Join us in Korea!

You all remember my friend Nut, right? Well guess what she's back! This time to share Christmas in Korea. She and her family just recently got home (as in this past year) from a 4 year (sorry Nut it felt a lot longer but it was only 4, right?) term as missionaries on the Korean island of Jeju. I know she gets "homesick" fo rthe island often but being the trooper she is she put together a little peek at Christmas in Korea for us!

South Korea is a Buddhist and Shamanist country. Because of this, Christmas, in the past has held no great meaning for them. It was and in many cases, still is, just another day in the lives of most Koreans. In the past 100 years Christianity has spread throughout South Korea which brought with it, a small Christmas celebration. There is no large present exchange or tons of parties. You won't see Santa on every street corner or nativities placed throughout the town. However, on Christmas Day you will see that all the Christian Churches are open for a special worship services. They usually meet for an early morning prayer time (at about 5 am). Then they come back together for a worship service at 10. They break for lunch and fellowship and continue with a second worship service around 2 pm.

Every year that we were there, we did see more and more in the lines of Christmas decorations. Stores might have a small Christmas Tree or Snowman in the window. The International Wal-mart actually had fake Christmas Trees for sale. The town center will often decorate the trees with lights now. However, they still don't pause to celebrate on Christmas day.

If you wait a month or so, Koreans celebrate one of their two largest holidays of the year. Seol-ral or the Korean Lunar New Year (more commonly known as Chinese New Year) is a 3 day celebration. Koreans will travel to their home town where the entire family will meet for a celebration!

On the first day of celebration the Koreans will all dress in their tradition hanboks. They then perform a ceremony honoring their ancestors. After the ceremony at home, the entire family will drive to the grave site of their ancestors and perform a public ceremony honoring them. They then have a picnic at the grave. The traditional food eaten is dok-guk. It is a rice-cake soup that is absolutely delicious. They will leave soup, rice, and wine at the grave for the ancestors as they leave.

Children will bow to their elders as a sign of respect and in return they are given white envelopes filled with money. The adults often exchange gifts of well-being. The gifts they exchange are much more practical than the ones we exchange. They will give gift baskets of fruits and vegetables. It is common to see gifts boxes of spam, dove bar soap, socks, handkerchiefs, tissue, juice boxes, and other items used on a daily basis. Families will often spend the days playing tradition games such as yut and nol-twigi or go flying kites.

Seol-ral actually begins on Jan. 29 and continues through the first day of the new month. It is a time of the year that families look forward to all year long, much like we do for Christmas

Peanut!

And now I have a craving to go fly a kite myself! Especially with Mary Poppins playing in the background! Thank you again Nut for rescuing me from bloggy boredom.

For those of you playing along, I do believe our next stop is Japan (possibly this evening) and then to Australia tomorrow.

Christmas with Christina and Mariah Today!

Bet you didn't knot that Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey were from Venezuela (at least according to Wikipedia)! So we'll just crash at their houses today. I am really excited about Christmas in Venezuela. I found some REALLY neat traditions to share with you.

Like most of the Hispanic cultures we have visited the celebration begins on December 16th with the display of the nativity which they call the pecebres. They also begin their Misas de Aguinaldo (Early Morning Masses) which happen daily. And don't think you get to sleep through it! They set of predown firecrackers to make sure everyone knows what time it is.

And if the firecrackers weren't enough to get you going watch the streets of Caracas (the capital). The streets are shut down so that people can rollerskate to mass. Every night before going to bed the children tie a string to their big toes and hang the string out the window. As the skaters go by they tug on any strings they see dangling. Now there's a wake up call!

On Christmas Eve things change up a little and they attend an evening mass called Nochebuena de Navidad (The Good Night of Christmas) which is followed by a traditional family dinner of hallacas (similar to Mexican tamales), pan de jamon (bread stuffed with ham and raisins - I'm thinking like a stromboli?); and dulce de lechoza (a dessert made of green papaya and brown sugar).

Have you noticed the lack of presents yet? That's because like Mexico they celebrate Dia de los Reyes (Day of the Kings) on January 6th. The night before the children leave straw out for the Wise Men's camels and in the morning it is replaced with gifts. If the children check the mirror they may even find a black smudge on their cheek showing that Balthazar the King of the Ethiopians blessed them with a kiss in their sleep.

I don't know about the rest of you but this sounds like a lot of really fun ways to celebrate the holiday! I wonder what would be left behind if an angel kissed your child in their sleep. This might be a good tradition to begin in our house this year!

**Sources for today's traditions - Sanats.net; NorthPole.com; ChristmasCarnivals.com)

Grab your GORP! We're Headed Further South!

It did a funky snow, sleet, rain thing here today while the sun was shining and I decided that I'm going to stay on my tour of Christmas Around the World as long as I can! And because of all that nastiness I'm going to head a little further south - to Costa Rica!

**The info I am about to share comes from Michael Smith by way of the Cocori (Complete Costa Rica) site.**

This was a really fun article to read! And the stuff I learned! Just wait until I get to the part about New Years!

How many of you have your tree up? And I am absolutely sure you used a cypress branch and painted it white right? How neat is that! They decorate them with bright paper and mini lights (talk about easy decorating!) and under them they place their portal - Nativity. According to Smith every year they add to and elaborate on their Nativity to make it grander and more impressive until it can actually out grow the space under the tree. One site (and I've lost it now) noted that people actually tour from home to home to admire los portales much like we would for the lights.

And one more thing before I move on - if you don't own your home, you use a portal that has been given to you in faith that the portal will bring you a home of your own. Now THAT is a gift!

Then you have the topes. Originally a procession of horses that were used to cut prize bulls out for the bull fights, the tope has evolved into a full blown parade much like I think of Carnival. Still with plenty of horses and proud owners and riders, but expanded with floats, brightly painted carriages and ox carts and even clowns and bands.

And what would a Latin American celebration be without a bullfight? Maybe I slept through too much history but when I think bullfight I think of Spain before I think of Central America so this was a new one to me. Part of the fight is (and forgive me as I laugh at men!) a swarm of men who rush the bull and scare him into fighting. Wait for the other shoe now! They don't harm the bull but the men get their tails kicked!

Now here is a tradition that I am all in favor of the U.S. adopting. There is a manadory Christmas bonus distributed to all laborers with a national lottery drawn on Christmas! And it's not just a bonus - it is a full months wages!

Like Mexico, Costa Rica celebrates on January 6th to close the holiday season. It is a more solemn event with family and friends gathering to pray and take down the portal. Then they have a formal meal together to close the season.

Before some one calls me on it - I didn't miss New Years! It is a custom for the women in Costa Rica to sweep their ENTIRE homes on New Year's Day. They start in the back and sweep to the front to get all the dust and dirt of the year out. It is symbolic of starting new and is intended to bring good luck in the coming year.

It gives a whole new twist to your spring cleaning doesn't it? So there you have it! Christmas in Costa Rica! So pass the tamales and the super spiked eggnog (rompope)! Feliz Navidad!

All this Holiday Partying Got my Wheels Turning!

The blog party wraps up on Wednesday with the big prize pulls for the daily prizes and the Christmas of Dreams on Thursday. So I was thinking about the Christmas of Dreams and how so many people have said in their entries that they would want to share the package with other people.

With the economy at the center of all the news, it has become clear that it's a global problem. Everyone is struggling to make a Christmas this year. I decided a while back that I was going to try to make a homemade Christmas again this year. But I wanted to try to do something other than the same things I did last year. I want to try to find a little international flair for it. So for the next few weeks (after the blog party) and leading up to Christmas I think I might make my own little party here at the Zoo.

I am going to try to do a little research and learn different traditions from different cultures. Maybe I'll find some really great little decoration or gift ideas for all of you. We'll see what we can come up with. Know someone who lives in a different culture? Think they might be able to "school" me? Invite them to pop by! I'd love to have a guest blogger share some real life experience! (I'm talking to you Roomie!!)

So let's see what we can learn together this holiday. Shall we make it a global celebration?