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5 Unique and Strange Holiday Christmas Traditions

So in the vein of the holidays, I thought Id do a fun blog posting today and did some homework on unique and strange holiday Christmas traditions from around the world. After researching and cross-referencing different websites, it was funny to see that indeed, there are several different sources confirming these wacky holiday traditions. From pooping logs, to Japanese KFC Santa, to Krampus, the evil anit-santa.....so for the sake of fun and for no other reason than "tis the season," let us be enlightened, or well, educated...on some strange worldwide holiday traditions.

Krampus - The Evil Anti-Santa - Austria

This evil looking character looks like a satanic representation of what has been depicted over time as, well, what satan might look like. In Austria, Santas evil twin gets into the action on December 5th, the eve of St. Nicholas Day, where he scours the town to punish the children who have been naughty,  not nice. This creepy good cop/bad cop routine would scare me straight too. This guy is just scary looking.

Caga Tià - The Pooping Log - Catalonia

Caga TiÃ, in English, literally translates to “the pooping log”. This bizarre custom begins with a hallowed out log that is painted with a face, propped up on four legs and is covered with a blanket so he doesnt catch a cold. Then on the evening of December 8th, Caga Tià is fed candies, nuts, and small candies until right before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Caga Tià is tossed in the fire, beaten with a stick while the children and family sing and encourage him to "poop." The final item Caga is fed is a herring, garlic bulb or onion. See this article to sing along.

Japanese KFC Santa - Japan

In Japan, Christmas has become adorned with the importation of Western influence shaped by commercialism and product placement, including some good old southern Kentucky Fried Chicken. This holiday tradition began in the mid-1970s and has become such an integral part of Christmas in Japan that couples and families must make reservations weeks in advance in order to return home with that prized bucket of Colonel Sanders original recipe.

The Caganer - "The Shitter" - Spain, Portugal & Italy

On another pooping note,  a Catalonian practice is based off of traditional nativity scenes, except that besides the manger, the three wise men, Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus, there is a lone figurine in the corner, due to privacy issues, the Caganer, squatting and letting one go. Or rather, letting a number two go.... No one is quite sure as to its origin or meaning, but the Caganer has been around for a few hundred years, and this is an actual ornamental figurine that you can purchase and add to your nativity scene.

This has become such a popular and strange traditional icon, that you can now find such figurines modeled after celebrities and political figures, in figurine form.....

Zwarte Piet - aka Black Peter - Netherlands

Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter, arrives on Christmas Eve from Spain (where Santa, or Sinterklaas lives) via steamship as Santas slave helper. "Black Peter" helps Santa roam the town handing out cookies to the good children and kidnapping the naughty ones to take back to Spain when Santa is ready to return. This obviously racist connotation, that Santa has slaves with him, has been downplayed over recent years (still not sure how), in that Peter appears the way he does because he is actually a chimney sweep and is covered in soot.....Im not exactly buying into that one.....but good luck to the Dutch for including such a blatant racist tradition since the mid 1850s...

With that, I conclude Warming Trends "5 Unique and Strange Holiday Christmas Traditions" blog. Happy Holidays from Warming Trends no matter what your particular strange holiday custom may be.

If you are interested in some more strange holiday traditions, check out these links:

http://www.openjourney.com/article/10-strange-christmas-traditions-around-world-4.html

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20858

http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/6-very-very-unique-real-holiday-traditions