Christmas Eve around the world

Calabrian minstrels
On the last days of Advent, the days leading to Christmas, it was once the tradition for Calabrian minstrels to enter Rome and Naples and be seen everywhere saluting shrines of Mary. This tradition was enacted for the musicians to soothe the mother of Jesus Christ until her birth-hour at Christmas. These minstrels were known as Pifferari, and played instruments rather like bagpipes.

La vigilia (Feast of the Seven Fishes), Italy
Today, a meal consists of, typically, seven different seafood dishes. Some Italian families have been known to celebrate with 9, 11 or 13 different seafood dishes. This celebration is a commemoration of the wait, Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

German Christmas Eve
Tonight is Der Heilige Abend, the Holy Evening, the climax of the German Christmas season. It is said that the pure in heart today will witness the rivers and wells turn to wine, trees blossom and bear fruit at once and animals speak. Mountains are said to open up to reveal gemstones, and church bells can be heard even at the bottom of the sea.

The present-table
In Germany, Christmas Eve is observed by many with great reverence and affection. Shops and offices close at noon, with people coming home to decorate trees and place gifts under them or on der Gabentisch (the present-table)<WBR>. When it is time for the children to come and claim their presents on this night, a bell is rung.

Wunderkerzen
In Germany tonight, the Christmas story is often read aloud in the family home, where sparklers, or Wunderkerzen, are lit and held by the children as carols are sung and tree candles are lit, to be burned daily until Epiphany (January 6). A kind of pass the parcel game is played, with the first layer of the parcel for grandmother to open, and so on down through the family by age.

Today's menu
In Germany on Christmas Eve, it has been traditional since the middle ages to eat carp which have been fattened since St Bartholomew'<WBR>s Day, August 24. Also on the family table will be green kale (Grünkohl) and pork. These used to be followed in Schleswig-Holstein by sweet rice pudding with butter and cinnamon, a custom still observed in Norway, Finland and Denmark on this day. People in Munich eat white sausage and cold macaroni salad.

Fat Stomach Night
In Germany, an old Protestant saying goes, Whoever does not eat well on Christmas Eve will have night visions of demons. So tonight is called Dickbuuk, Fat Stomach Night or Vullbuuk (Full Stomach) in Oldenburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

Mary's place
In the Black Forest of Germany, on Christmas Eve, it is traditional to set an extra place at the festive table for Mary, the mother of Jesus, because there was no room at the inn for her. In the Nahe District of the Rhineland, some flax is left on the distaff so Mary can dry her baby during the night.

Healing loaf
In the German district of Lake Pulver, it is traditional on Christmas Eve to keep a candle burning and to leave a loaf of bread on the windowsill facing the church. The next day, the loaf with its curative powers will be eaten by the family.

Grave candles
In Berchtesgaden, Germany, a lit candle is placed on each grave on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile at Oberammergau, small Christmas trees with candles are placed on the graves.

Animal feeding
In Germany, it is traditional for the father of the family to go and feed the animals of the household before the lighting of the candles on the Christmas tree. This custom observes the fact that only animals were in the stable to keep the Christ-child company.

Good harvest
In Thuringia, Germany, on Christmas Eve, it was once the custom to pull one straw from the thatch of the roof. If the straw had seed on it, it was an omen of a good harvest to come. Fruit trees on this night were beaten to improve their yield, and it was said that if the weather was cold, the winter would be hard but the spring would come early.

Shaken up
In Swabia, Germany, it is an old Christmas Eve custom to shake vinegar and wine casks so they would always remain full.

Pocketing the presents
Boys and girls in Ratzeburg, northern Germany, traditionally save up for months to buy presents for their parents, to give them on Christmas Eve. Forbidding their parents to enter, they light numerous small candles in the parlour, fastening them on a yew bough amid paper decorations. The presents for the parents are laid out under the bough, but the gifts for each other they hide in their pockets. On Christmas Day, the presents are laid out by the parents for their children.

Lamb's wool
In 18^th-Century England, roast apples on a string used to be dropped into a bowl of spiced ale on Christmas Eve, making a drink called lamb's wool. In Werrington, England, the revellers sang wassail (health toast) songs and threw the toasts from the wassail-bowl onto apple trees to ensure a bountiful harvest.

More on wassailing, and more, in the Book of Days

Setting a watch on Christmas Eve, Chester, Cheshire, England
Up until at least the 17^th Century, Chester had a quaint custom called 'setting a watch on Christmas Eve', in which a procession made its way through the streets, headed by the Mayor and Aldermen, together with the Dean and Chapter, and many other official dignitaries and members of the Guilds. The Recorder delivered a speech telling of the City's ancient fame, and that its foundation was the work of Lleon Mawr, the legendary giant. The day ended with banquets and general rejoicing.

Kneeling oxen
In the western parts of Devonshire, England, it used to be believed that, at midnight on Christmas Eve, the oxen in their stalls would always be found kneeling. In Cornwall and Devon, people believed that bees would sing in their hives today.

Fresh bread
In parts of England, such as Cornwall and Devon, it used to be believed that bread baked on Christmas Eve would never go mouldy.

The Old Lad
In medieval England, church bells were rung in the hour before midnight. This custom was called the Old Lad's Passing Bell, the bells being tolled to mark the demise of Satan (the Old Lad) and the birth of Christ.

The cock's crow
In Shakespeare's time, it was believed, in England, that the cock would crow all night long on Christmas Eve, and that Satan's powers were at their weakest.

Mistletoe time
Traditionally today is the day to hang up mistletoe.

Templa exornantur
In old church calendars, today is marked with the text Templa exornantur, meaning, the churches are to be decked.

Snapdragon, or Snap-dragon
Snapdragon is a popular name for the antirrhinum plant. It also is the name of a popular 19^th-Century parlour game played in England on Christmas Eve. In a darkened room, brandy was poured over a dish of raisins and lit. Players had to grab a raisin with their bare hands. The custom relates to the old Druidic fire rites at the Winter Solstice which almost coincides with this day. The poorer people played Flapdragon with a candle in a can of beer.
 
Hodening
A Hodening is the name for an old English Christmas Eve custom in which men used to go from house to house singing carols, with a hobby horse made from a horse's head on a pole with a cloth covering. A string enabled the operator to snap the horse's jaw for effect.

Apples and pears
In New Forest, Hampshire, on Christmas Eve, people threw apple cider on the apple and pear trees to ensure a good harvest. They sang:

Apples and pears with right good corn,
Come in plenty to everyone,
Eat and drink good cake and hot ale,
Give Earth to drink and she'll not fail.

The Yule candle
In old Britain, it was customary to light a huge Yule candle on this day, and let it burn till the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas (till Epiphany, January 6).