12 Christmas traditions that will surprise you

In principle, traditions have this property of surprising absolutely everyone except the people who follow them. Because how can you be surprised at something if you are used to observing this since childhood - just like your parents, by the way. Let's take a look at a selection of quirky but understandable Christmas traditions from around the world.

In the 1970s in Japan, KFC advertised fried chicken as a traditional Christmas dish. Since then, Japanese Christmas dinner always includes chicken from KFC.

In Argentina, usually the mother or grandmother of the family gives women pink underwear, which must be worn on New Year's Day to attract love.

There is nothing surprising for us here, but it’s still worth mentioning. In Estonia, it is customary to go to the sauna on Christmas Eve after the preparations for the holiday are completed and the house is decorated.

Czech unmarried girls must throw a shoe (or something from a shoe) over their shoulder towards the nearest door. If the toe of the landing shoe points towards the door, then the young lady will get married.

Tio de Nadal is a wooden log with a smiling face in a red Catalan cap. He is also called Caga Tio, which translates to "pooping log", and is the Catalan equivalent of Santa Claus.

According to tradition, children must take care of Caga Tio from December 8th until Christmas Eve. They cover him with a blanket and feed him nougat. And then Tio de Nadal “pumps out” gifts.

In India, banana or mango trees are decorated on the eve of Christmas, because there are not many conifers in the country.

13 desserts - a tradition from the southern region of France, Provence. This number of desserts symbolizes Jesus and the 12 apostles. All dishes must be eaten at Christmas.

In the Swedish city of Gävle there lives a huge Christmas goat made of straw. Every year since the 60s, his figure is burned in honor of the holiday.

On December 23, the Mexican city of Oaxaca celebrates Radish Night, when residents carve radishes into various shapes. This annual celebration dates back to colonial times.

In many Latin American countries, gifts are delivered not by Santa Claus, but by baby Jesus. It’s not very clear how a small child can do this...

Krampus is a fairly well-known character in Central Europe. This truly creepy creature, the antithesis of Santa Claus, beats people to make them obedient. European cities even hold parades for which people dress up as demons and flood the streets.

One of the most unusual Christmas traditions in Romania is the “bear dance”. On this holiday, men and women dress in bearskins and dance through the streets of towns and villages to drive away evil spirits and bring good luck for the coming year.