The always-surprising tree at the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris
\u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

Holiday Traditions Around the World<\/h2>\n

The streets are strung with lights. The store windows are full of color, sparkle, and animated figures made to mesmerize the young and the young at heart. There are\u00a0scents of evergreens, mulled wine, and cinnamon in the air.<\/p>\n

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or Epiphany. Whether you’re commemorating P\u00e8re No\u00eal, Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, the Three Wisemen, Sinterklaas, Befana, or the miracle of light. ‘Tis the season to be festive. <\/p>\n

The menorah is an important tradition in celebrating the Festival of Lights (Hanukkah)
\u00a9 Vladislav Gurfinkel\/Thinkstock<\/p><\/div>\n

Cultural differences give us many ways to celebrate, with a rich variety of holiday traditions around the world. Here are some international highlights.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands<\/h4>\n

The Netherlands has already celebrated Sinterklaas, a day when presents are delivered by Saint Nicholas (December 5\/6).<\/p>\n

Sinterklaas (aka Saint Nicholas) traditionally rides in on a white horse and carries a big, red book, which holds the telltale information about whether each child has been good or naughty.<\/p>\n

A modern Sinterklaas checks who is naughty or nice on his tablet.
\u00a9 Marcel Mooij\/iStock<\/p><\/div>\n

Mexico<\/h4>\n

In Mexico, posadas<\/em> are a festive\u00a0holiday tradition. Participants form a procession, holding candles, to seek shelter (posada)<\/em>, just as Mary and Joseph did.<\/p>\n

They ask for a place for the night\u00a0by singing songs until they are welcomed into someone’s home. Once inside, they celebrate by breaking a pi\u00f1ata filled with candy, eating, and drinking\u00a0(ponche)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mexican stores are filled with pi\u00f1atas for the posada celebrations.
\u00a9 Lorena Coletta<\/p><\/div>\n

Italy<\/h4>\n

Although there are several days when celebrations occur and presents are opened in Italy, one popular tradition is La Befana. She’s a good witch who travels\u00a0by broomstick to bring children their\u00a0gifts.<\/p>\n

Her arrival is celebrated on the day of Epiphany (January 6), as she was said to have helped the three kings find the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

The Italian good witch, La Befana, brings gifts to children on Epiphany.
\u00a9 Luvi40\/iStock<\/p><\/div>\n

The Many Ways to Celebrate<\/h4>\n

Wherever you are in the world, the store windows and holiday decorations offer creative reminders of the season. Here are a few highlights from this year’s celebrations.<\/p>\n

The Galeries Lafayette windows in Paris offer an underwater interstellar theme.
\u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The famous Tang’s in Singapore went formal for Christmas dinner.
\u00a9 Catherine Lawrie<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

All the dancing figures are wearing Burberry scarves. A coincidence? I think not.
\u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Holiday sparkles come in all shapes and climates.
\u00a9 Timonko\/iStock<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Montreal decorations have some fun.
\u00a9 Joyce McGreevy<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can you find the branding clues in this Longine’s window?
\u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boston shares its sense of humor.
\u00a9 Jerry Fielder<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will Santa find this tropical island stocking? The holiday spirit will prevail.
\u00a9 E.M. Prize\/iStock<\/p><\/div>\n

OIC Moments wishes all of our readers the very happiest of seasons, and a new year filled with “Oh, I See Moments,”\u00a0<\/strong>new discoveries, and\u00a0the joy of living in a world with rich cultural differences.<\/p>\n

Comment<\/a><\/i>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,227],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heritage-culture","category-worldwide-mappoints"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23750"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23796,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23750\/revisions\/23796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}