Have you ever noticed similarities between your country’s and other countries’ traditions for Christmas? There are many symbols attached to this holiday in Europe, and each country has kept its own identity and traditions, while enriching them with influences form various other sources. This diversity and richness prove the importance given by Europeans to the Christmas holiday. This year the AEGEEan asked and found out how people celebrate Christmas in Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

Let’s start from the place where the festive period begins really early. In Romania, celebrations start on November 30th, the day of Saint Andrew. Customs say everyone should hang plenty of garlic and a crucifix next to all doors and windows of the house to keep evil spirits away from their home. At the beginning of December, the Christmas lights are turned on all over the streets. Moş Nicolae comes and gives children presents. Children receive their gifts early in the morning of December 6th, or late at night on December 5th; traditionally, gifts are put in their laced up boots. On December 20th, Saint Ignatius Day, Romanians start the last preparations for Christmas. On this date, they slaughter pigs for the Christmas Eve supper. “Around this date, people usually buy their Christmas trees from public markets or supermarkets.”, Ioana Nedelcu (AEGEE-Ploieşti) told us.
December 24rd it’s Noaptea de ajun, the day children usually start caroling their neighbours. Music is an important part of Christmas celebration all over Romania. There is a special genre of music, related to Christmas carols but with more traditional/Christian lyrics. These are named colindă, which are also popular in Moldova. On the same date, women bake traditional cookies to give children for their caroling. By this time, the Christmas tree must usually already be decorated. During Christmas, Romanians bake or buy various special dishes, including desserts and sweets. Romanians most usually bake cozonac, a type of sweet bread. You can fill the cozonac with walnuts, cocoa, raisins, Turkish delight and in Transylvania: poppy seed paste (cozonac cu mac). Plates heaped with small pastries and cakes (corni și baclava) are prepared to serve to carollers when they call. A boiled vegetable and chicken salad held together with mayonnaise and decorated with olives and boiled eggs is often prepared. It is called Salată de boeuf (from French), although it usually does not contain beef. Other Christmas dishes include piftie, sarmale and pork dishes.

In Moldova, although Christmas is celebrated on December 25th like in Romania, January 7th is also recognised as an official holiday. On Christmas Day, families are having breakfast and/or lunch together.

In Greece, Christmas caroling is also very popular and there are actually three official caroling days. The custom is that children go from house to house singing the carol, with the accompaniment of a triangle, and residents of the house give them a small amount of money. Greek Christmas carols (calanda) are sung on the mornings of Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and January 5, the Eve of the Epiphany. About thirty to twenty years ago, carolers were getting cookies for singing the calanda.

Homemade kourabiedes

Melomakarona and kourabiedes are the two varieties of Christmas and New Year’s cookies in Greece. The first are semolina, cinnamon, and clove cookies drenched in honey, while the second are fresh butter cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar that are normally served on New Year’s, but many succumb to temptation and begin consuming them earlier. Vasilopita is a cake that is eaten on New Year’s Day. Before the cake is baked, a coin covered in foil is placed in it. The person who cuts the cake makes the sign of the cross three times above it and then starts serving the pieces, one to each person, the house, Christ, The Virgin Mary and Saint Vasileios. Whoever has the coin in his piece of cake will have luck for the rest of the year.
On the 1st of January, Saint Vasileios (Saint Basil the Great) from Caesarea, Cappadocia (Turkey), brings the gifts to the children. People in Greece also celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January. In the Greek Orthodox Church, Epiphany celebrates Jesus’s baptism when he was a man. There are many events throughout the country where young men dive into really cold lakes, rivers and the sea to try to be the first to get a cross which has been blessed by a priest and thrown into the water. Whoever gets the cross first is meant to have good luck during the coming year.

“Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun” this is how you say “Merry Christmas” in Turkish. However, how Christmas and the new year is perceived depends on where you are in Turkey. Christians who live in Turkey celebrate Christmas at churches or with family gatherings. In many districts of major cities the lights, Christmas decorations and trees appear in early December. In Turkey Christmas is of course not celebrated as a religious holiday. It can, in many ways, be comparable to Father’s day, Mother’s Day, Valentines Day and so on. Christmas is brought to Turkey by the major stores and supermarkets who have seen their chance to implement this festive celebration. There are some very natural differences to the way other Christian countries celebrate Christmas. In Turkey there is no dancing around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols, just like Christmas cookies and socks over the fireplace are not a part of the tradition yet. But they have Christmas trees and Santa Claus and gifts! In the last years in Turkey they started celebrating the New Year by exchanging gifts.

On the other hand, in Ukraine the festive period starts on New Years Eve. Ukrainians usually congregate in a house of their families and/or friends. They have many dishes at the table, so they start with food, watching different TV shows and chatting. When it is 00:00 the champagne is opened, and there are exclamations “Urrraaaa” (Hurrah) and people wishing everyone Happy New Year. “After midnight, children find their presents under the New Year tree, some other people are just exchanging presents, telling nice words to people. Then Ukrainians call other friends, who are not celebrating with them and congratulate everyone they think is important. Very often the mobile network is overloaded. Then we have parties till the morning, and go to bed at 02:00-08:00 (it depends). In the morning celebration continues.”, says Hanna Polishchuk (AEGEE-Kyiv).
On the 6th of January it is Sviat Vechir (Holy Evening). In the evening, after 6pm all family congregates at the table, which has 12 dishes (obligatory). The main dish is called Kutia (sweet grain pudding), and everyone should eat at least one spoon of this dish first. After dinner, children (and sometimes adults) wear traditional clothes and go around carol singing. People give them sweets and close friends give also money. The next day (January 7th) is Christmas. In the morning people tell each family member “The Christ was born”, and they answer “Glory to Him”. They tell this three times, and each time people kiss the cheek of the person, to whom they tell these words. On this day people continue going round carol-singing. There is a tradition to forgive everyone on this day.

Photo by Szabina Hellinger

In Hungary, Santa is called Mikulás and comes on the 6th of December instead of Christmas. He brings presents to children in their boots in case they have been behaving well all throughout the year. If they have been naughty, they get some rods (for being whipped with) from krampuses instead. “On Christmas night, the 24th of December (Szenteste = Holy Night) we decorate our Christmas tree indoors and “Little Jesus” (Jézuska) is supposed to bring nice presents for the kids untill the next morning, placing them under the tree.”, Balázs Kovács (AEGEE-Debrecen) told us. The Christmas decoration involves szaloncukor, special Hungarian goodies.

Hoping you enjoyed reading this article, the AEGEEan would like to wish you Merry Christmas anywhere you are!

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Kastoria/Sofia

Europe is diverse. This should not come as news to any true AEGEEans! But how diverse is Europe when it comes to Christmas traditions? The AEGEEan asked around to find out more about certain customs, meals and luck-bringing traditions from different countries. Obviously, not every single country could be mentioned, but another edition next year might follow anyways!

The AEGEEan wishes all of you a very European Christmas!

Let’s start chronologically with something very special that actually has not too much to do with Christmas, but still involves a bearded man in a red coat bringing presents: this rather well-known December tradition comes from the Netherlands! Every AEGEEan who attended an event in beautiful Holland around Christmas time will surely have heard about Sinterklaas. This celebration, which takes place on December 5^th, is a huge event. Sinterklaas, alongside with his companion, de Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), comes to the Dutch children via boat from Spain and brings presents to the ones who have been good, while the ones who have been naughty might get put in Piet’s bag and brought back to Spain.

While Christmas Eve itself is not celebrated that eagerly in the Netherlands, as Laura van Deursen, AEGEE-Delft, explains, the 25^th and 26^th are usually used to visit the family.

Again, somebody else than Santa himself brings presents to children in Verona and some other cities in Italy: “We have Saint Lucia, who comes on the 12th of December at night and brings presents and sweets to children“, Cristina Rolli from AEGEE-Verona explains. Normally, she has a donkey and the children prepare straw and a carrot for it and a glass of milk with biscuits for Saint Lucia the evening before she comes. The children should be sleeping when she arrives at the house, because otherwise she will throw coal in their eyes. Saint Lucia is blind and she can make blind whoever sees her during her night. Children – stay in your beds! And, as if one woman wasn’t enough, there is also la Befana. “She is a really old and ugly woman who also brings gifts to children, but in the night between January 5^th and 6^th”, says Cristina. This time, the children prepare socks, which are hung up by the fireplace so that la Befana can put sweets and presents inside when she arrives on her broom. And what do those kids get who were bad? Coal again!

Two things seem especially important when it comes to Germany and Christmas: Christmas Markets and Glühwein. Which is also a very typical combination. Christmas Markets can be found in any bigger city and take place from the first Advent to the fourth (or in some cases until Christmas Eve itself). They range from rather small ones to really big ones, mostly depending on the size of the city. Also the variety of products is rather unimaginable and covers around anything that people might want to give others as a present for Christmas. Most importantly though, one can buy lots and lots of unhealthy, delicious food and Glühwein!

Picture by Philipp Blum, AEGEE-Aachen

The best Glühwein recipe is arguable and everybody will do it slightly differently. Nevertheless, the main ingredients are dry red wine, sugar, orange/lemon slices and maybe a little bit of their juice, and herbs (clove, cinnamon, star anise). Heat it up, allow the herbs to infuse, but never let it boil! Prost!

And if you want to have the real German experience, also concerning food, prepare some sausages and potato-salad, a simple dish that is often served on Christmas Eve when Germans eat with their families. The (very polite) idea behind that basic meal is that the mother of the family won’t have to spend the whole day in the kitchen cooking, but with her loved ones instead. Germans are nice after all.

While already talking about food, Denmark has a nice tradition, especially when it comes to their dessert. After eating some sort of roast meat with potatoes, gravy and red cabbage or other vegetables on Christmas Eve, they serve Risalamande, which derives from the French ris à l’amande, meaning rice with almonds. Nowadays, it is very common to serve a very large bowl of plain rice pudding on 23rd December already, the so called lillejuleaften, literally meaning “little Christmas Eve“. Some rice pudding is then kept for Christmas Eve and additionally mixed with whipped cream, chopped almonds and vanilla, often served with a cold cherry sauce on top.

Jenny Rooseboom from AEGEE-Aachen, who spent her Erasmus semester in Denmark, tells us that even though Risalamande is a really heavy dessert, “it really is necessary to finish it since there is one whole almond hidden in one of the portions. The one catching the almond gets a present and will have good luck for the upcoming year.”

“Christmas in Slovakia is very similar to all kinds of Slavic Christmases”, says Lucia Gavulová from AEGEE-Bratislava. The most important part of the celebrations is Christmas Eve when the whole family gathers around the table. And they are hungry, because during the day it is not allowed to eat – at least if you want to receive a special reward: to see a golden pig. The food itself doesn’t involve any meat though, but mostly consists of carps with a special potato salad.

Lucia goes on to tell us about some other lucky traditions: “Because we used to be a poor country, we use many traditions to call for money – putting a carp scale under the plate, eating poppy seeds (to have as much money as poppy seeds in a plate) or washing our hands in water filled with coins. And because we really appreciate being healthy, we cut an apple horizontally and if there is nice a star in the middle, the whole family will be healthy.” And to be really sure that they all stay healthy, the Slovakian people eat a special kind of wafer with honey and garlic to protect themselves from diseases.

Picture by Adam Kubák, AEGEE-Praha

Similar to Slovakia, the typical Czech Christmas dinner consits of fried or baked carp served with potato salad. The carp has to be really fresh, the family will buy it when it’s still alive and put it in their bathtub until its preparation. Don’t get too attached the hours of the carp’s life are numbered!

Another typical Czech Christmas meal is called Kuba and it is prepared from hulled grain and mushrooms. Barbora Heresová from AEGEE-Praha tells us that “during the Christmas dinner no one can stand up from the table, otherwise it would mean a death for a family member in the next year”. Also, Czech people, like some other countries from the middle of Europe always set the table for one more person, in case a wanderer comes by. Presents in the Czech Republic are being delivered by  Ježíšek. No child knows how he looks like because he is too shy and only adults are allowed to meet him and take the presents from him (how convenient!). Once Ježíšek is gone, there is a bell ringing which means the presents are under the tree and children can go unwrap them.

In Poland – as a rather religious country – many traditions and customs originate from Christianity. “Polish People take the Advent time very seriously and want to prepare their soul to the day when Christ was born”, Agata Cichonska, current member of AEGEE-Alicante, tells us. The main part of Wigilia is a solemn family supper, which starts right after the appearance of the first star in the sky. The traditional Christmas Eve supper consists of twelve dishes representing the twelve months of the year or twelve apostles. No meat is served during the supper, only fish, usually herring, carp or pike. Other traditional dishes appearing on the table include red borscht, mushroom or fish soup, sauerkraut with wild mushrooms or peas, dried fruit compote and kutia, a dessert especially popular in eastern Poland. For the Christmas Eve supper, pierogis, a well-known Polish dish, are usually made with sauerkraut and mushrooms and either fried or boiled. Agata explained two other very special Polish traditions to us: “Hay on the table is another traditional symbol. Normally we put hay on the table and cover it under the tablecloth. It´s because of the fact, that Jesus Christ was born on the hay in the stable. And we always have one candle on the table, as a sign of the presence of God. We light it while the Evangel is read. Normally, the eldest member of the family is reading correspondent fragment of Evangel. And after this moment we share the wafer!

Something less religious is shared in England: Christmas Crackers! During Christmas dinner, everyone around the table receives a Christmas cracker (they’re usually used as table decoration). “After dinner, you hold your cracker in one hand and your neighbours’ in the other to make a ring around the table and you pull at your ends, everyone simultaneously”, tells us Kathrin Peirera, who lives in North East England right now. “They open with a mini explosion and inside is a small gift (typically something like a mini measuring tape, a whistle or marbles), a paper crown which you should put on your head and a short joke you read out loud to the others (typical Christmas cracker jokes: What happens to an egg if you tell it a joke? – it cracks up!)”

We hope you enjoyed our Christmas Special and wish you all the best for your personal Christmas, however it looks like!

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

Street lighting, carols, lottery, decorated trees, nativity figures and marzipan are some of the things that welcome the arrival of Christmas time to Spain, a country with a deep Christian tradition. Although it is changing, most of the Spaniards take theses holidays to sit with their family and loved ones around a table. Some others, like those captivated by the ghost of Christmas, think about what they have done, and promise themselves to change and give something away. And there is also someone who just does not care about it, as he feels it is fake, sad and materialistic. Either way, Spain is huge and although, in general we share the same way of celebration, like eating twelve grapes on New Year’s Eve for example, there are some traditions that belong to specific parts of the territory.

In the Basque Country, for example, there is not Santa Claus, but “Olentzero”, a man coming down from the mountains the night of the 24th of December with presents for the young ones. In the region of León, people decorate their house with a type of handmade crown called “ramo leonés” which consists of ribbons, threads and different kinds of dried fruits in the base. Everything is being held together by a wooden stick. Twelve candles are placed at the top of the structure and while lighting up those lights, the people wish to brighten their next twelve months.

But let’s be honest. If there is something truly expected by children it is the arrival of the Three Wise Men, the night of the fifth of January. In the south, in Algeciras, it takes place along the streets. A “noisy” dragging can parade, in order to remember that the Three kings come to town and leave something nice for us. The morning after, the sixth of January, there will be gifts under the Christmas tree and a delicious large ring shaped cake called “Roscón de Reyes” will be waiting for us at the breakfast table. Inside, there is a hidden figurine but also a bean. The person who finds the bean will pay the cake, but this fortunate person that discovers the figurine will become…KING FOREVER! (or at least this is what we have been told since we were little). To dream from time to time…is not that bad.  Come what may, ¡Feliz Navidad!

Written by Ana Valiente, AEGEE-Tenerife

What do you know about Spain? What is the first thing that comes in your mind when you hear the name of this country? Probably corrida (bullfighting), paella, sunny beaches, the sea, crazy parties… and festivals! One of the most famous Spanish festivals is San Fermín, which is internationally known as the event of running from bulls in the streets of the old part of the city. It takes place every year between the 7th and the 14th of July in Pamplona.