Christmas traditions around the world

In my home country in Italy, Christmas is mainly about family and good food. We often start cooking days in advance and enjoy everything from December 24 to 26, and sometimes even days after, thanks to all the leftovers. Each region has its own specialties, like tortellini, cannelloni, lasagna, or parmigiana. One tradition I’ve always liked, tied to New Year’s Eve, is eating as many lentils as possible right at midnight: the more you eat, the richer you’re supposed to be in the coming year.

In my home country, we celebrate festivals from numerous religions - far more than the average European might realize exist. That does mean that Christmas becomes one of the many festivals I would celebrate. However, as a kid I could look really forward to it because SANTA! Typically, I would go to the city centre with my parents to have a look at the shops decorated for Christmas along with Santa-clauses distributing candies. If it wasn’t too crowded we would also quickly visit the church there.

We have a special Christmas tradition in my family: My whole family, including uncles, aunts, cousins and even friends that want to join, usually meet at least once before Christmas to sing Christmas songs. We actually used to do this every Advent Sunday.

This is difficult to answer for me: In China, we usually celebrate the New Year instead of Christmas. My main impression of Christmas in China is actually the nice discounts in the shops. Instead, let me share my favorite Christmas experience with you: joining the online Christmas party of my research group in 2021. Because of Covid, the party that year was held online. I remember that instead of meeting in person, everyone had a virtual character, almost like in the game Stardew Valley. You could walk up to someone and open your camera, and it gave a similar feeling to an on-site celebration. I attended the online party from the apartment of one of my colleagues, together with some other people from the group. Although I had only joined the group for one month at that time, I felt the warmth and togetherness of our team, so it was a wonderful start to my PhD journey.