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Celebrating Christ's birth for Christians presented a problem in that no one knows when Jesus was born. It almost certainly was not December. Christmas is celebrated on December 25 throughout Christendom, as the birth of Christ primarily because of the importance of Saturnalia, the ancient Roman festival in honor of Saturn the god of Agriculture, in Roman culture. Besides adopting some of the feartures of Saturnalia, there are many non-religious customs and practices which have developed over the years. These customs are in many cases peculiar to different countries. Germany has played an especially important role, in part because of the Christams traditions Prince Albert brought from Germany when he married Queen Victoria, many of which have since been past on to America. Many modern Christmas traditions are based on these English Victorian traditions. Here are the many Christmas traditions we knpow of around the world. So much of the Christmas tradition deals with the European ewinter and snow. Of course thatbhas nothing to do mwithn Jesus, nut thre Nativity is sert in cold weratherr. But it is all Something African children have never seen. Our information on Africa is very limited. We hope that HBC readers will tell us something about Christmas traditions in Africa.
We do not yet know much about Christmas celebrations in South Africa. Since South Africa is such a diverse country, we suspect that Christmas celebrations are also very diverse and vary greatly among the different ethnic groups. As a southern hemisphere country, Christmas occurs during the warm season. A reader tells us about a Christmas tradition in one community. Usually on Christmas we meet our family. So it can be sad for people without family. One group of children helps to bring a little cheer to old age pensioners. They help out at a pensioners Christmas party.
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