Club hosts a "Santa and Machine Guns" event. Pictures are taken with Santa and a host of machine guns and grenade launchers.
09
In Caracas, Venezuela, the city's roads are cleared for early morning Christmas Mass. This is due to the tradition of roller skating to the Mass.
08
In parts of Italy, Spain and Portugal there's a "Caganer" in nativity scenes. "Caganer", or "POOPING man", is a figure with his pants down, pooping on the floor.
07
The Welsh take a horse skull and disguise a person in it. Known as Mari Luyd or the Gray Mare, they go house to house singing for food and drink.
06
The Catalonian pooping log is a log with a painted face on it. It is "fed" each night, before being sung to and then beaten to make it poop out small sweets.
05
The Dutch have Zvarte Piet, or Black Peter, Santa Claus's assistant. Normally depicted as a blacked-up person, some now say he is a sooty chimney sweeper.
04
In Japan, where turkey dinners are hard to find, it has become tradition to have Christmas KFC. It began with an advertising campaign in 1974 - Kentucky Fried Christmas.
03
Bavarian highlanders fire off hand-held mortars while wearing traditional dress. Probably back to pagan rituals of warding off evil spirits with noise.
02
Since 1966 the Swedish city of Gavle has erected a giant straw go at every year. It has become tradition for people to burn it down, with vandals succeeding 29 times.
01
Takanakuy or "when the blood is boiling" is a Peruvian festival held on Xmas day. t is a giant brawl between villages to settle differences or prove your manhood.
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