A world of festive fun

It is beginning to feel decidedly festive in the Language Factory office, the decorations are up and cards from translators all over the world are brightening our desks.

Now is the time of year that we start to enquire about our translators' availability over the festive period but this year I have taken the opportunity to ask them about Christmas traditions in their native lands, not only so that I could share this with you but also because here at the Language Factory we are always on the look out for cultural traditions to adopt, particularly any of a culinary nature!

Well, it would seem the British Christmas has already acquired a few customs from around the globe. The Yule log, traditional in a Scandinavian Christmas, was originally an entire tree, specially selected so that it could be burnt slowly and last the twelve days of Yuletide, nowadays of course we find the most practical application of the symbol is in the form of a chocolate cake.

Two Mexican children, Maria and her younger brother Pablo are believed to have established the Poinsettia as a Christmas flower when on their way to visit a nativity scene they picked up some green branches growing on the roadside to give as an offering to the Christ Child. When the children laid the branches by the manger they are said to have sprouted the red star-shaped flower we now associate with Christmas.

Santa Claus in Brazil is recognised as Papai Noel who lives in Greenland and wears silk clothing on account of the heat!

The prize for the most impressive Christmas tradition has to go to the Venezuelans who attend an early Mass on each of the nine days leading to Christmas; in the capital Caracas it is customary to arrive on roller-skates and in some areas the roads are closed to cars before 8am to facilitate the tradition. During this period children in the capital tie one end of a long piece of string to their big toe before bed and hang the other out of the window, the roller-skaters tug on any string they see the following morning. (Christmas) hats off to Venezuela.

Wherever you are in the world and whatever traditions you are participating in we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

If you'd like to know more, please give us a call on +44 (0)1727 862722 or drop us an e-mail.

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