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Celebrating Renewal: The Cape Minstrel Carnival of South Africa

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

“Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights,”  says Lonely Planet and true to their heart, festivals and the grandiose celebrations that accompany them give the most bang for the buck when traveling.

A Rite of Renewal

At a glance, the Cape Minstrel Carnival, or the Kaapse Klopse is a reminder of the violent past that the blacks have endured in South Africa. The very work of a minstrel, the idea of which originated in the United States, involved comically impersonating the African slaves and the way they move. Eventually, talented Africans decided to instate a carnival in Cape Town and elsewhere in South Africa. It was something that would celebrate their culture,

The Carnival has had a tumultuous history: it has been banned, reinstated and reorganized under different names since it started roughly 200 years ago. As late as 2011, the Carnival was banned because of noise and disturbance, but was brought back due to widespread protests from cultural supporters, as well as the minstrels themselves. Today, people have come to see this festival as a renewal of sorts.

Join the amusement and the thrill of the carnival with the Minstrels in South Africa. Book now.

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Summer Travel Planning: Choosing the Hotel

This article is originally from Independent Traveler. 

Choosing the right hotel is always a trying task, and with the enormous number of promotions, deals and programs out there, it can be downright overwhelming. It doesn’t help that these days most hotels have Web sites full of tantalizing photos and slick promotional copy that make you believe you’ll be bathed in luxury as soon as you step foot into the lobby. How can you tell if a hotel will live up to its own hype — and, more importantly, if it’s the right hotel for you?

Since every traveler has different needs when searching for a hotel, you’ll need to ask yourself what’s most important to you. Whether you’re looking for a great deal, a great location or a great B&B, we’ve broken down the hotel selection process to make it easier for you to find the best hotel for your trip.

What Matters Most? Before beginning your search, ask yourself what type of accommodations you want and what your budget will permit. Does location trump price, or are you limited to hotels under $150 a night? Do you need a hotel with a spa and fitness center, or would you rather stay at a small property with lots of local charm?

Once you’ve decided on your top priority, then you can make a more targeted search. Following are the most common determining factors in choosing a hotel, as well as tips for finding properties that suit each particular need.

Price: Nearly every major booking engine gives you the option to sort your results by price. Don’t limit yourself to the big three (Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz) — you should also pay a visit to other booking sites like Kayak.com, Venere.com and Hotels.com. And don’t forget to check our very owndiscount hotel deals!

Tip: Use the booking engines to see what’s available and test rates at the properties you’re interested in, and then go straight to the hotel’s Web site to book directly — most hotels guarantee you the lowest rate when you book on their site, and will match a lower price you find elsewhere.

If price is your only concern, you may want to try bidding on Priceline.com, where you won’t see the name of your hotel (only the star rating) until you’ve actually booked it. Another useful site to try is Tingo.com, which will automatically rebook you and refund your money if the rate at your hotel drops after you’ve booked. (To learn more about Tingo, see Want a Hotel Refund? Yes. Please.)

For further advice on landing a cheap deal, check out Get the Best Hotel Rate.

Location: All the major booking sites allow you to view search results on a map so you can see which ones are right on the beach or in the neighborhoods you prefer. Most also have the extra capability of searching for and mapping a hotel in relation to a particular point of interest, such as Times Square or the San Diego Zoo. Good old-fashioned guidebooks are another useful source for finding hotels in a certain location, as hotels are often listed by neighborhood and plotted on a city map.

 What Not to Do at Your Hotel

Ambience and Local Flavor: If you’d rather avoid the big chains, you’re in luck — there are many B&B’s, inns and small independent hotels that don’t appear on the major booking engines. However, finding them can take a little time and ingenuity, as Traveler’s Ed explains in Finding Hidden Hotel Hideaways. For a roundup of non-hotel lodging, including everything from vacation rentals to monasteries, see Ditch the Hotel: 10 Alternative Ways to Stay. And if you’re looking for something truly different — like a treehouse or a cave hotel — take a browse through UnusualHotelsoftheWorld.com.

Amenities: Most of the major hotel booking engines allow you to specify certain amenities when you’re searching, such as a fitness center, swimming pool or restaurant. Travelocity makes the process easier by allowing you to compare up to four hotels side by side so you can easily weigh such factors as star ratings, amenities, rates and room types.

Luxury: If you’re looking for a truly upscale and distinctive place to stay, you’ll find the creme de la creme in groups like the Leading Hotels of the World, the Five Star Alliance and Boutique Hotels & Resorts International.

Loyalty Programs and Frequent Flier Miles: If you travel a lot or if you’re a member of a frequent flier program, it may be worth your while to join a hotel loyalty program. Not only can you earn points toward a future hotel stay, but you may also be able to accumulate airline miles if your hotel is partnered with your frequent flier program. Check your hotel or airline Web site to see a list of qualifying partners. Many programs also allow you to redeem points for other purchases, such as cruises, car rentals and entertainment. For more information, see Seven Smart Reasons to Join a Hotel Rewards Program.

Eco-Friendliness: Travelers who are looking to minimize their environmental impact can search for green hotels through a number of organizations, including Green Globe and the Green Hotels Association. You can find a comprehensive list in our Go Green Travel Center.

Family-Friendliness: If you’re bringing the kids, you’ll want to check for both special deals and family-friendly policies. Your first stop for family hotel and resort reviews should be our sister site,FamilyVacationCritic.com. For bargains, check out Family Vacation Critic’s family travel dealsand our own family deals.

Real Life Experiences Few of us book a hotel these days without checking out reviews written by fellow travelers on sites like TripAdvisor, VirtualTourist and the big booking engines. This is where you can learn the truth about how friendly the staff is, how clean the rooms are and whether the Wi-Fi actually works.

Many review sites also allow users to post photos of their hotel — which are usually more realistic and less glamorous than the professional snapshots you’ll see on the hotel’s own Web site. Another good source of undoctored photos: Oyster.com, whose eye-opening Photo Fakeouts contrast marketing photos with candid shots of what the hotel really looks like.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to take traveler reviews with a certain degree of skepticism. Overly fawning reviews may actually have been written by hotel employees in disguise, while some negative reviews may come from super-fussy travelers who simply have an ax to grind. But despite the occasional misleading review, most traveler ratings are an honest, unbiased and invaluable resource when deciding between hotels.

 Poll: How Do You Choose a Hotel?

Another way to get feedback from other travelers is by posting on our message boards. When asking for advice and recommendations, be specific about what you’re looking for. Do you have any special requests, such as a view or kid-friendly accommodations? Do you need a queen-size or king-size bed? Do you want something close to town or in the country? The more explicit you can be about what you really want, the better chance you’ll have of finding something you’ll be happy with.

Pick Up the Phone These days you can do most of your research on the Internet, but sometimes it still pays to pick up the phone. Calling a hotel directly, rather than dialing a chain’s main 800 number, might get you a room at the last minute or during peak travel times.

National reservations desks often have a cap on the number of rooms they can fill at any given hotel, with the rest left to the hotel’s own staff. Those working at the front desk have a better sense of the hotel’s capacity and will be more likely to check for cancellations or no-shows. Whomever you call, having a list of prepared questions will help you. Avoid calling in the morning or mid-afternoon, when front desks are busiest. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Does one side of the hotel have a better view or less noise?

Is the hotel near public transportation?

Is there a restaurant, and is breakfast included in your rate?

How far is the hotel from the beach/theater/meeting/convention center/highway?

How safe is the neighborhood?

What is the hotel’s cancellation policy?

Does the hotel offer smoking/nonsmoking rooms?

What are the hotel’s environmental policies?

What facilities are there for the disabled?

If you are overseas or in a bed and breakfast, ask if there are shared bathrooms or showers, and how many there are per room. Also, ask about air-conditioning and where to make meal arrangements. Keep in mind that if you’re not dealing with a known chain, user ratings and guidebook reviews are suddenly even more important — and you should always ask about special packages and rates.

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An unlikely celebration: Voodoo Festival in Benin

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

“Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights,”  says Lonely Planet and true to their heart, festivals and the grandiose celebrations that accompany them give the most bang for the buck when traveling.

Not what you think

Despite the negative and vile connotation of the word voodoo, Benin’s Voodoo Festival is not a  one-day let’s-curse-our-enemies “celebration.” It is indeed a true celebration of a valid religion called Voodoo, and, save for some nail-ridden voodoo dolls that will inevitably show up during the feast, it is a wonderful festival worth seeing in the African country of Benin.

Ranked as one of the Five African Festivals not to be missed, the Voodoo Festival gives so much insight and color to the culture of people outside our own:

Benin might not be an oft-beaten path, and traveling to this country to witness Voodoo Festival makes it all the more exciting. Book now.

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Remembering the Roots: Junkanoo Festival of the Bahamas

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

“Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights,”  says Lonely Planet and true to their heart, festivals and the grandiose celebrations that accompany them give the most bang for the buck when traveling.

Looking back

Junkanoo started as a festival that commemorates the African roots of the then slaves of the West Indies (the islands in the Caribbean, to which the Bahamas, as well as Jamaica, belong). Around Christmas Day during the 16th and 17th century, the African slaves would be given a holiday when they can celebrate with their families the holidays with African music, dancing and costumes. After the slaves were freed the tradition of celebrating during the holiday season continued.

Today, Junkanoo is one of the most colorful, most frenzied and loudest festivals in the world. Starting early morning at 2:00 a.m., the frenzy of music, dance and colorful parade floats wow tourists from across the globe. Junkanoo is also host to one of the fiercest competitions related to a feast. Lonely Planet writes,

Many marchers spend all year planning their costumes, keeping their designs a carefully guarded secret. Junkanoo is fiercely competitive and many marchers belong to ‘shacks’, groups that vie to produce the best performance, costume, dancing and music. Amid the many shacks, four major groups – the Valley Boys, Saxons Superstars, Roots and One Family – compete for the grand prize.

The Bahamas, and the wonderful Junkanoo festival is just one booking away.

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Pit, Senyor! Sinulog Festival of the Philippines

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

“Festivals are a living, dancing museum of cultures and traditions in an increasingly globalised world. There is no better place for travellers to understand a country than an event where it proudly celebrates its individuality, whether through music, camel races or monumental food fights,”  says Lonely Planet and true to their heart, festivals and the grandiose celebrations that accompany them give the most bang for the buck when traveling.

Like water flowing

Sinulog Festival, like the Ati-Atihan of Aklan, celebrates the Sto. Nino or the Child Jesus. (Actually, there are three main Visayan festivals that celebrate the Sto. Nino: Ati-Atihan, Sinulog and Dinagyang). It is a commemorative celebration that remembers the first time Filipinos accepted Christianity as their religion. It is marked by a whole day of colorful and graceful celebration filled with dances and tributes to the Sto. Nino from all across the Philippines.

Sinulog came from the Cebuano adverb sulog, which denotes the way the celebrants dance during the festival. It means “like water flowing,” and describes the forward-backward movement of the dance. Here’s an amusing trivia about the dance:

The Sinulog dance steps are believed to originate from Rajah Humabon’s adviser, Baladhay. It was during Humabon’s grief when Baladhay was driven sick. Humabon ordered his native tribe to bring Baladhay into a room where the Santo Niño was enthroned, along with the other pagan gods of the native Cebuanos. After a few days passed, Baladhay was heard shouting and was found dancing with utmost alertness. Baladhay was questioned as to why was he awake and shouting. Pointing to the image of the Santo Niño, Baladhay explained that he had found on top of him a small child trying to wake him and tickling him with the midrib of the coconut. Greatly astonished, he scared the child away by shouting. The little child got up and started making fun of Baladhay. In turn, Baladhay danced with the little child and explained that he was dancing the movements of the river. To this day, the two-steps forward, one-step backward movement is still used by Santo Niño devotees who believe that it was the Santo Niño’s choice to have Baladhay dance.

Don’t miss the celebration. Book now for a flight to Cebu and celebrate!

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Travel Planning: Choosing the Destination

This article was first published in Essential Travel UK.

Travelling for pleasure is an explorer’s dream. We spend months saving up, checking flights and mulling over travel sites. But what happens when you have the cash to travel and the time to spare, but no idea where to go? A surprising number of travellers have faced this question at least once in their lives. So here are a few things to consider if you’re unsure about where to go on your next adventure.

Budget

There are certain things that we just can’t do without money. But travel doesn’t necessitate a large amount of cash. There are professional travellers who will tell you that all it takes is some thrifty planning and choosing the right destination. It’s important to let your budget guide your decision because you won’t be able to enjoy your trip if you’re constantly counting pennies.

If you’re travelling on a shoestring, head for the diversity of developing countries – they’ll appreciate your hard-earned money. Backpacker-friendly destinations, like Southeast Asia, are ideal. While flights often aren’t flexible (I can see those professional travellers smirking with their secret tips for discount flights), accommodation, on the other hand, can certainly be chosen to cater to your budget. Travel expenses will differ at various times of the year, so consider travelling in low season to extend your budget as far as possible. It will also mean being able to avoid crowds of tourists, and will allow you to go with the flow instead of booking all your accommodation and transport in advance just to secure a spot.

If budget isn’t really a factor right now, count yourself lucky and keep on reading.

Exchange Rate

A country’s exchange rate and general cost of living goes hand-in-hand with your budget. With the British Pound sitting comfortably at the top of the economic food chain, travelling on the Sterling puts you in good stead no matter where you go. If it’s a toss up between a few different destinations, check out the current exchange rate and try to find out the price of local goods - like a loaf of bread, a meal at a restaurant and maybe a beer. It should give you a better idea about whether you’re heading in the right direction.

Time

That old saying, time is of the essence needs to be given its fair credit. There are a few time factors that need to be considered when planning your trip. How much time do you have in total? How much of that do you want to spend en route, there and back? Are you looking at going to one location and staying there, or would you like to move around as much as possible? There are some cities – and even countries – that lend themselves to shorter trips. They’re usually easy to navigate and they boast pretty good public transport systems. However, there are other places where you may need to spend a little more time. It’s understandable that you want to see as much of the country as possible, but make sure you don’t end up rushing from place to place in an attempt to ‘tick all the boxes’. You could end up missing out on important experiences. Is it quality or quantity you’re after? You may have to sacrifice one, depending on your budget and time.

Type Of Trip

If you’ve spent quite a bit of time saving for your travels, you’ve probably already imagined what type of trip you’d like to have. Is it lazy days on the beach, a rowdy snowboarding trip with mates, or a cultural experience in a developing country? Knowing what you’re looking for will help narrow down your options of where to go. And while you’ve probably come across the most popular destinations countless times, a little research may expose a whole new world of alluring travel destinations.

Visas And Vaccinations

However unpleasant they may be, visas and vaccinations are a very real part of travelling. Make sure to check the requirements for both before you book your tickets. While neither of these should deter you from travelling anywhere, they may just play a role in helping you decide where you’d like to go, especially if your time is limited or you’ve decided to travel at the last minute.

Cultural Considerations

Travel demands a certain open-mindedness and desire to explore the unknown. I’m not saying that hanging out at British pubs on your travels is a waste of a trip, but if it’s something you do back home often, then maybe it’s time to broaden your experiences. Our pre-conceptions greatly affect the type of travelling that we do. They can mean the difference between a holiday abroad and an extraordinary travel experience – and yes, there is a difference. It just depends what you’re going for. Either way, culture is something to bear in mind when planning. Foreign languages, exotic cuisine and diverse customs will play as big or small a role in your travels as you see fit. Do some research on the countries that you’re looking at travelling to – especially considering the local mores and laws – and take it from there. Travelling can be more than just visiting a new place, it can be a life changing experience, but you have to be open to something a little different.

Weather

We can’t control the weather. There’s always the chance that your week in the Philippines will be accompanied by torrential floods, with any ideas of long days at the beach being washed away and replaced by even longer days in sheltered pubs. Don’t despair, that’s half of the excitement of travelling – we can plan as much as we like, but we never really know what we’ll experience.

That being said, knowing which season best suits you will at least narrow down your options to one hemisphere. After that, consider what climate you’re after and you should have a handful of destinations to choose from. Having a look at annual weather patterns will also help. With many weather sites being able to provide 14-day forecasts, you can get a general idea of what you’re in for with enough time to change plans if need be.

Events And Activities

With all the serious things considered, you’re left with just the fun stuff. Maybe there’s a festival you’ve always wanted to go to, or some other event that would definitely be worth the trip. Or maybe you’ve heard about some tiny Pad Thai restaurant on a Thai Island that only seats six and encourages people to write on the walls, and you’d really like to experience it. Follow your heart.

While many of us will agree that travel is something of a luxury, don’t let yourself get stressed about choosing a destination. Pros and Cons lists still work surprisingly well and if all else fails, throw a dart at a map and just go for it.

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Viva, Nazareno: The Feast of the Black Nazarene

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

Festivals are a kind of such invaluable reward for traveling. More often than not, tourists travel to festivals because of the festivals themselves - not the beautiful place or the amazing food, but the wonderful showcase of humanity and culture and art. The ecstasy of the heart beating together with the hurrays and cheers and whistles of the festival crowd is as satisfying as the awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon, or the auroras of the North.

Viva!

Today marks the commemoration of the feast of the Black Nazarene, an ebony statue that is housed in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene (otherwise known as the Quiapo Church) in Manila. Marked by utter and sacred devotion to the statue, hundreds of thousands of devotees flock the streets of Manila to get a gaze, or for the adventurous, a touch, of the statue during its day-long procession from the Quirino Grandstand back to the Quiapo Church. The whole festival is a passionate showcase of human devotion to the divine, and his complete trust to it for miracles and works of healing.

Arriving in the 17th century from Mexico, the Black Nazarene sculpture has long been an object of devotion for the people of Manila. While it can be attested that the statue is made of ebony, tradition says that the original statue caught fire, thus giving it its dark color. The statue’s translacion (‘passage’) or procession in the streets of Manila is attributed to the ascribed holiness of the statue. The myriad of devotees that attest to the healing powers of the statue makes it iconic even to non-devotees.

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A Festival of Calmness: Yamayaki in Japan

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

Festivals are a kind of such invaluable reward for traveling. More often than not, tourists travel to festivals because of the festivals themselves - not the beautiful place or the amazing food, but the wonderful showcase of humanity and culture and art. The ecstasy of the heart beating together with the hurrays and cheers and whistles of the festival crowd is as satisfying as the awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon, or the auroras of the North.

Serenity

The word ‘festival’ screams loud, frenzy, colorful and outrageous, but the Yamayaki Festival in Nara, Japan is just the opposite – it’s a serene commemoration of a historical event that torched Mt. Wakakusa-yama in times past. Says Lonely Planet:

Winter in the Japanese region of Kansai would seem a good enough excuse for one of the world’s biggest bonfires, but in Nara they point to history as the reason for setting alight an entire hill each year. The event commemorates a feud many centuries ago between the monks of two of Nara’s Buddhist temples – Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji – during which mediation went so badly that 342m Mt Wakakusa-yama ended up being torched. Today, in commemoration, a torch is lit with sacred fire at the Kasuga Taisha shrine, and carried by monks in a procession to the foot of Wakakusa-yama, where the hill is set on fire. It usually burns for around 30 minutes before a whizz-bang show of fireworks.

Aside from the festival itself, this event is worth visiting for the two aforementioned temples that are also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Japanese winter is not only sightly for the snow, but also for the Yamayaki festival. Book now.

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Hala Bira! Ati-atihan in the Philippines

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

Festivals are a kind of such invaluable reward for traveling. More often than not, tourists travel to festivals because of the festivals themselves - not the beautiful place or the amazing food, but the wonderful showcase of humanity and culture and art. The ecstasy of the heart beating together with the hurrays and cheers and whistles of the festival crowd is as satisfying as the awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon, or the auroras of the North.

Hala Bira, Pwera Pasma!

There’s no better place to look for frenzied festivals than our very own Philippines. Our archipelago of seven thousand and one hundred seven islands boasts many festivals honoring different patron saints in colorful and wildly ecstatic fiestas. There’s great food and excellent cultural showcase, and then there’s the Filipino brand of hospitality that’s famous the world over.

Happening this January, one of the Philippines’ globally-renowned feasts is the Ati-atihan, a festival in celebration of the Sto. Nino or the Child Jesus. Ati-atihan literally means “to be like the Aetas” or “to imitate the Aetas,” alluding to the origin of the feast which involved the Aeta people of Aklan.

When did Ati-atihan begin? It is believed that Ati-atihan originated during the 13th century, when Aetas of the Panay island started welcoming refugees from Borneo. The Aetas were so hospitable that when the time came that they were the ones who needed the help (they suffered famine), the new residents of the Panay Island from the lowlands (the refugees) readily helped them. In a gesture of gratitude, the Aetas danced and sang for them, starting a festivity that continues until today. When the Spanish came, the Sto. Nino was installed as the central symbol of the feast, breaking the animism that once prevailed in the country.

Visiting Aklan and seeing the Ati-atihan festival is a no-brainer. Book now.

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Blancos and Negros: The Blacks and Whites Festival of Colombia

Travel is a multi-faceted experience. At the outset, we seek for beautiful, awe-inspiring places, but more often than we not, we find ourselves wowed not only by the sights, but also by delightful food, exquisite culture and most surprisingly, vibrant humanity.

That humanity is diverse and vividly colorful gives us another reason to travel and see our world. We want to know how people that are not us do things – how they experience fun, how they cope with sadness and how they sing their songs. It’s a satisfying experience to see the world through the eyes of other people, and that alone is an invaluable reward of traveling.

Hurray!

Festivals are a kind of such invaluable reward for traveling. More often than not, tourists travel to festivals because of the festivalsthemselves – not the beautiful place or the amazing food, but the wonderful showcase of humanity and culture and art. The ecstasy of the heart beating together with the hurrays and cheers and whistles of the festival crowd is as satisfying as the awe-inspiring sight of the Grand Canyon, or the auroras of the North.

Black and white

One such festival (and occurring in January!) is Colombia’s Carnaval de Blancos y Negros, or Blacks and Whites’ Carnival. Why, black and white you say? According to Lonely Planet:

One of South America’s oldest festivals, Pasto’s piebald celebration dates back to the time of Spanish rule, when slaves were allowed to party on 5 January, with their masters showing approval by painting their faces black. In turn, the slaves painted their faces white the following day. The tradition is faithfully maintained, and on these two days the Nariño city goes wild, with everybody painting or dusting one another with grease, chalk, talc, flour and any other available substance even vaguely black or white in colour. You’re free to dust down whoever you like and, in turn, you can expect to be a mother’s nightmare of a mess by the carnival’s end.

With Fly It Easy’s excellent booking engine, you can buy tickets online even to Colombia to experience the Carnaval de Blancos y Negros.Book now.

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Counting Our Days: Where Did the Calendar Come From?

Have you ever wondered where the practice of dating and giving names to days, months, years and dates came from? Who invented the calendar? Is the calendar we are using today the same that people used in eras before us? Read the interesting article posted below from Web Exhibits about the calendar, plus some fun and interesting trivia about months and dates.

Before today’s Gregorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was admirably close to the actual length of the year, as it turns out, but the Julian calendar was not so perfect that it didn’t slowly shift off track over the following centuries. But, hundreds of years later, monks were the only ones with any free time for scholarly pursuits – and they were discouraged from thinking about the matter of “secular time” for any reason beyond figuring out when to observe Easter. In the Middle Ages, the study of the measure of time was first viewed as prying too deeply into God’s own affairs – and later thought of as a lowly, mechanical study, unworthy of serious contemplation.

As a result, it wasn’t until 1582, by which time Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days off course, that Pope Gregory XIII (1502 – 1585) finally reformed the Julian calendar. Ironically, by the time the Catholic church buckled under the weight of the scientific reasoning that pointed out the error, it had lost much of its power to implement the fix. Protestant tract writers responded to Gregory’s calendar by calling him the “Roman Antichrist” and claiming that its real purpose was to keep true Christians from worshiping on the correct days. The “new” calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

Here are a few more historical aspects of our calendar.

Has the year always started on 1 January?

Then what about leap years?

What is the origin of the names of the months?

How did Dionysius date Christ’s birth?

Was Jesus born in the year 0?

Why do the 9th thru 12th months have names that mean 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th?

Why does February have only 28 days?

Has the year always started on 1 January?

In some ways, yes. When Julius Caesar introduced his calendar in 45 B.C.E., he made 1 January the start of the year, and it was always the date on which the Solar Number and the Golden Number were incremented.

However, the church didn’t like the wild parties that took place at the start of the new year, and in C.E. 567 the council of Tours declared that having the year start on 1 January was an ancient mistake that should be abolished.

Through the middle ages various New Year dates were used. If an ancient document refers to year X, it may mean any of 7 different periods in our present system:

1 Mar X to 28/29 Feb X+11 Jan X to 31 Dec X1 Jan X-1 to 31 Dec X-125 Mar X-1 to 24 Mar X25 Mar X to 24 Mar X+1Saturday before Easter X to Friday before Easter X+125 Dec X-1 to 24 Dec X

Choosing the right interpretation of a year number is difficult, so much more as one country might use different systems for religious and civil needs.

The Byzantine Empire used a year starting on 1 Sep, but they didn’t count years since the birth of Christ, instead they counted years since the creation of the world which they dated to 1 September 5509 B.C.E.

Since about 1600 most countries have used 1 January as the first day of the year. Italy and England, however, did not make 1 January official until around 1750.

In England (but not Scotland) three different years were used:

The historical year, which started on 1 January.The liturgical year, which started on the first Sunday in advent.

The civil year, which

from the 7th to the 12th century started on 25 December,from the 12th century until 1751 started on 25 March,from 1752 started on 1 January.

→ See the British Calendar Act of 1751.

It is sometimes claimed that having the year start on 1 January was part of the Gregorian calendar reform. This is not true. This myth has probably started because in 1752 England moved the start of the year to 1 January and also changed to the Gregorian calendar. But in most other countries the two events were not related. Scotland, for example, changed to the Gregorian calendar together with England in 1752, but they moved the start of the year to 1 January in 1600.

Then what about leap years?

If the year started on, for example, 1 March, two months later than our present year, when was the leap day inserted?

When it comes to determining if a year is a leap year, since AD 8 the Julian calendar has always had 48 months between two leap days. So, in a country using a year starting on 1 March, 1439 would have been a leap year, because their February 1439 would correspond to February 1440 in the January-based reckoning.

What is the origin of the names of the months?

A lot of languages, including English, use month names based on Latin. Their meaning is listed below. However, some languages (Czech and Polish, for example) use quite different names.

How did Dionysius date Christ’s birth?

There are quite a few theories about this. And many of the theories are presented as if they were indisputable historical fact. The following are two theories that tend to be more accepted:

According to the Gospel of Luke (3:1 & 3:23) Jesus was “about thirty years old” shortly after “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” Tiberius became emperor in C.E. 14. If you combine these numbers you reach a birthyear for Jesus that is strikingly close to the beginning of our year reckoning. This may have been the basis for Dionysius’ calculations.

Dionysius’ original task was to calculate an Easter table. In the Julian calendar, the dates for Easter repeat every 532 years. The first year in Dionysius’ Easter tables is C.E. 532. Is it a coincidence that the number 532 appears twice here? Or did Dionysius perhaps fix Jesus’ birthyear so that his own Easter tables would start exactly at the beginning of the second Easter cycle after Jesus’ birth?

Was Jesus born in the year 0?

No.

There are two reasons for this:

There is no year 0.

Jesus was born before 4 B.C.E.

The concept of a year “zero” is a modern myth (but a very popular one). In our calendar, C.E. 1 follows immediately after 1 B.C.E. with no intervening year zero. So a person who was born in 10 B.C.E. and died in C.E. 10, would have died at the age of 19, not 20.

Furthermore, as described in section 2.14, our year reckoning was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century. Dionysius let the year C.E. 1 start one week after what he believed to be Jesus’ birthday. But Dionysius’ calculations were wrong. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was born under the reign of king Herod the Great, who died in 4 B.C.E.. It is likely that Jesus was actually born around 7 B.C.E.. The date of his birth is unknown; it may or may not be 25 December.

Why do the 9th thru 12th months have names that mean 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th?

September through December were the seventh through tenth months of a calendar used by the first Romans. Ancient historian and Greek biographer Plutarch, wrote in C.E. 75, about how they became displaced to two positions higher than their names would indicate.

→ Read excerpt of Plutarch’s essay.

→ Read more about the early Roman calendar.

Why does February have only 28 days?

January and February both date from about the time of Rome’s founding. They were added to a calendar that had been divided into ten month-like periods whose lengths varied from 20 to 35 or more days. A winter season was not included, so those period lengths are believed to have been intended to reflect growth stages of crops and cattle.

When introduced, January was given 29 days and put at the beginning of the calendar year. February was given 23 days and put at the end. Then, for an undetermined period shortly after Rome’s founding, months were said to have begun when a new moon was first sighted. At some later time, month lengths were separated from lunations and again became fixed. At that time, February’s original length was extended by five days which gave it a total of 28.

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New Year’s Eve: New York City

This article was originally published in timesquareball.net.

Each year, millions of eyes from all over the world are focused on the sparkling Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. At 11:59 p.m., the Ball begins its descent as millions of voices unite to count down the final seconds of the year, and celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.

History of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball

Revelers began celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year’s Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square. Seven versions of the Ball have been designed to signal the New Year.

The first New Year’s Eve Ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. It was built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, and for most of the twentieth century the company he founded, sign maker Artkraft Strauss, was responsible for lowering the Ball.

As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled “lobster palaces” and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers “1908” fashioned of tiny light bulbs. At the stroke of midnight, they all “flipped their lids” and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers “1908” on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the new year.

The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City. Nevertheless, the crowds still gathered in Times Square in those years and greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked at the base of the tower—a harkening-back to the earlier celebrations at Trinity Church, where crowds would gather to “ring out the old, ring in the new.”

In 1920, a 400 pound Ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original. In 1955, the iron Ball was replaced with an aluminum Ball weighing a mere 150 pounds. This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the “I Love New York” marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988. After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum Ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.

For Times Square 2000, the millennium celebration at the Crossroads of the World, the New Year’s Eve Ball was completely redesigned by Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting. The crystal Ball combined the latest in lighting technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.

In 2007, for the 100th anniversary of the Times Square Ball Drop tradition, Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting crafted a spectacular new LED crystal Ball. The incandescent and halogen bulbs of the past century were replaced by state-of-the-art Philips Luxeon LED lighting technology that dramatically increased the brightness and color capabilities of the Ball. This Ball is now on display at the Times Square Museum & Visitor Center.

The beauty and energy efficiency of the Centennial Ball inspired the building owners of One Times Square to build the permanent Big Ball weighing nearly six tons and twelve feet in diameter. The 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles are illuminated by 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs. This Big Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is now a year-round attraction sparkling above Times Square  in full public view January through December.

About “Time-Balls”

The actual notion of a ball “dropping” to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year’s Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first “time-ball” was installed atop England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o’clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument).

Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work. The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day – and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships’ captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide.

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New Year’s Eve: Australia

This article was originally published in 123newyear.com.

New Year is considered as a time of optimism by one and all, and Australia is no different. The whole of Australia engage itself in enthusiastic celebrations of New Year, with customs and traditions holding the core of it.

They follow the rule of Georgian calendar, and thus consider January 1 as the date and celebration of New Year. New Year celebrations are traditionally made over an extended period of six days, with January 6 being the last day of celebration.

New Year Celebration in Australia

No matter, whether one chooses to stay at home or come out, the mood of zest and celebrations of New Year remain on a constant high among people of Australia. Usually, with New Year being a public holiday, people along with their friends and families come out of their houses to be a part of the group celebrations as made at beautiful beaches, discotheques, pubs, clubs, hotels, and social parties organized for the purpose.

Celebrations with high degree of fervor all over the place continue for the first six days of New Year. The highly fervent New Year celebrations in Australia are world popular, which is the reason why Australia emerges to be the favorite tourist spot among visitors in and around the time of New Year.

Traditionally, people prefer to make a visit to the Church to offer their prayers to the supreme Lord. People along with their families make an early morning visit to the local or main Church to pray Lord in order to get confer with His blessings for the New Year. For the fact, the traditional customs of formally announcing the arrival of New Year is officially considered to take place with the twelve rings of the bell in the Church on the midnight of the New Year.

As soon as people hear the twelve rings, they mutually show their bliss by cheering and making noises through drums, trumpets, horns, and other musical instruments. It is followed by sharing of hugs, kisses, and wishes with all those who are present. Also, beautifully crafted show of fireworks, which take place at exactly the 00:00 hours of January 1, is something which people enthusiastically and eagerly wait for.

Major New Year Celebration Hubs in Australia

Though, the entire Australia celebrates New Year with customs and traditions with unparalleled degrees of happiness and joy, the New Year celebrations and parties as made out in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin are highly popular, more prominently for their grand celebrations and peculiar show of fireworks.

New Year in Sydney, Australia: Sydney hosts one of the most enthralling of New Year celebrations of the whole world. With the arrival of New Year, the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge is lit up with more than 80000 fireworks, creating an extraordinary and unforgettable experience for the spectators. The degree of firework is intense and extravagant to an extent that it can be viewed anywhere within the radius of 16 km. around Sydney.

The fireworks are perfectly string along with the soothing music, presented by a group of vocalists of Sydney Council. Another major attraction is the Sydney New Year beach party, along with other New Year parties thrown on the eve of New Year, in which people pleasantly engage in with activities such as bonfires and camping. A ride through a cruise is necessary to complete the New Year celebration experience in Sydney.

New Year in Melbourne, Australia : The Melbourne city of Australia is another major hub for celebrating New Year with an experience that remains etched in mind till the end of life. Melbourne is highly popular for the parties it throws on New Year’s Eve. Discotheques, pubs, hotels, and restaurants saw masses of people coming and becoming part of high energy parties, where arrangements are made for special buffets and exceptional dinners.

The famous rock bands performing across the Melbourne city add a complete new oomph to the New Year vigor. Another major attraction which one can’t afford to miss is the depiction of the Chinese-Australian rituals, as a part of which traditional practices of ‘sacrificing to ancestors’, are performed with dedication and enthusiasm in the China place in Melbourne.

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Redeeming ‘Santa Claus’

Santa Claus. He’s like the ever-popular avuncular figure of Christmas – jolly, kids-friendly and most importantly, generous. Be naughty, he’ll punish you by giving you no gift. Be nice, well, you know what that means. But who really is Santa Claus? Was he just invented? Was he a person of history. Find it out in the interesting selection below:

(The following article was originally posted at stnicholascenter.org)

How did the kindly Christian saint, good Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity? History tells the tale.

The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St. Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry, now known as Jacksonville. However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century ProtestantReformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success except in England where the religious folk traditions were permanently altered. (It is ironic that fervent PuritanChristians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.) Because the common people so loved St. Nicholas, he survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.

“New Year’s Hymn to St. Nicholas,” colonial Dutch life, Albany, NY. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, March 1881 St. Nicholas Center Collection

The first Colonists, primarily Puritans and other Protestant reformers, did not bring Nicholas traditions to the New World. What about the Dutch? Although it is almost universally believed that the Dutch brought St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam, scholars find scant evidence of such traditions in Dutch New Netherland. Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania kept the feast of St. Nicholas, and several later accounts have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years’ Eve, thus adopting the English custom (New Year gift-giving had become the English custom in 1558, supplanting Nicholas, and this English custom lasted in New York until 1847).

In 1773 New York non-Dutch patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas, primarily as a non-British symbol to counter the English St. George societies, rather than to honor St. Nicholas. This society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children’s gift-giver.

Detail from broadside by Alexander Anderson, December 6, 1810 St Nicholas Center Collection

After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride their colony’s nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, the influential patriot and antiquarian who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that same year, he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not the saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the source of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas: that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving’s work was regarded as the “first notable work of imagination in the New World.”

The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children’s treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, “Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I’ll serve you ever while I live.”

The 19th century was a time of cultural transition. New York writers, and others, wanted to domesticate the Christmas holiday. After Puritans and other Calvinists had eliminated Christmas as a holy season, popular celebrations became riotous, featuring drunken men and public disorder. Christmas of old was not the images we imagine of families gathered cozily around hearth and tree exchanging pretty gifts and singing carols while smiling benevolently at children. Rather, it was characterized by raucous, drunken mobs roaming streets, damaging property, threatening and frightening the upper classes. The holiday season, coming after harvest when work was eased and more leisure possible, was a time when workers and servants took the upper hand, demanding largess and more. Through the first half of the 19th century, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers and other Protestants continued to regard December 25th as a day without religious significance, a day for normal business. This was not a neutral stance, rather Christmas observance was seen as inconsistent with gospel worship. Industrialists were happy to reduce workers’ leisure time and allowed many fewer holidays than existed in Europe.

All of this began to change as a new understanding of family life and the place of children was emerging. Childhood was coming to be seen as a stage of life in which greater protection, sheltering, training and education were needed. And so the season came gradually to be tamed, turning toward shops and home. St. Nicholas, too, took on new attributes to fit the changing times.

Sante Claus The Children’s Friend, 1821 William B. Gilley, publisher

1821 brought some new elements with publication of the first lithographed book in America, theChildren’s Friend. This “Sante Claus” arrived from the North in a sleigh with a flying reindeer. The anonymous poem and illustrations proved pivotal in shifting imagery away from a saintly bishop.Sante Claus fit a didactic mode, rewarding good behavior and punishing bad, leaving a “long, black birchen rod . . . directs a Parent’s hand to use when virtue’s path his sons refuse.” Gifts were safe toys, “pretty doll . . . peg-top, or a ball; no crackers, cannons, squibs, or rockets to blow their eyes up, or their pockets. No drums to stun their Mother’s ear, nor swords to make their sisters fear; but pretty books to store their mind with knowledge of each various kind.” The sleigh itself even sported a bookshelf for the “pretty books.” The book also notably marked S. Claus’ first appearance on Christmas Eve, rather than December 6th.

The jolly elf image received another big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” now better known as “The Night Before Christmas.”

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .

1848 T. C. Boyd A Visit from Saint Nicholas Facsimile, St Nicholas Center Collection

1862 F. O. C. Darley A Visit from Saint Nicholas St Nicholas Center Collection

ca 1869 Thomas Nast Santa Claus and his Works First red suit for a Nast Santa St Nicholas Center Collection

Washington Irving’s St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem’s portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to Clement Clark Moore, a professor of biblical languages at New York’s Episcopal General Theological Seminary. Moore was a friend and neighbor of William Gilley, who had published Sancte Claus in 1821:

Old Santeclaus with much delight His reindeer drives the frosty night O’er chimney tops and tracks of snow To bring his yearly gifts to you. 

However, a case has been made by Don Foster in Author Unknown, that Henry Livingston actually penned it in 1807 or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who wrote it, the poem has had enormous influence on the Americanization of St. Nicholas.

1881 Thomas Nast Harper’s Weekly January 1, 1881 Val Berryman Collection

1905 Carl Stetson Crawford St. Nicholas for Young Folks Vol. XXXIII, No. 2 St Nicholas Center Collection

1908 E. Boyd Smith Santa Claus and All About Him

The New York elite succeeded in domesticating Christmas through a new “Santa Claus” tradition invented by Washington Irving, John Pintard and Clement Clarke Moore. Moore’s poem was printed in four new almanacs in 1824, just one year after it was in the Troy, New York, paper. The poem and other descriptions of the Santa Claus ritual appeared in more and more local papers. More than anything else, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” introduced the custom of a cozy, domestic Santa Christmas tradition to the nation.

Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, “Sancte Claus,” or “Santa Claus,” unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, during the Civil War, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper’s Weekly, based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving’s work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. Nast’s Santa supported the Union and President Lincoln believed this contributed to the Union troops’ success by demoralizing Confederate soldiers. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with appearance changes, the saint’s name shifted to Santa Claus—a natural phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus.

Churches, influenced by German immigrants who loved Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, the Oxford Movement in the Anglican church, and church musicians embracing carol singing, began to bring Christmas observances into their lives. The growth of Sunday Schools in cities exposed hundreds of thousands of children to Christianity. Initially oopposed to Christmas observance, by the 1850s Sunday Schools had discovered that a Christmas tree, Santa and gifts, greatly improved attendance. So, in a strange twist of fate, the new “secular” Santa Claus, no longer seen as a religious figure, helped return Christmas observance to churches.

1922 Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post December 2, 1922 Michigan State University Museum Used by permission

1925 N. C. Wyeth Old Kris The Country Gentleman Print: St Nicholas Center Collection

1925 J. C. Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post December 26, 1925 Michigan State University Museum Used by permission

Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. The image was solidified before Haddon Sundblom, in 1931, began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that further popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.

1931 Haddon Sundblom First Coca-Cola Santa Permission courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company

1939 Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post December 16, 1939

Print: St Nicholas Center Collection 1955 Haddon Sundblom Time December 12, 1955 St Nicholas Center Collection

This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wore the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, on billboards, and shop counters, encouraging Americans to see Coke as the solution to “a thirst for all seasons.” By the 1950s Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.

Nast Santa, Bishop Nicholas, Coke Santa, illustration by Renee Graef, A Special Place for Santa Roman, Inc., 1991. Permission pending.

It’s been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity to those in need, to America’s jolly Santa Claus, whose largesse often supplies luxuries to the affluent. However, if you peel back the accretions, he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.

There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore a spiritual dimension to this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.

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Did you know? Christmas Edition

Round-up! Here are some of the weirdest and most amusing Christmas facts around the world:

Late in the game. Ethiopia follows the ancient Julian calendar, so Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on January 7. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s celebration of Christ’s birth is called Ganna. It is a day when families attend church. Everyone dresses in white. Most Ethiopians don a traditional shamma — a thin, white cotton wrap with brightly colored stripes across the ends. Twelve days after Ganna, on January 19, Ethiopians begin the three-day celebration called Timkat, which commemorates the baptism of Christ. (from howstuffworks.com).

Quick pass to the mass. If you ever happen to be in Caracas, Venezuela early on Christmas morning you will find the streets closed to traffic as hundreds of people roller skate to mass. Sometimes kids will even tie a piece of rope to one of their toes and let it dangle out the window as they go to sleep the night before. On their way to church the next morning, skaters will tug at any rope they see hanging down from a window and the children will wake up to watch the spectacle. (from here and here)

Well, good luck with that! Christmas Eve in the Czech Republic is supposedly a single lady’s chance to find out what her future holds. Standing outside her front door if she throws a shoe over her shoulder and it lands with the toes pointing towards the door she’ll be married within the year. (from list25.com, also in myczechrepublic.com)

Light it up. In Sweden, the Christmas festivities begin on December 13 with St. Lucia’s Day, which celebrates the patron saint of light. The eldest daughter gets up before dawn and dresses as the “Queen of Light” in a long white dress. She wears a crown of leaves. Singing “Santa Lucia,” the Lucia Queen goes to every bedroom to serve coffee and treats to each member of the family. The younger children in the family help, too. The whole family helps to select the Christmas tree just a day or two before Christmas. (from howstuffworks.com)

Finger lickin’ good. A testament to KFC’s marketing team, they somehow managed to get the entire country of Japan to consider their chicken a holiday staple. It has become so popular in fact, that people sometimes have to reserve their buckets months in advance. (fromlist25.com)

Hohohoho? More like Hihihihi. Every year in Italy during the festival of Epiphany an old witch known as “La Befana” walks through the village streets giving gifts to children. (from list25.com)

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Christmas in the United States

This article was originally posted in whychristmas.com.

The United States of America has many different traditions and ways that people in celebrate Christmas, because of its multi-cultural nature. Many customs are similar to ones in the UK, France, Italy, Holland, Poland and Mexico.

The traditional meal for Western European families is turkey or ham with cranberry sauce. Families from Eastern European origins favour turkey with trimmings, keilbasi (a Polish sausage), cabbage dishes, and soups; and some Italian families prefer lasagne!

Some Americans use pop-corn threaded on string to help decorate their Christmas Tree!

In New England (the American States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine), there are shops called ‘Christmas Shops’ that only sell Christmas decorations and toys all the year round!

People in America like to decorate the outsides of their houses with lights and sometimes even statues of Santa Claus, Snowmen and Reindeer.

Towns and cities often decorate the streets with lights to celebrate Christmas. Perhaps the most famous Christmas street lights in the USA are at the Rockerfeller Center in New York where there is a huge Christmas Tree with a public ice skating rink in front of it over Christmas and the New Year.

In Hawaii, Santa is called Kanakaloka!

Customs such as Mumming take place in some communities. On New Year’s Day in Philadelphia there is a Mummer’s Day parade which lasts over six hours! Clubs called “New Years Associations” perform in amazing costumes which take months to make. There are four categories (Comics, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades) which are judged. You can find out more on the official website: www.phillymummers.com

In the Southwest USA, there are some special customs which have some similarities to those in parts of Mexico. These include ‘luminarias’ or ‘farolitos’ which are paper sacks partly filled with sand and then have a candle put in them. They are lit on Christmas Eve and are put the edges of paths. They represent ‘lighting the way’ for somewhere for Mary and Joseph to stay.

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Christmas in Japan

Christmas is not widely celebrated in Japan as not many people there are Christians. However, several customs have come to Japan from the USA such as sending and receiving Christmas Cards and Presents.

In Japan, Christmas in known as more of a time to spread happiness rather than a religious celebration. Christmas eve is often celebrated more than Christmas Day. Christmas eve is thought of as a romantic day, in which couples spend together and exchange presents. In many ways it resembles Valentine’s Day celebrations in the UK and the USA. Young couples like to go for walks to look at the Christmas lights and have a romantic meal in a restaurant – booking a table on Christmas Eve can be very difficult as it’s so popular!

Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, so schools and businesses are normally open on December 25th.

In Japanese Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Meri Kurisumasu’. And it’s written in the two Japanese scripts like this; Hiragana: めりーくりすます; Katakana: メリークリスマス. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.

Parties are often held for children, with games and dancing. Japanese Christmas Cake is a sponge cake decorated with trees, flowers and a figure of Santa Claus.

In Japan Santa is known as サンタさん、サンタクロース santa-san (Mr Santa). Another Japanese gift bringer is Hoteiosho, a Japanese god of good fortune from Buddhism and not really related to Christmas.

Fried chicken is often eaten on Christmas day. It is the busiest time of year for restaurants such as KFC and people can place orders at their local fast food restaurant in advance!

The traditional Japanese christmas food is christmas cake, but it’s not a rich fruit cake, but is usually a sponge cake decorated with strawberries and whipped cream.

The Japanese New Year (called ‘o shogatsu’) is more like a traditional Western Christmas. New year is the period where families get together, have a special meal, pray and send greetings cards. New year is celebrated over five days from December 31st to January 4th and is a very busy time.