HolliDay Oddities #2

Continuing the Weird Christmas Traditions for your entertainment.

• Estonia: The whole family hits the sauna on Christmas Eve.
• Wales: 

  

  Mary Lwyd of Wales

  Mari Lwyd is known as the Christmas zombie horse. A horse skull is hoisted on a stick, decorated with ribbons, bells, and is draped in a white sheet (so its bearers are hidden). A group with the Mari Lwyd travels from door-to-door asking for food and drink in rhyme. Traditionally, the Mari group knocks on a door and sings a song requesting entry, and the homeowners counter-song with a song refusing entry or challenges and insults. The Mari Lwyd group and the homeowners then engage in a battle of wits, trading riddles until one side loses. If the Mari Lwyd group wins, they are allowed entry into the home and given food and drinks.
• Iceland: I like this one. If an Icelander doesn't get new clothes before Christmas, the killer mountain Yule cat eats them. 
• Czech Republic: Desperate for marriage it seems. Czech ladies throw a shoe over one shoulder from the door way. The direction the shoe is pointed determines if they'll be married in the coming year.
• Sweden: Authorities in the village of Gävle decided to install a straw goat statue in the town square. Every other year, somebody burns it down before Christmas. Both are fine traditions.
• Sweden (again): Rice pudding is standard fare for dessert. The Christmas special has an almond buried somewhere in it. The lucky person who finds it will supposedly get married within a year. I assume only single folks of marrying age have a go at the pudding.
• Great Britain: Speaking of puddings, tradition calls for each member of the household to stir the pudding in a clockwise direction while making a wish. I guess that's better than a lump of coal.
• Italy: A witch named Befana is the deliverer of presents to children (not that stodgy Santa). But the kids have to wait for the blessings of Befana until January 6th.
• Ethiopia: Christian Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on January 7th. Everybody wears white and the guys play ganna, a fast pace game of ... hockey?

More weird stuff coming here in the next few days. Don't forget the free ebooks today through the 25th. All free ebooks and their links are on this blog, so just look through the posts this month for that information.