The World’s Strangest Christmas Traditions

Across the globe, people get up to some very odd things around this time of year. From eating Auk entrails to jamming pigs jaws up chimneys, people do the strangest things.

Spain - Catalonia
 
Cago tio is a catalan christmas log, made or  purchased 15 days before Christmas. Wrapped in a blanket to keep ‘him’ warm, he is presented with food and drink once a day. On Christmas eve, the children are sent to their room to say their prayers. Following their return to the room where the log is being kept they beat it with sticks singing a song: “Sh*t, log, sh*t! If you don’t sh*t well, we will whack you again!” At the end of this delightful verse, the blanket that covered the log is whisked away to reveal the childrens’ Christmas gifts.

Germany and Austria

Traditionally its the Christkindl (the Christ child) that brings the Christmas presents. Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, brings gifts on December 6th and is accompanied by his ‘evil sidekick’,  Knecht Ruprecht whose job it is to punish those children who were not good throughout the year either by taking them away in a sack or by beating them with birch  twigs.  Famed Germanic efficiency means that every year, in one or two households Knecht Ruprecht does such a good job that a visit to the local hospital’s casualty department is necessary.

Greenland

We like to think that we’re a fairly open minded bunch here at Balkan Insight - especially when it comes to food. Never judge anything before you have tried it! But this Christmas tradition from Greenland, well, we’re not so sure. Kiviak is a dish that consists of fermented auk (a bird). The bird is placed inside a disemboweled seal buried, according to the local recipe for between two and seven months and then covered by a flat stone. The birds are cracked open and their fermented intestines are then eaten. A dish that apparently tastes quite a lot like Stilton cheese. Delicious.

Greece

Be aware of the Kallikantazaroi! They are horrible little goblin creatures that can take all sort of disgusting shapes, some of them with the arms of monkeys, red eyes and their bodies covered in fur, which come out from their underground lair between December 25th  and January 6th. But help is at hand and the clever householder will have no cause to worry as long as they have lodged the jaw of a pig in their chimney.

Slovakia and Ukraine

Children are messy eaters, but in parts of Slovakia and the Ukraine, just once a year, fathers get to have a go too. Whilst the children watch, the head of the household gets to throw some of one of the traditional Christmas dishes against the ceiling and the more it sticks, the more luck will be coming the family’s way over the next year. There’s no word on who gets to clean up the mess, but you can bet it will be mum.