10. Christmas inside the United States and Canada
Many of the celebrations inside the United States that are associated with Christmas were traditions brought by German and English immigrants. Along with the well-known and practiced tradition of a brightly decorated Christmas tree, other traditions brought by these immigrants contain Advent calendars, Christmas greeting cards, gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies. Christmas within the United States right now might seen as focused around family, travel, shopping and decorations.
Family and travel go together throughout Christmas inside the United States since family members sometimes have to travel fairly long distances to be with each other at 1 location. The growth of cities that have primarily economic activity, suburbs for residences, too as the fact of diverse industries being discovered in specific geographic locations, are among the reasons that family members typically live awesome distances from each other in separate states.
Christmas and its festivities for that reason present a great opportunity for a lot of members of the family to gather in celebration and see each other in an intimate setting. The traveling involved makes the Christmas season a busy time of the year for rail and air travel. The occasion of seeing many family members at Christmas is also linked to the activity of shopping that's an vital feature of Christmas within the United States. The Christmas season officially begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving, identified as Black Friday and which now ranks second in shopping for a single day to the Saturday prior to Christmas.
Much of the shopping that's performed would be to purchase gifts for friends and family. Gifts for family members are ordinarily exchanged after dinner on Christmas day, when everyone gathers within the room with the Christmas tree. Gifts are generally left at the base of the Christmas tree inside the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Gifts could also exchanged just before Christmas at parties held by buddies and parties held at workplaces.
Second to gifts, shopping is also completed at Christmas for decorations. Although the Christmas tree could be the centerpiece of attraction, garlands, wreaths, candles and decorative lighting placed outside on lawns or along rooflines are also employed to create a attractive holiday appearance for homes.
Canadians appreciate Christmas activities that are similar to those celebrated within the United States. Which is so since in the 1700s when some German immigrants inside the United States migrated to Canada, they continued to practice countless of the activities associated with Christmas. The geographical proximity of the two countries also means they share quite a few issues, so similarities in Christmas traditions wouldn't be an exception. One thing that accounts for the distinction between the two countries on the other, is the Eskimo population in Canada. Eskimos in Canada celebrate a festival during winter and have other traditions that are absent from American Christmas celebrations.
A practice also exists in Nova Scotia in which tiny groups of masked individuals march around about two weeks prior to Christmas. These masked groups attract attention by creating stir with a bell ringing and engaging in a noisy caper in an aim to get candy, sweets and goodies from onlookers.
This tradition bears some similarity to Jonkonoo celebrations in the neighboring islands of the Caribbean. Those celebrations also involve masked people, including some that appear on stilts that make them as tall as trees. The parade of Jonkonoo regale onlookers with different antics and present a minor scare to some youngsters, who are then calmed with candies and other treats.
In Nova Scotia, onlookers can try to calm the noise and rowdiness just a little if they can correctly guess the identity of the masked person. A right guess puts an end to the noise as the mask is removed, exposing the individual. For their part, maskers also play nice by friendly nudging answers from kids about regardless of whether they've been naughty or nice and handing out candies and treats accordingly.
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