Bilingual Christmas Traditions
Translation: Julie Summers
With Christmas just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to explore some Christmas traditions from around the world. Iceland is a small country, so most people here probably have pretty similar traditions. However, The Student Paper spoke with several bilingual individuals about their different cultural backgrounds and asked them to describe their Christmas traditions.
Adisa Mešetović – Bosnia and Herzogovina
Cultural adaptation
I come from a Muslim family, so we normally wouldn’t celebrate Christmas, but since we’ve been in Iceland for about 20 years now, we’ve adopted some Icelandic traditions, like Christmas. We do all the typical Christmas things – put up a tree and decorations, bake cookies, eat delicious food, and exchange presents, of course. Our parents have always wanted us to adapt to the culture here, so we celebrate our own version of Christmas – both so that we get to join in and so we don’t feel so different.
Typical traditions
We always eat good food, like hangikjöt (Icelandic smoked lamb). One of our traditions is doing puzzles together. We could do that for hours. As kids, we got fun little gifts from the Yule Lads in our shoes all 13 days leading up to Christmas. Like most kids, my favorite thing to get was candy. I never got a potato, but I had a habit of teasing my younger brother by putting a potato in his shoe.
Berglind Bjørk – Faroe Islands
Meatless Christmas
The past three Christmases we’ve eaten glazed ham with Coke sauce, caramelized potatoes, red cabbage, peas, and salad. Last Christmas, I decided to stop eating meat, and now my family is also eating a lot less meat. This year, we probably won’t have meat, or at least we’ll have another option.
Homemade Christmas candy
We make our own Christmas candy with chocolate, nougat, marzipan, nuts, and more. I always make Toblerone ice cream, my dad makes Sarah Bernhardt cookies, and my mom bakes ginger cookies.
Donated Christmas tree
I’m (sort of) happy to report that the Christmas tree in the center of Þórshöfn comes from Reykjavík. Reykjavík is Þórshöfn’s sister city, so the tree is a gift from the City of Reykjavík, as I understand it.
Kravlenisser
Kravlenisser are little paper elves that we put up all over the house to look like they’re climbing. It’s similar to the “Elf on the Shelf” idea. We also used to make paper Christmas stars, but not anymore.
An after-dinner stroll outside
We usually go for a walk after dinner, as far back as I can remember. But it depends on the weather, of course. If there’s a snowstorm, like there often is, then we don’t go out. But it’s so nice to go for a little walk as a family in the cold and snow after we eat.
The Christmas Cat fashion police
When I was younger, I always bought myself a fancy new outfit for Christmas because I didn’t want to be eaten by the Christmas cat. Now I either wear a nice outfit I already own or just wear comfy clothes or even pajamas.
Eco-friendly Christmas
On the 23rd, I make hot chocolate, and my friends and I put it in reusable cups and take it with us as we walk around town instead of buying hot chocolate in take-away cups. I’m not really much of a Christmas person, and I feel like Christmas and New Year’s can bring a lot of anxiety. I think Christmas is all about being with family. My favorite thing is Christmas baking. When I was little, my grandmother in the Faroe Islands would record the Faroese Advent calendar TV show on tapes and send them to me. Watching it was always a highlight each year, even though the packages sometimes came too late.
Hanna Lára Jóhannsdóttir – Hungary
Blend of traditions
I’m half Icelandic and half Hungarian, so my family’s Christmas traditions are a bit of a mix. For example, we always put real candles on our Christmas tree; however, we only dare to keep them lit for a minute while we sing Hungarian Christmas carols at 5 PM, when it’s 6 PM in Hungary and Christmas has officially begun.
Fish for Christmas dinner
We eat the traditional Icelandic Christmas food, but in Hungary people often eat fish because it’s considered so fancy. If we celebrate Christmas in Hungary, we also eat kürtos kalács, which is a sweet bread that’s grilled over a fire and often topped with coconut or almonds and cinnamon sugar. We open our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve just like in Iceland.
Ella Pamela Leonen Marquez – Philippines
Christmas starts early
Christmas starts early in the Philippines. When the first ber-month (SeptemBER) arrives (that means it’s Christmas), we start putting up our Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and all sorts of decorations. We also start doing our Christmas shopping. Most people in the Philippines are Roman Catholic, so Christmas is a major holiday there.
Night masses
Every Sunday between December 16 and midnight on December 24, we attend so-called “night masses.” This is a tradition we adopted from the Spaniards a long time ago.
Colorful Christmas
Students always have a special job – making their own Christmas lights (parol in Tagalog) out of bamboo and paper and bringing them to school to decorate. Christmas in the Philippines is always colorful. Nine days before Christmas, Filipino children sing Christmas songs outside homes in their neighborhoods. I remember I had to make my own musical instruments. After a song, we’d get either candy or money from the listeners. At home, families hang up big stockings for the children, even though the stockings are completely stuffed with gifts.
Sticky purple Christmas cake
After midnight mass outside the church, you have to eat puto bumbong, a sticky purple rice cake that’s our most common Christmas treat. Filipinos eat a lot of sweet and salty foods, especially at Christmas. For example, we eat sweet ham that’s similar to here in Iceland, but sweeter and baked with powdered sugar and pineapple. We call it hamon and eat it with rice. On Christmas Day, we’re just at home with our families before eating Christmas dinner. We do Christmas karaoke, play games with the kids, and then open Christmas presents.
