'Tis the season for Sinter Klaas, le Revellion, Sheng Dan Jieh - international Christmas celebrations

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 19, 1994 | by Fyllis Hockman

People around the world celebrate the Christmas season with a mixture of reverence and revelry, from the midnight Mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris to the Holy Birth Festival in China.

For some children, Santa Claus doesn't come in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, land on a housetop and clamber down the chimney. Instead, St. Nicholas arrives by ferryboat clad in a bishop's robe and miter and delivers presents astride a snow-white horse.

This is Christmas in the Netherlands, one of many places throughout the world where holiday traditions differ from those in the United States. Still, the season is celebrated with the same combination of reverence and revelry, fun and frenzy. And while Christmas to many is synonymous with home and family, to others it's an opportunity to travel and experience the customs of other countries.

Those who visit the Netherlands find themselves in the land of Sinter Klaas, a legendary Dutch figure based upon a stately fourth-century bishop. Emigrants from Holland brought the tradition of Sinter Klaas with them to the colonies. Later, the British introduced Father Christmas - the merry, roly-poly figure we know today - who merged with Sinter Klaas and came to be known by the anglicized version of the Dutch name.

In few other places is Christmas observed with more merriment and custom than in England. Since the first celebration (in 521 at King Arthur's court, so the story goes), castles and more modest homes have resounded with feasting and merrymaking. Despite the legacy of Ebenezer Scrooge, England is the land of caroling, plum pudding and the Christmas goose. After dinner, millions of the queen's subjects gather around their televisions to hear her address the realm - a custom begun by King George V in 1932.

Across the channel, inside the towering halls of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, midnight worshipers fervently clasp their hands in prayer. But outside the cathedral's doors, the scene is far different. Parisians and visitors mingle in the square; mimes, jugglers and other sidewalk performers entertain; and restaurants lining the winding streets resonate with boisterous sounds and emit tempting aromas.

French tradition dictates attendance at midnight Mass, followed by le Revellion, a Christmas Eve supper available at many restaurants. Menus feature entrees native to the birthplace of the chef: oysters and foie gras from Paris, turkey and chestnuts from Burgundy, buckwheat cakes from Brittany. Whatever the main course, the meal ends with buche de Noel - a log-shaped cake decorated with meringue mushrooms, holly leaves, red berries and snowmen, inspired by the traditional yule log.

The celebration of Christmas lasts nine days in Mexico, highlighted by an elaborate Nativity play in which friends and families, acting out assigned parts, parade through the community recreating the famous journey of Mary and Joseph. After being "rejected" at several "inns," they finally find one to give them lodging. There, a traditional supper awaits, along with pinatas filled with fruits, candies and toys for the children.

On Christmas Eve, however, the eyes of the world turn toward a small town in Israel, where people of many faiths come together to worship. Midnight Mass in Bethlehem is celebrated at separate altars by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian congregations in the Church of the Nativity - built centuries ago on the spot where Jesus is said to have been born. Choirs that have traveled to Bethlehem from around the world sing carols and hymns in the village square.

Even there, at the most holy of Christmas sites, religious observances share the spotlight with more secular festivities. Streets, shops and homes are brightly decorated. Many restaurants remain open around the clock. And tourists flock to the post office to send letters and cards bearing special Christmas postmarks.

Still, some countries only recently have begun celebrating Christmas. The holiday was unknown in China, for example, until about a century ago. Today, about 1 percent of the population celebrates Sheng Dan Jieh, or Holy Birth Festival. The Chinese Christmas tree, called the tree of light, is decorated with chains, lanterns, flowers and balls all made of paper and hung with mobiles that reflect Chinese kites and pagodas. Children hang muslin stockings with the hope that Lan Khaong Khoong - Nice Old Father - will fill them with goodies.