I sat under the fragrant pine trees today sifting though hundreds of pages of Christmas traditions for this year's edition of "Peace Christmas Crackers". I came across dozens of interesting traditions that I had never heard of before. I don't want to spoil the surprises for those of you who are ordering the Peace Crackers this year but here are a couple to give you an idea of the variety ...
In the Congo, the play is the thing! Weeks before Christmas, a group in the community is selected to prepare the annual Christmas Eve pagent. These plays take part in the churches beginning early in the evening with the story of creation from Genesis, continuing on through the bible until the birth of Christ which is timed to take place as close to midnight as possible with the play finally coming to a conclusion some time around 1 a.m.! The plays are enacted with a lot of joy and fun with actors 'hamming' it up with great effect and to the delight of the audience. In some communities this is followed with singing which continues on until dawn.
"Mbotama Malamu" - Merry Christmas in the Lingala language of the Congo.
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In Argentina where Christmas weather is warm and there is no snow, some people like to hang cotton balls from trees to give the impression of holiday snow!
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In Bangladesh, Christian village men cut down scores of banana trees planting them in pairs along paths to the churches, bending over the huge leaves to form arches. Large bamboo poles drilled with holes and filled with oil are laid over top the arches and lit before church services offering a lit path.
These are just a few of the many, many traditions which will be included in this year's Peace crackers and in coming years. I am almost glad that I lost all the intitial activity pages for them as this year's edition is SO much better!PEACE CHRISTMAS CRACKERS: http://crackers.gilliancards.com/Peace.htm
Cheers Everyone!
♥♥
from your Chief Cracker Elf,
Gillian
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