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When each country keeps the day, on one timeline

Platform 1

Sweden

Sverige

A girl in a white gown with a crown of four candles carries a round loaf on a plate past a lit window. A boy in a red cap holds a torch. Red letters say God Jul. — A Swedish Lucia card, made before 1916 by Adèle Söderberg.

December 13, and Christmas morning

A crown of candles

On December 13, Swedish children and some grown-ups dress up for Lucia, many in white gowns. One girl, the Lucia, wears a red sash and a crown of lit candles. She leads a line of singers and brings around a tray with warm saffron buns. Schools and workplaces hold these processions.

The day remembers Saint Lucy, a young woman from Syracuse, in Sicily, who lived about 1,700 years ago. Her name is tied to the word for light, so her day fits the darkest part of the Swedish winter.

Christmas morning has its own early church service, called Julotta. It is held before sunrise. Long ago, many families drove to it in horse sleighs over the snow.

God Jul!

Swedish for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word, God means good and Jul is an old word for the Christmas season.

Sweden on the timeline

Platform 2

Mexico

México

A woman in a blindfold swings a stick at a piñata that hangs from the ceiling. Children crowd around her and a man in a suit looks on. — A piñata game on the cover of a Mexican magazine, December 24, 1905.

December 16 to 24

Nine nights of looking for a room

For nine evenings before Christmas, neighbors in Mexico walk from house to house in a procession called Las Posadas. The word means the inns. The walkers act out Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay, and they carry candles, paper lanterns and an empty manger.

At the stops, one group sings outside and asks for shelter, and the people inside sing back. In one version the walkers visit three houses, and the third one lets them in. Then come Christmas songs called villancicos.

There is a party at the end. Children take turns breaking a star-shaped piñata. Grown-ups pass around tamales and a hot fruit drink called ponche.

Feliz Navidad!

Spanish for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word, Feliz means happy. Navidad comes from a Latin word for birth, like the word nativity.

Mexico on the timeline

Platform 3

Philippines

Pilipinas

An old photograph of a street with a house on the right. A huge round star lantern with many points hangs over the road. — A parol hangs over Consunji Street in San Fernando, Pampanga, December 26, 1904.

December 16 to 24, before dawn

Church before sunrise

In the Philippines, many families go to church nine mornings in a row before Christmas. The services are called Simbang Gabi, and most begin around 4 a.m., while it is still dark.

The custom is thought to have begun in 1669, under Spanish rule, as a way for farmers to pray before they started work. After the service, people eat rice cakes called bibingka and puto bumbong, with hot chocolate or ginger tea.

The sign of the season is the parol, a star-shaped lantern. It is said to have first lit the way to church for these early services. The last service falls on Christmas Eve.

Maligayang Pasko!

Tagalog for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word, maligaya means happy and Pasko means Christmas. The little ng joins the two words. Pasko comes from the Spanish word pascua.

Philippines on the timeline

Platform 4

Ethiopia

ኢትዮጵያ

A painted panel. Mary holds the Child between two angels with spears. Below them stand rows of saints holding crosses. — Mary and her Son, the middle panel of a painted Ethiopian triptych, early 1600s.

January 7

A night of standing and singing

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church keeps Christmas, called Ganna, on January 7. In the Ethiopian calendar that is the 29th of Tahsas. Many people fast for 43 days before it, from November 25, and eat no meat, milk or eggs.

On Christmas Eve, people go to church in the evening and stay until about 3 a.m. They walk in a long loop around the church. Pilgrims travel to the famous churches at Lalibela.

On Christmas Day many wear a netela, a thin white cotton shawl with bright stripes at the ends. Families share wat, a spicy stew, scooped up with injera bread. Boys and men play a hockey-like game that is also called ganna. A story says it began with shepherds on the night Jesus was born.

መልካም ገና

Melkam Gena

Amharic for “Merry Christmas”.

Gena is the Amharic word for Christmas. You may also see it written Melikam Gena.

Ethiopia on the timeline

Platform 5

Italy

Italia

A kneeling man in a cream robe lifts a child from a manger. Monks sing behind a rail on the right, and men in coats stand on the left. — Francis makes the crib at Greccio, a wall painting at Assisi attributed to Giotto, about 1300.

December 8 to January 6

The manger, in miniature

In Italy the Nativity scene is called the presepe. Homes and churches set one up with small figures of Mary, Joseph, the Baby, shepherds and animals. In Italy the Christmas season runs from December 8 to January 6.

The tradition is linked to Saint Francis of Assisi. At Christmas in 1223, he is said to have set up a manger scene with live actors near the town of Greccio. A painting of that night is in the church at Assisi.

In Naples the presepe grew into a whole town. Neapolitan scenes show Naples in the 1700s, with nobles, sellers and everyday people gathered around the manger. In some southern towns, a living presepe uses real people as the figures.

Buon Natale!

Italian for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word, Buon means good. Natale comes from a Latin phrase for the birthday of the Lord.

Italy on the timeline

Platform 6

Germany

Deutschland

A hand-colored print of a Christmas fair. A woman carries a fir tree, children look at wooden toys, and a man sells from a stall. — A Christmas fair, from a hand-colored print of the 1800s now kept in Nuremberg.

The four Sundays of Advent

A wheel of candles and a market of stalls

The Advent wreath began in Germany. In 1839 a pastor named Johann Hinrich Wichern, who ran a school in Hamburg, found that the children kept asking every day if Christmas had come yet. He hung up a big wooden ring from an old cartwheel, with candles on it. He lit a small candle each day, and a large white one on Sundays.

Today the wreath is smaller, with four candles, and many homes and churches around the world use one.

Each Advent, German towns open Christmas markets. The oldest written record of a Christmas market is from 1434, in Dresden. In the south the market is called a Christkindlmarkt, which means Christ child market. Stalls sell toys, gingerbread called Lebkuchen and hot drinks.

Frohe Weihnachten!

German for “Merry Christmas”.

Weihnachten comes from an old phrase that meant in the holy nights.

Germany on the timeline

Platform 7

Poland

Polska

At dusk, three angels pull and push a sled across a snowy valley. On the sled sit a small lit tree, a basket and a child with a halo. — Christmas Eve, a small painting by Bronisława Rychter-Janowska, 1936.

December 24, at the first star

Supper with an empty chair

Polish families sit down to their Christmas Eve supper, called Wigilia, when the first star shows in the evening sky. The star stands for the Star of Bethlehem. Some families put a little hay under the tablecloth to remind them of the manger.

Before the meal, everyone shares a thin wafer called opłatek. Each person breaks off a piece of someone else's and the two trade good wishes. It is also a time to say sorry.

One place at the table is left empty. It is for the Baby Jesus, for a traveler who might need a meal, or for a family member who has died. No red meat is served. Fish, often carp, is the main dish. Some families serve twelve dishes, and others serve five, seven or nine.

Wesołych Świąt!

Polish for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word it is Happy Holidays. Poles also say it at Easter.

Poland on the timeline

Platform 8

Japan

日本

A square white cake seen from above. Swirls of whipped cream cover the sides, and the top is heaped with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and curls of dark chocolate. — A whipped cream cake topped with strawberries and other berries, photographed in Tokyo in 2015.

December 24 and 25

Cream, strawberries and a sponge

Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan, and only a small number of people are Christian. Still, the day has its own customs.

The best known is the Christmas cake: a soft sponge cake covered in whipped cream and strawberries. A company called Fujiya first sold cakes in this style, and the custom spread after they went on sale in Ginza, a busy shopping district in Tokyo.

A cake like this once seemed modern and Western. When it became cheap enough for most families, many wanted one for Christmas.

メリークリスマス

Merī Kurisumasu

Japanese for “Merry Christmas”.

The Japanese phrase was borrowed from English Merry Christmas and is written in the script used for borrowed words.

Japan on the timeline

Platform 9

Australia

A black-and-white photograph of a curved beach. Boats float in the shallow water and white tents stand under gum trees. — Camping at Wellington Point, Queensland, at Christmas time, 1911.

December 24, in summer

Carols on the grass, in summer

Christmas comes in summer in Australia. Many people spend the day outdoors, swimming or playing street cricket. Lunch is often cold meats, seafood and salad.

On Christmas Eve, crowds gather outdoors to sing carols by candlelight. It began in Melbourne in 1938, when a radio announcer named Norman Banks started it. About 10,000 people came to the first one, at Alexandra Gardens.

Today the Melbourne evening is at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and is shown on TV across the country. The money raised goes to Vision Australia, which helps people who are blind or have low vision.

Merry Christmas!

English for “Merry Christmas”.

Australians say it in English, the same words you know. Only the weather is different.

Australia on the timeline

Platform 10

Ukraine

Україна

On a snowy night, carolers stand at the door of a cottage and hold up a glowing paper star. Two dogs watch from the snow. — Carolers with a star, a painting by Mykola Pymonenko, late 1800s.

Christmas Eve

Twelve dishes and a sheaf of grain

Ukrainian families sit down to the Holy Supper, called Sviata Vecheria, on Christmas Eve, after the first star shows in the evening sky. A few wisps of hay lie on the embroidered tablecloth to remind everyone of the manger.

The meal has no meat, milk or eggs, but fish is allowed. Families often serve about twelve dishes, though the number can be anywhere from 7 to 17. Kutia, a dish of grain, honey and poppy seeds, is served first. The other must-have is uzvar, a drink of stewed dried fruit.

A sheaf of grain called a didukh stands in the house. The word means grandfather spirit, and the sheaf stands for the family's ancestors. Since 2023, Ukraine keeps Christmas on December 25. Before that, many families kept it on January 7, and some parishes still do.

З Різдвом Христовим!

Z Rizdvom Khrystovym

Ukrainian for “Merry Christmas”.

Різдво (Rizdvo) is an old word for birth, and Khrystovym means Christ's, so the greeting names Christ's birth.

Ukraine on the timeline

Platform 11

Ghana

Rows of hand-woven cloth in bright stripes and diamond patterns hang on a rail. — Kente cloths for sale in Tafi, in the Volta Region of Ghana.

December 20 to early January

Drums, choirs and the road home

In Ghana, many people travel to visit family around Christmas, from about December 20 into the first week of January. Christmas Eve church services can run all night, with drumming, dancing and choirs. Children often act out the nativity story in a play.

Songs are sung in the languages people know best. On Christmas Day the churches are full, and people wear colorful traditional clothes. Afterward, families go home to share gifts and a meal such as stew or okra soup with fufu, a paste made from yam.

The season runs on into the new year. On December 31 many people go to church again, to thank God for the year and pray for a safe new year. December is also when the cocoa harvest begins, the bean that chocolate is made from.

Afehyia pa!

Twi for “Merry Christmas, and also Happy New Year”.

Afe means year in Akan. Sources spell it a few ways, including Afenhyia pa. The same words are used for Christmas and the new year.

Ghana on the timeline

Platform 12

Brazil

Brasil

Dozens of small painted clay figures stand and kneel around a mother and her baby: shepherds, a man with a guitar, kings on horses and three camels. — A Portuguese nativity scene of the 1700s, shown at the Museum of Sacred Art in São Paulo.

Christmas Eve, late

A late supper and a small stable

Many Brazilian families set up a presépio, a nativity scene, as their main Christmas decoration. You find them in homes, in churches and in public squares.

The Christmas supper, called ceia de Natal, comes late on Christmas Eve, around 10 or 11 at night. The table often holds fried cod, farofa, fruit and roast turkey, with a sweet called rabanada afterward.

Many people go to Midnight Mass or watch one on television.

Feliz Natal!

Portuguese for “Merry Christmas”.

Word for word it is happy Christmas.

Brazil on the timeline