Christmas in Brazil, Mexico, Estonia, Poland and, em, Limerick

Glenstal Abbey Benedictine Monastery
With thanks to Fr Martin Browne OSB

The Benedictine monks in Glenstal Abbey begin their Christmas celebrations at 6pm on Christmas Eve with evening prayer, known as Solemn First Vespers and a procession to the crib, sung in Latin. Much later in the evening is the Vigil Office of Christmas sung in English. Midnight Mass follows, with a mixture of Gregorian chant in Latin and traditional Christmas carols.

After Mass, usually after 1am on Christmas morning, the Benedictines, who are noted for their generous hospitality, provide their Midnight Mass congregation with tea and mince pies. Nice touch.

On Christmas morning, the monks get a lie-in, due to the late night beforehand, and rise at the quite ungodly hour of 7.35. The first ceremony of Christmas day takes place at 8am, where Solemn Lauds (or morning prayer) are sung in English. Breakfast follows at 8.30.

At ten o’clock on Christmas morning there is a simple, quiet celebration called Dawn Mass. There is no music at this Mass. At noon, the monks gather for their Solemn Community Mass, which is sung in Gregorian chant.

Lunch on Christmas day is at 1.15pm and is followed by some quiet time in the afternoon. Solemn Second Vespers (evening prayer) is sung in Latin at 5pm, and Christmas dinner takes place at 5.45pm, prepared by three monks.

Christmas Day ends in Glenstal Abbey with night prayer, called Compline, after which the monks retire. Christmas is the second most important feast of the Christian calendar, the most important being Easter Sunday.

Poland
With thanks to Aleksandra Malinowska, Trim, Co Meath, and Lukasz Balas, Dublin

Christmas Eve is traditionally a bigger celebration than Christmas Day in Poland. Christmas dinner is on the evening of Christmas Eve, and Polish tradition states it should be served when the first star appears in the sky. A wafer called Christmas Wafer is passed to each family member, who breaks off a piece and makes a wish before eating it, then passes it to the person next to them.

One charming Christmas dinner custom in Poland is that of setting an extra place at table, symbolically indicating that no one, including strangers, should go hungry at Christmas.

No meat is eaten for Christmas dinner, only fish. Dinner traditionally consists of no fewer than 12 dishes – and Irish mammies thought they had it bad – mostly involving carp.

Borscht, a spicy red beetroot soup, is served for the first course, although some regions serve mushroom soup instead. Other savoury courses include herring in sour cream and potatoes, carp and potatoes, sauerkraut, pierogi (stuffed dumplings), cabbage and peas. Sweet dishes include kutia (a mixture of grains, fruits and nuts soaked in port), piernik (a dried fruit compote) and makowiec (poppy seed cake).

Christmas presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, and Polish folks love music. Chopin is a national treasure. It’s not unusual for the family to sing Christmas carols together after dinner on Christmas Eve. The Christmas tree is a traditional feature, and although Santa comes, he is given the more traditional title of Swiety Mikolaj, or Saint Nicholas.

What Aleksandra misses most about Christmas in Poland is the big family gathering and the music-making after Christmas dinner. (She is a multi-award-winning violinist).

What Lukasz, working and studying in Dublin, misses most besides family is the glistening Christmas-card weather. In his own words: “I always enjoyed looking through the window on Christmas morning and seeing everything covered in snow. Then it really felt like Christmas.”

Brazil
With thanks to Rodrigo Furtado, Dublin

Christmas in Brazil occurs during summertime, so Santa has a hot, sweaty task to ensure all the children wake up to his special delivery on Christmas morning.

Santa in Brazil is very much the same as our Santa in Ireland and has the same name. Christmas dinner, or “ceia de Natal” in Portuguese, is served on the evening of Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day.

Turkey is traditionally served, along with some un-Irish dishes such bacalhau or salt cod. The turkey is usually roasted, but the Irish accompaniments of stuffing, brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes with gravy, are missing from the standard Brazilian buffet table.

Instead there is a selection of seasonal salads, fruits and nuts. Of particular importance to Brazilians is the traditional Christmas dessert of rabanada, a kind of French toast accompanied by a spiced port wine syrup. Christmas would be considered incomplete without a generous helping of rabanada, and there must be plenty of this left over for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Presents are traditionally exchanged at midnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, and the Christmas tree in your average Brazilian home looks much the same as it does here.

Asked what he misses most about Christmas in Rio, his hometown, Rodrigo, married to an Irish woman and settled here, says: “It’s not about tradition, food or religion. I think what we all miss is the family gathering. Being away from the family is the toughest part of living abroad.”

Estonia With thanks to William Barrow, Tallinn, Estonia

“I’m from southern California, but Estonia has been my home for many years now. When I remember Christmas in LA, one of my first memories is of sailing on Christmas Day. No shoes, no shirt, just shorts and sunglasses, sailing in a warm, comfortable breeze with the sun high in the sky and the temperature around 25 degrees for most of the day.

“Christmas in Estonia is cold and dark – like mind-numbingly cold, like -25C cold, like the doors on the car are frozen shut cold, like smiling outside can leave your face frozen in that expression cold.

“And it’s dark. Around Christmas time, the sun comes up a bit before 10am and heads back to bed at 3pm.

“But it is also amazingly beautiful when the snow comes down in fairytale snowflakes and covers all the detritus of humanity and makes everything look all fresh and beautiful and crisp and clean and right.

“Estonians eat blood sausage for Christmas. If you don’t know what that is, then just think of the name and imagine it and that’s it. I’ve never tried it but I’ve heard it helps to maintain one’s spirit and humanity during the freezing weather.

“Estonians love Christmas trees and have a little feud going with Latvia over which country originated the Christmas tree (it was Estonia).

“Estonians open their presents on Christmas Eve. They also have Santa, who listens to the fervent whispers of small children at Christmas markets and malls around the country. He wears a sort of red bathrobe here and is often painfully thin, but the Christmas spirit is the same with Santa here as everywhere (except, I’ve heard, in Holland where Santa kidnaps naughty children).

“The thing I miss the most about Christmas in Los Angeles is . . . well . . . nothing. It may be cold and dark and blood-sausagy here – but Christmas in Estonia is a fairytale time and I wouldn’t trade it for anywhere.”

Mexico
With thanks to Josafat Sanchez, Dublin

Mexico celebrates Christmas of course, but one significant difference between Mexico and Ireland is that in Mexico there is traditionally no Santa Claus.

That said, globalisation with its mish-mashing of cultures, has seen Santa creeping stealthily into Mexico in recent years. But traditionally, the little ones in Mexico have their Christmas toys and geegaws hand-delivered by none other than the Baby Jesus himself, who sneaks in, just like Santa, during the night.

The Christmas tree looks the same in Mexico as here, so it’s usually a synthetic one. A far more important focus in Mexican homes is the crib. If space allows, these cribs can be several metres wide.

Christmas dinner is served on the evening of Christmas eve. Dishes can vary from region to region, but in Guadalajara (known in Mexico as ‘The Pearl of The West’), where Josafat comes from, dinner includes dishes such as tamales, (cornmeal dumplings with a variety of fillings, wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and steamed).

Turkey is the traditional meat of Christmas. Pozole, a soup made with pork, chicken or beef and seasoned with chilli and garlic, is served as the first course along with garnishes of shredded lettuce, thinly sliced radishes, avocado and lime wedges.

A type of hot fruit punch called ponche is the traditional Mexican Christmas beverage, a mix of tejocotes (Mexican hawthorn), guavas and apples, spiced with cinnamon and sweetened.

While the 12th day of Christmas seems to retreat with barely a whimper here in Ireland, the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th is a big deal in Mexico.

They commemorate the visit of the Magi with much fanfare, necessitating yet another family get-together and involving a special cake for the day, known as Rosca de Reyes.

This looks like an enormous, ring-shaped Danish pastry and is filled with dried fruits and accompanied by hot chocolate drinks.

Asked what he misses most about Christmas in Mexico, Josafat says: “The thing I miss the most is sharing that time with my family at Christmas.”