At Christmas time especially, the people of Serbia love to dance in large groups. The "kolo" is a typical Serbian folk dance, in which participants link arms and move in a circle. The "lesa" is also popular: a single line or two parallel lines, moving left and right, back and forth.
Typical Serb Christmas dishes include round unleavened bread, roast fish, cooked beans, sauerkraut, noodles with ground walnuts, honey, and wine. On Christmas Eve, a tree branch is brought into the house and placed on the fire. The burning of the log is accompanied by prayers for love and happiness in the coming year. Presents are hidden in straw strewn around the house, and the children make chicken noises as they search for them.
Russians belong to the same ethnic group as the Serbs, but end-of year celebrations differ. The Russian's do most of their partying at New Year. Russian stallholder Tatiana Schmidlin told swissinfo.ch that on New Year's Eve, small dishes like salads and herring are laid out on a large table together with the main meal. Just before midnight, they listen to the President's speech on television and crack open a bottle of champagne, then the feast begins.
The number of Russian people celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday on January 7th continues to grow. But their big party is on 31 December, when Grandfather Frost (Ded Moroz) arrives with his beautiful granddaughter, the Snow Maiden (Sengurochka) to dish out presents to children. They travel by horse, not reindeer. Christmas trees also serve as a symbol of the New Year.
Moving to Hungary in Central Europe, represented here by Gabriel Moldovany, holding a plate of Kürtőskalács, a festive cake cooked on a spit. The Hungarians have their main Christmas meal on 24 December. They often eat fish soup called ‘Halászlé', and cabbage stuffed with rice, mince pork, onion and garlic. For dessert there's cake or gingerbread decorated with Christmas figures.
Kürtőskalács, a festive cake cooked on a spit, is made from sweet, yeast dough (raised dough), strips of which are wrapped around a truncated cone–shaped baking spit, which looks like a rolling pin, and dipped in sugar. The sugar caramalizes as the cakes turn in the oven.
Heading North and closer to Santa’s North Pole is Finland, represented here by Kristina Manetsch-Mozatti. Their Father Christmas is called Joulupukki, not Santa, which means "billy goat" or "Yule Goat”. He comes from Lapland and usually wears warm red robes, uses a walking stick, and travels in a sleigh pulled by a number of reindeer, which caot fly like Santa Claus's fleet.
Smoked fish is, for many people, the highlight of the Fiish Christmas table. This salmon was covered with brine - a mixture of salt, sugar, and water - and smoked in a wood burner using alder wood.
Heading to Africa now, and at this stall, Engera Zegne Henbasha and Mehari Fesseha show us what kind of food they eat at Christmas. They brew Swa, home-made beer, and bake Injera, a thin, flat, spongy sour bread made of Taff flour. The main dish is Zgni, a hot meat stew.
This is Zgni, a hot meat stew eaten on Christmas day in Eritrea. Green straw is strewn around the home and, as the meal gets underway, soothing incense smoke fills the room.
Heading south, and Césa Miranda from Peru shows us his favourite Christmas tipple. In his country, a Jesus doll is lowered into a wooden crib on Christmas Eve and his family goes to pray at twelve different churches.
Pisco sour is a favourite drink at Christmas in Peru, where a giant party featuring turkey and ‘paneton’ cake (known in Europe as panettone) gets underway at midnight on 24 December.
From the Andes to the Himalayas, Buddhist Tibetans like Ngawang Palden do not celebrate the Christian festival of Christmas. Instead, they have a big party at 'New Year' in February. They visit the temple to pray, and then eat tsampa, flour milled from roasted barley and dumplings.
Here you can see Tibetan momo, dumplings made from onions and minced meat, part of traditional Christmas fare.
For Tibetans living in exile in Switzerland, prayer is an important part of their New Year's festivities. Ngawang Palden told swissinfo.ch that he and his family dress up in their best clothes and visit the Budhist temple at the Tibet Institute Rikon in the Töss Valley, before returning home for a feast.
various stalls at a christmas market
26 countries were represented at this year’s three-day Venite Forumexternal link in Lucerne. The international Christmas market aims to increase understanding and awareness of folklore and culinary traditions around the world.
Many visitors escaped from the cold in the musical tent, where singers and music groups from Tibet to Portugal performed in traditional costumes. Other visitors were more interested in the stalls selling typical products from participating countries, and traditional foods such as Tibetan dumplings, Indian curries, Eritrean sour dough and Fiish reindeer sandwiches.
The event is financed by private donors and sponsors such as the Catholic and Protestant churches, the city of Lucerne, local newspapers, a tourism academy and local companies.
