Our EOTO activity for today was to visit a café together. We went to a cute café called the Hidden, located in the city centre of Tampere. As we were talking about Christmas plans and Lapland, our conversation naturally steered towards Traditions, our topic of the day.
In Germany, Christmas is celebrated on December 24. In the Allgäu region, they also have a very big party, where Katja always goes to with her friends. December 24 is their staple Christmas day, where you are mostly with your direct family, and eat a traditional food called Würstchen mit Kartoffelsalat (Sausage with potato salad). The following day can be celebrated with the rest of the family and sometimes even friends, whereas December 26 is more of a “normal” day.
On Curaçao and The Netherlands, we celebrate Christmas on December 25 and 26. Ofcourse, we are already in festive spirits since early December, and already eat and celebrate on 24. But, our official days are 25 and 26. Back home, my family eats the traditional Christmas Ham (Ham di Pasku) with “Lof, aardappelen, en groente” (Lof, potatoes, and vegetables). But we also have other foods like Ayaka, Keshi yená, Sult, and much more foods (a lot of food with Caribbean/African/Latino heritage or influence). However, our Christmas is also centered around my mom, since it is her birthday that day. So our routine is mostly: Church > Lunch > Activity (swim or drive around) > Eat Dinner > Unpack Gifts.
Also, we both have the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. Katja uses red ornament balls and silver handmade ornaments (made by her grandpa), whereas I use red and gold only on the Christmas tree.
The conversations made us realise that we had a lot of “different but similar” customs on this day. In terms of our food, our festivities, our activities, we can see quite a few resemblances, which brought the feeling of home and nostalgia back up for me.
Comments