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Best Cities Across the World to Celebrate Christmas

December 7, 2012 By Jillian

Christmas is one of the most amazing times of the year, if only for how kind, joyful and friendly people get. People are cheerful, songs are being sung and you can see dazzling lights. The holiday is celebrated throughout the world with laughter and joy, even by those who don’t celebrate it. Even if you don’t celebrate the holiday, it’s worthwhile to check out Christmas celebrations around the world. Where is your favorite place to experience the season?

New York, New York: New York City is one of the most thrilling places to spend the season. This time of year, the Big Apple may be dusted with snow, and the Christmas lights and displays on the streets and in the shop windows are spectacular. Ice skaters will soar across the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink, and the huge Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center is stunning. Santa will also be nearby, so you must see the jolly man in the red suit. In addition, while in New York, you will want to see a performance of The Nutcracker.

Santa Claus Village, Finland: The Arctic Circle in Finland is home an exciting amusement park in Lapland, Finland. The park contains cafes, shops, the Santa Claus post office and of course the office of Santa himself. Each Christmas season, more than 400,000 tourists visit the village.

Bethlehem: What better place to celebrate Christmas than the place where Jesus is believed to have been born. The streets are lined with sparkling lights, children perform Christmas pageants and you can even find a Christmas market. Christmas serviced are held for numerous faiths, including Catholic, Protestant and Greek Orthodox. Located outside the square is the Basilica of the Nativity, the site where Jesus was born. You can view Christmas processions that go through Manger Square. At times there are even pilgrimage processions which start in Jerusalem and wind their way to Bethlehem.

Special thanks to karendotcom127 for today’s photo via a creative commons license.

A Christmas Controversy

December 27, 2011 By Jillian

We’ve all experienced culture shock at one time or another, but few of us would expect Christmas celebrations and customs to be shocking. After all, Christmas may be one of the most universally celebrated holidays in the world given how many non-Christians participate in the non-religious commercial aspects of the holiday. We all recognize the jolly fat man with a white beard dressed in red, and few of us wouldn’t be able to identify a decked out Christmas tree and yet cultural differences created quite a controversy this year in Canada.

In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas is accompanied by Zwarte Pieten “Black Peters”, who distribute candy and presents to the children on Saint Nicholas day (December 6th). Not terribly shocking. What has created the controversy though, is that Zwarte Piet is generally portrayed as a mischievous character in blackface dressed in colorful pantaloons. With exaggerated bright red lips, afro wig and blackface, the character is an uncomfortable black character. In North America and the U.K. blackface is considered offensive and even in the Netherlands where the character is beloved, there is a small but vocal anti-Zwarte Piet movement. Some find the character insensitive given the Dutch position in starting and later participation in the Atlantic slave trade.

Dutch officials have tried to alter the appearance of Zwarte Pieten in the past, replacing the blackface makeup with multicolored, rainbow face paint. However, the practice was discontinued the following year. This year, four people were arrested in the Netherlands for wearing “Zwarte Piet is racist” t-shirts.

The controversy really gained traction this year in Canada. The largest Dutch Sinterklaas celebration in Western Canada was canceled this year after vocal outcry against the inclusion of Zwarte Piet. Organizers cancelled the event – saying that Sinterklaas can’t be without Zwarte Piet. Suriname, a former Dutch colony, also stated that the character is a slap in the face to Suriname’s black community, vowing not to promote the character in the future. The history of Zwarte Piet is unclear, but it’s clear that it’s a favorite tradition in the Netherlands.

As a traveler, have you ever experienced cultural traditions that you’ve found shocking or offensive? How did you deal with it? Conversely, should a tradition be changed to be more in line with the times or is tradition tradition?

Photo Credit: Photo 1 from Flickr user zoetnet. Photo 2 from flickr user hans s. Cover photo via flickr user pasukaru76. All are licensed via a creative commons license.

Photo: Dance Mask

June 30, 2011 By Jillian

Sometimes a museum almost has to be visited. That’s how we ended up in this coca museum in Puno, Peru dedicated to coca and….Andean festival costumes.

The masks in the museum were incredibly diverse and colorful and are often used for religious celebrations. Fortunately small cards described the festival associated with each mask. Perhaps most interesting is that the masks often represent characters or symbolize human characteristics associated with the holiday. It reminded me of Italy’s tradition of Commedia delle Arte, where masks represent characters that have their own individual personalities.

Many of the masks represented religious holiday festivals, some of the most lavish and decorated related to the Diablada, a famous dance from Bolivia that celebrates Virgin of Socavón. Masked dancing in the region dates back to pre-Colombian times, however the celebrations have changed with the times and are now most often associated with Catholic saint’s days and festivals.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Unfortunately we weren’t in the area for the famous dancing festivals. It would have been great to check out the masks used in a parade, but alas we had to settle for a museum. If you are interested in other festivals and holidays full of pagentry, color, music and dance, check out holidays in Dominican Republic where festivals happen all year round.

The sacrifice is real

May 30, 2011 By Jillian

Over the centuries countries and civilizations have erected hundreds of war memorials. To either glorify victories (Arc de Triomphe in Paris) or remembered the fallen (Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC) these memorials seem as ubiquitous as the human experience.

On our trip around the world we saw discrete memorials to fallen soldiers by the side of the road in Georgia, huge memorials to those lost in war in India and even modern graffiti marking for all eternity a life lost due to conflict. Some poignant, others grandiose, the memorials and monuments all commemorate and celebrate the lives of those who have given it all for their country.

Many countries take a day to commemorate these lives; in the U.S, we observe the last Monday of May as Memorial Day. There are parades, bar-b-ques, mattress and car sales, and for all the flag waving and ketchup pouring you’d hardly know at all that this holiday is a solemn one. As a child I looked forward to the holiday as a three day weekend and my memories are of parades full of high-school bands, scouts, civic leaders and older war veterans. As time goes on, I realize that some of those veterans are now my age, and many who have died in our recent conflicts are younger than I. Despite the fact that I have several family members in the military, I have been fortunate enough never to have lost a love one to war. I had no experience to draw on until this year.

Last summer in Berlin we met an Iraqi girl who had fled her homeland since the fall of Saddam. Almost immediately I was put in a position to defend the actions of my country. Almost immediately the military situation that had been flickering on the TV for so many years became tangible and real. It was real. It is real.

Whether you are in the U.S. or not today, take a second to consider the sacrifice of those who have lost their lives to war.

They are not a thing of the past, they are very real.

Books: International Women’s Day

March 8, 2011 By Jillian

Admittedly I hadn’t heard of International Women’s Day before traveling overseas. It’s not commonly celebrated in the USA, shocking considering the idea for a women’s day started with our women’s rights and suffragette movements over 100 years ago.

How easily we forget.

At any point in time, there are regions in the world undergoing political or social upheaval. Right now our global focus has been on the Middle East. Although we’ve focused our attention on the political change, one of the emerging stories is the social and cultural changes taking place, especially regarding women. Recently I read Paradise Beneath Her Feet, by Isobel Coleman, a book about how women are changing the Greater Middle East. Fitting given current political and social situation, the book traces the rise of the Islamic Feminism movement and its growing impact.

It is easy to stereotype and assume that veiled women are oppressed by their religion, but Coleman dispels these misconceptions and stereotypes. The premise of her book is that much of the gender oppression we see in Islam is not part of the Qur’an. Coleman tells an inspiring and engaging story about how religion is being used to improve the status of women in five of perhaps the most misunderstood societies in the world: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It’s a interesting look at a fascinating topic and it broadened my thinking about Islam and the strive for gender equality.

We’ve forgotten how many people still strive for gender equality in this world. As we go about our daily business we forget that there are women out there who aren’t allowed to drive, don’t have access to working outside their home and have little access to formal education. We forget that women fortunate enough to have access to formal education might live in a society where higher education is frowned upon or where they might not have the freedom to express themselves. We forget that these women could have easily been us. These women live in countries all over the globe. They come from all sorts of religions, ethnic groups and backgrounds. Their lives are shaped not necessarily by the choices they make, but by the choices that are made for them.

How easily we forget.
International Women’s Day is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. You can find more information about global celebrations at: http://www.internationalwomensday.com.

If you’re interested in reading Paradise Beneath Her Feet, check it out (it’s on sale) on Amazon!

Best Cities Across the World to Celebrate Christmas

A Christmas Controversy

Photo: Dance Mask

The sacrifice is real

Books: International Women’s Day

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