Christmas
Cultural Notes
The word ‘Christmas’ in English comes from ‘Christ’ and ‘mass’. A mass was
celebrated to commemorate his birth.
On Christmas eve, children hang long socks or stockings at the end of their beds or over the fireplace so that Father Christmas can fill them with small gifts. Many people go a midnight service at church. People do not generally celebrate with a special meal on this evening and the presents are usually left to be opened on Christmas Day.
The typical Christmas meal in Both the UK and the USA is roast turkey with stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, apple sauce. The dessert varies more nowadays but was traditionally a rich, fruit pudding which was steamed for about 8 hours and served with custard.
Another British Christmas tradition are crackers ( small cylinders of cardboard wrapped in brightly coloured paper which is twisted at the ends to form the shape of an enormous sweet). These are set on the table and during the Christmas dinner, they are pulled from both ends by two people. There is a bang and the crackers split in two, releasing a paper hat, a small toy and a joke.
26th December is also an official holiday called Boxing Day. Traditionally people took presents to their friends in pretty boxes and this has give the name to the day,
31st December is called New Year’s Eve.