An Aussie Christmas

As a regular reader and blog buddy of Norm's, I’ve been asked to fill a guest posting role to share Christmas traditions from Australia – the land downunder.

















An Aussie Christmas is upside down to a northern hemisphere one. Christmas is celebrated in summer. There’s no snow, sleigh-bells, or Santa wearing a winter woolens under his red suit. In fact the weather is usually so hot, Santa would be more comfortable wearing Speedos!

Carols
Carols by Candlelight is an Aussie tradition, introduced in Melbourne in 1937 by a radio announcer who felt Christmas was often a lonely time for people. As a remedy he introduced community carol singing with the added fun of everyone holding candles.

Carols by Candlelight is broadcast live from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on Christmas Eve and is part of many family traditions – gathering in the lounge room – to sing carols and be entertained by Australia’s leading performers.

Based on the popularity of the Melbourne event, many local communities and churches hold their own small scale Carols by Candlelight event in the lead up to Christmas.

Australia has their own versions of many popular carols, and one written just for us by Rolf Harris in 1960 He thought it was crazy to sing songs about snow when it was stinking hot outside so he wrote Six White Boomers. Go have a listen.

Food
The fact that the holiday season falls in summer here, makes many northern hemisphere Christmas traditions seem a bit silly. That doesn’t stop some Aussies from still insisting that it’s “just not Christmas” unless traditions of countries on the other side of the globe are followed.

It can be 40 degrees [remember we’re talking Celsius here] on the day, but many families still insist on a “traditional” Christmas dinner of roast meat, baked veggies, and steamed plum pudding with hot custard. In many parts of Australia, Christmas day is so hot, putting an oven on in the kitchen for several hours is just pure insanity.

Contemporary Aussies favour salads and seafood, or a big BBQ meal. This makes more sense because of the weather. Stone fruit are in season – so we love platters of cherries, nectarines, mangoes, apricots and peaches. Big slices of juicy red watermelon are always popular in the warm weather, along with pawpaw, kiwifruit and berries.

Sport
We have lived on the coast most of our lives, so water-sports are another feature of Christmas. Surfing, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, waterskiing – Mr X’s family are all big water-sport fans. So if he has a say, the holiday season includes any of the above activities – in fact, it’s just not Christmas without them!

The day after Christmas day is Boxing Day. So for those that only get the public holidays, there are two in a row. An English tradition was to have Christmas Day with family, then Boxing Day was spent giving gifts to employees or the poor.

These days in Australia Boxing Day might mean something else entirely – two days of being with family, eating and drinking too much . . .
but in our house it means Mr X wants a few hours undisturbed time to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race on TV.

Previously we've experienced the thrills and dangers of being on yacht in Sydney Harbour as the race fleet sails out the heads and turns right for their journey south. Another year, we were lucky enough to be in Hobart to see the yachts arrive at the finish line and deliver a hot cappuccino to a friend who crewed on one of the boats.

Bushfire
Christmas is also the peak of the fire season in Australia. Hot weather, dry bush and northerly winds. Add into the mix lots of camping, BBQ’s, tourists and holiday revelers, and a stray bit of flame quickly becomes an inferno.

We built this Aussie nativity scene out of leftovers from our house building site. It shows how bushfire smoke can taint the air. It puts a yellow, orange tinge in the sky and the smell of ash and smoke gets in everything, including the water tanks.

Living as we do on an island, we have our own fire protection systems in place, which include fast fill water pumps and high pressure hoses, potato sacks to wet and douse grass fires with, long sleeve tops, eye goggles and gloves. A couple of December's ago, we had our first experience of an ash storm. Like you guys have snow right now, we had black ash falling from the sky and covering everything. Thankfully this year we've had a couple of weeks rain so things aren't as dry as they were then.

Belief
On the whole Australia is a secular postmodern country. Recent census statistics show that nearly 20% of Australian’s state “no religion” on their census. Some 50% state Christian, with the remaining 30% aligning themselves with non-Christian religions. In recent years the political correctness police* have tried to get rid of the word Christmas in the public sector, schools in particular, and the banning of carol events and the like. Their argument being that - as a very multicultural country - the celebration of Christmas in the religious sense is supposedly offensive to non-believers.

Whenever these stories pop up in the media, there is a public outcry. And so there should be. The celebration of Christmas is part of our tradition – albeit, in slightly different ways than our northern neighbours – and political correctness is a poor excuse to stamp out a holiday season that encourages generosity, family time, and for those who choose, time to contemplate a story larger than their own.


Seasons greeting to you and yours from
Kel of The X Facta


*this a label, not a reality, we do not have a police force that deals with crimes against political correctness ;-)

Tag, I'm It

Thanks to Robin at Life In The Bogs and Bountiful Healing I've been tagged with a random facts meme. I've done this once before when both Robin and Kel at xfacta got me with the same one which can be seen here: http://constantchangeisthenorm.blogspot.com/2007/07/7-random-facts-meme.html#comments.

So, I'll scratch my head, ponder a bit and see what I come up with. This one is nice as it has no rules and doesn't necessarily have to be passed on ... heh, heh - we'll see about that part.

1) This could be a post unto itself but these days I have a bad case of 'itchy feet'. I'm dying for change on a number of fronts - to see some place new and walk different ground; a new vocation; more education; to see my kids and their kids. The list goes on and on but you get my drift. Also due in part to the international nature of blogging I'd like to see much more of the world. I've always had an interest in geography and different cultures. (Not entirely sure if that qualifies as a fact but....)

2) Best trip. No not the acid, mescaline or peyote type. It was a 2 week driving tour of Texas and New Mexico cruising around in a Cadillac. There were parts of Texas that I really liked but I just loved New Mexico. I'd have to visit again and spend more time but I'm pretty sure I could live there quite happily. That trip was almost 20 years ago and was actually the honeymoon I had with my second wife Jan. Despite the lack of sleep we had a blast driving and singing as we went. Better than Florida, way better than Jamaica.

3) Favourite concert experience. Casting way back in time for this but it's a toss up between Led Zeppelin's first appearance (1970?) in Toronto at a really small hall known as the Rock Pile where they played everything from their first two albums OR Pink Floyd's 1972 show at Maple Leaf Gardens in quadraphonic sound when they played all the material from both 'Meddle' and 'Dark Side of The Moon'. Both shows were BRILLIANT. and yes, I know I'm a dinosaur thanks so much for noticing.

4) I used to think I was pretty smart until I learned some stuff. Now I have some small idea of all that I don't know.

5) There have been times where I've been positively euphoric; others when I've been desperately unhappy and depressed. Times of relative wealth; others of poverty. Coincidentally the times when I've perceived myself to be rich and happy are the times where my most important relationships were at their peak. With my wife, kids, parents, friends and workmates.

** Continuing from last night.... I've spent so much time at this computer tonight catching up on paperwork, writing emails and reading up blog friends posts that my eyes are just about fried out of their sockets. I think these last couple will be short and to the point.

6) Robin mentioned a couple of shows she enjoys watching - the dance competitions. On my weeks off when I can sit down to watch TV I have a really hard time finding anything of interest or find entertaining. It's a wasteland out there. Last week I caught an episode each of 'House' and 'ER' that were both good. I usually scan for movies or music shows. Note for cousin BJ - a friend of mine directed a doc which is airing on CBC Thursday night at 9. Check it out and let me know what you think - I'll miss it because I'm working.

7) I'm 30 years old, incredibly smart, charismatic, handsome, single and wealthy. This would be a made up fact. A complete lie. Honest.

As to who to tag: how about Martin at HSTBooks because I don't know enough about him; and Amuirin at Stop & Wander because I can't recall her ever having done one and would like to see what she comes up with. And Am, no time pressure cuz I know you're writing for NaNoWriMo. You can either link back here with your post or reply in the comment section.