12 Weird Christmas Traditions Around The World That Will Make You Go 'WTF'

No kidding – just like how Christmas turkey is a must on Christmas, for the Japanese it’s the Colonel’s Chicken. Since the beginning of this marketing campaign four decades ago, KFC has been associated with Christmas in the minds of the Japanese for generations, a tradition passed on from parent to child in spite of its commercialized beginnings. More than 240,000 barrels of chicken will be sold during Christmas, five to ten times its normal monthly sales.

hongkiat.com

Only 1 per cent of Japanese people believe in Christ. Even so, most Japanese people decorate their stores and homes with evergreens during Christmas.

Christians in India decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers.

In India, the poinsettia is in flower and so the churches are decorated with this brilliant bloom for the Christmas Midnight Mass.

In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as the Hindus do during their festival called Diwali.

That means instead of Christmas pine trees lining up celebrating households, you’ll find brightly lit, well-decorated Christmas banana or mango trees on the streets. They even use the leaves of those trees to decorate their houses.

hongkiat.com

'Mattak' is a Christmas treat shared among the family. The 'Kiviak' is another Greenland specialty, which is actually an auk's raw flesh that is buried in sealskin for many months, until it is completely decomposed.

Christmas food in Greenland is unusual, too, and a particular favorite is mattak, a whale skin with a strip of blubber inside. Kiviak is the raw flesh of small Auks (an Arctic bird) that are buried whole in sealskin for a few months; their decomposed flesh is regarded as a delicacy in Greenland.

On Christmas Day, South Africans tuck into the deep-fried caterpillars of the Emperor Moth.

A South African speciality is the Sundried Emperor Moth Caterpillar. These juicy caterpillars are deep fried and served on Christmas Day. They have a flavour similar to tea and are surprisingly nutritious.

flightcentre.co.uk

In Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, there's a tradition of people rollerskating to the early morning church services from 16th to 24th December. The roads are often closed to traffic by 8.00am to make it safe for people to skate!

whychristmas.com

Before bedtime children tie one end of a piece of string to their big toe and hang the other out the window. The next morning, roller skaters give a tug to any string they see handing. After Mass everyone enjoys tostados and coffee.

Instead of glittering ornaments and tinsel, Ukrainian Christmas trees are covered with an artificial spiders and cobwebs. According to the local folklore, there was a poor woman who could not afford to decorate their Christmas tree. But the next morning, her children woke up to see the tree covered with webs and when the first light of Christmas morning touched the web threads, they turned into gold and silver and the family was never left for wanting again.

hongkiat.com

To remember this miracle, Ukrainians still decorate their trees with artificial spider webs to this day to usher in good luck and fortune for the coming year.

Another Christmas tradition in Guatemala is La Quema del Diablo, the ‘Burning of the Devil’. Guatemalan’s believe that the devil and other evil spirits lurk in the dark, dirty corners of their homes. So the the week before Christmas they are busy sweeping homes and piling all the rubbish up into a heap outside. They then place an effigy of the devil on top and set it alight.

latinodyssey.com

The idea is to burn all of the bad from the previous year and to start anew from the ashes. In cities throughout the country The Devil is burned at the stroke of six.

File this in your collection of unusual Christmas traditions: the figurine of a pooping peasant appearing in Catalonia’s crèches.

mariaschnabel.com

The small figure is a Catalan tradition called the "Caganer." It's a small figurine of a peasant wearing a traditional red beret, white blouse and is seen bending down with his pants lowered as if going to the bathroom. The tradition has its critics, but Catalan families believe its a way of assuring good luck in the new year.

texomashomepage.com

The Throwing of the Shoe
An unmarried girl is supposed to throw a shoe over her shoulder and towards the door. If the shoe lands with the toe pointing towards the door, the girl will marry within a year.

There's a superstition in the Czech Republic that says if you throw a shoe over your shoulder on Christmas day, if the toe points towards the door, you will be married soon!

whychristmas.com

The Italian equivalent of Santa Claus is Babo Natale, however, the true giver of gifts in Italy is La Befana. La Befana is an old crone who delivers gifts to deserving girls and boys on Epiphany.

On Epiphany Eve, the old, tattered and soot-covered Befana flies around the world on a broomstick and comes down chimneys to deliver candy and presents to children who have been good during the year. For those who have fallen a bit short of model behavior, la Befana will leave lumps of coal. (Realizing that no one can be perfect for a whole year, these days la Befana often leaves a sweet “lump of coal” made from black sugar.)

Caroling is called eisteddfodde and is often accompanied by a harp. In some rural areas a villager is chosen to be the Mari llwyd. This person travels around the town draped in white and carrying a horse's skull on a long pole. Anyone given the "bite" by the horse's jaws must pay a fine.

Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare / Holy Mary) was the name most generally applied in Wales to the horse-figure formerly carried from door to door by wassail-singing groups during the Christmas season.

museumwales.ac.uk

Many Finnish families visit cemeteries on Christmas eve to remember the dead and place candles by their graves.

independent.co.uk

Although going to a graveyard might seem an unlikely activity for the festive season, the sight of hundreds of graveside candles glowing in the snow in a serene wooded cemetery can be surprisingly uplifting. “As many as three-quarters of Finnish families visit a cemetery at Christmas, mostly on Christmas Eve, and we even have to make special traffic arrangements to accommodate the crowds,” says Risto Lehto.

Lehto explains that many people stroll in their local graveyards at Christmas even if none of their relatives are buried there, just to enjoy the tranquil candlelit scene. “Our cemeteries also have memorial features where people can light candles for those buried elsewhere.”