Holiday Traditions Around the World

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Greenland

Near Thule in Greenland, the Polar Eskimos do much visiting of families, drinking coffee and eating cakes and giving of brightly wrapped parcel, that may hold a model sledge, a pair of polished walrus tusks, or sealskin mitts. Everyone receives a gift and the children go from hut to hut singing songs.

Christmas trees are imported, as no trees live this far north. They are decorated with candles and bright ornaments. Lots of dancing goes on most of the night and after the coffee, cakes and carols, mattak, whaleskin with a strip of blubber inside, is passed around. Another festive food is kiviak. This Eskimo delicacy consists of little auks which have been buried whole in sealskin for several months until they have reached an advanced stage of decomposition.

Christmas is the one night in Greenland when the men look after the women, serving them coffee and stirring it for them. Games follow, including one in which an object is passed from hand to hand round a long table under the cloth. The item is supposed to be repulsive; round, clammy and rough in texture, such as a frozen egg, wrapped in strips of wet fox fur.

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