Holiday Traditions Around the World

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Canada

Canada's Christmas celebrations are drawn from a mixed cultural background - French, English, German, Ukrainian, and First Nations.

This mixture brings about much diversity in the customs and traditions of Canada's Christmas festivities.

French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, founded the city of Quebec in 1608.

In these early days the French Canadians began their Christmas celebration at the end of November, on the first Sunday of Advent. Great preparation was given to the food for the grand Christmas Eve meal, the whole week of parties that would follow, the many visitors that would be received and finally, the New Year's Day Celebrations.

All of this activity provided for social gatherings. One such event was the taffy pull. It was held on November 25th in honor of the patron saint of single women, Saint Catherine. While taffy was indeed pulled, single women were afforded time to meet the eligible bachelors before the Christmas parties that would soon follow.

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