International Christmas Celebrations in India, Greece and Finland

By M. Liaw

India
Christmas is not a huge celebration in India due to the fact that there are not a lot of Christians there. Christmas in India starts at midnight: they have a feast with curries and Indian delicacies. After the feast, they give and receive presents from their closest family members and friends. Christmas trees the worldwide symbol of Christmas, but in India, they usually decorate their houses with banana and mango trees and leaves. As they go houses, singing carols in their neighbourhood, they offer a traditional fruit cake eaten during Christmas time. They also eat small treats and typical pastries. 
 
Greece
Christmas in Greece is very unique: children often go to neighbouring houses and sing Kalanda (traditional carols), with drums and triangles in the streets at night. To embrace the Christmas tradition, they decorate their houses with wooden bowls carved by themselves. These have with a wire across the rim, a cross down the middle, and are used for water storage. This water is believed to scare away bad spirits such as the Kallikantzaroi (bad spirits) that only appear during the 12-day period of Christmas.  
 
Finland
​People from Finland believe that Santa clause lives in the North of the country, in Korvatunturi. People all around the world also send letters to Korvatunturi, well-known place for its Christmas spirit. In Finland, it is typical to visit family graves and add lights to them, as it gets very dark at night. The whole cemetery lights up because of all the small lights in each grave. The main meal is eaten during the Christmas evening, and usually includes salted fish with different spices. After the meal, Santa visits the house!