PALMERSTON – Seniors’ Centre for Excellence program coordinator Helen Edwards welcomed over 50 seniors to the luncheon and program on Dec. 12 at the United Church in Palmerston.
Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) helpers Donna Green and Jenny Bryan greeted everyone at the door.
Donna Gingrich served a luncheon of glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, carrots, leaf salad with walnuts and cranberries, and hot cheese rolls with a fruit cup and Christmas cookies and squares for dessert.
Noreen Dempsey offered the grace.
Willa Wick of Harriston shared Christmas traditions from around the world.
She recalled her family picking out a tree set in the living room to decorate with bubbling bulbs and icicles, a must to this day.
They placed stockings on the couch for Santa to fill and were eager to unwrap homemade gifts found Christmas morning.
Wick, who has family all around the world, started the journey with Mexico, explaining how the holiday season starts in November and ends in February with prayer days, parades, feasts, plays and simple Nativity scenes.
In Italy, you would hear folklore songs, see live Nativity scenes, and watch Epiphany parades.
Mennonites in Ontario simplify the season, focusing on family and serving others, offering school concerts and social times filled with carols and sledding parties. The Amish enjoy making cards, setting candles in windows and carolling.
The aroma of ginger scents each home in Germany throughout the month of December, when they enjoy the gifts in the advent calendars, a Christmas goose and leaving shoes out for candy, hopefully not twigs.
People jump in the ocean in Granada, dance to a steel band, eat rum soaked cake, shop at pop-up gift shops and enjoy a parade celebrating the Three Kings.
In Japan, Christmas is not a religious holiday, however the people celebrate the Emperor’s birthday and view Christmas as a romantic holiday for couples in love, and time for feasting on Kentucky Fried Chicken.
In China, there is no religious connection to Dec. 25, but trees of light are decorated in the malls, gifts are given, popular carols are sung, and extravagant dressing stuffs the Christmas duck. The Chinese new year offers a more festive celebration.
The Netherlands welcomes St. Nicholas, who arrives with Black Peter on a ship from Spain. It is believed they offer gifts to good children and offer to take bad children back to Spain to learn how to behave. Later, a Finnish Santa arrives to help celebrate the church service and family meal.
People in Yugoslavia, Serbia and Croatia are influenced by western customs. They keep the Christmas log lit all night, bake a silver coin in a cake and display an advent wreath of joy.