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Christmas Around the World

by Rick Dandes

Christmas means laughing and spending time with family and friends, but most importantly, it honors the birth of Jesus. Join Tidbits on a journey around the world as we explore how various cultures cel-ebrate this holiday.

• Firsts and lasts: In 1836, Alabama was the first state in the United States to declare Christmas a le-gal holiday. U.S. President Franklin Pierce, in 1856, decorated the first White House Christmas tree. And in 1907, Oklahoma was the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.• The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American named Ralph E. Morris in 1895. The new lights proved safer than the more traditional candles.• The first Christmas card was created in England in 1843. Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the com-pany. An average household in America will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year and see 28 cards re-turn in their place. • Approximately 1.8 billion Christmas cards are sent annually in the United States.

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The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, consisting of vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist, Ray Manza-rek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The Doors were among the 1960’s most controversial rock acts, due mostly to Morrison’s wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic, but unpredict-able, stage personality.• The origins of The Doors lie in a chance meet-ing between fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach in California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs, and, with Manzarek’s encouragement, Morrison sang “Moonlight Drive.” Impressed by his lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band. The rest is history.• The Doors’ self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set list, including the nearly 12-minute song, “The End.” The band recorded the album at L.A.’s Sunset Sound Recording Studios, from August 24 to 31, 1966, almost entirely live in the studio.• The Doors appeared on TV’s “American Band-stand” on July 22, 1967, lip-synching “Crystal Ship” and “Light My Fire.” Their Ed Sullivan appearance was September 17 of that year. Their first television appearance ever was in Los Angeles on KTLA’s “Shebang” show on January 1, 1967, but that was not a national broadcast.• The Doors’ last two concerts with the original four members were in Dallas and New Orleans on De-cember 11 and 12, 1970. No complete recording or even set list is known to exist from the New Orleans concert. • The most commonly agreed-on facts of the show are that the band quit early because Morri-son wasn’t feeling well, and that they played “Soul Kitchen,” “Break On Through” and “Light My Fire.”• The Doors reclaimed their status as a premier act with “L.A. Woman” in 1971. It contained two top-20 hits and has gone on to be their second best-selling studio album, surpassed in sales only by their first record. The singles “L.A. Woman,” “Love Her Mad-ly” (the Doors last top ten hit) and “Riders On The Storm” remain mainstays of rock radio program-ming, and the latter was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009 for its special significance to recorded music.• On March 13, 1971, following the recording of “L.A. Woman,” Morrison left the Doors and moved to Paris. On June 16, Morrison’s last known record-ing was made when he befriended two street mu-sicians at a bar and invited them to a studio. This recording was finally released in 1994 on an album entitled “The Lost Paris Tapes.”• Morrison died on July 3, 1971. According to the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by his girlfriend. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play.• The Doors released two albums after Morrison’s death. The first was “Other Voices,” released in 1971; they had already started recording while Morrison was in Paris. The other was “Full Circle,” released in 1972.

Music Legend:The Doors

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“I don’t count, and Imay not be yellow!”

ing, “Howl,” his most famous poem. The film is bro-ken up into segments: an interview with Ginsberg about the poem; his first public reading of the work; the trial; and the highlight of the film -- an animated interpretation of the entire poem. The supporting cast of Jon Hamm, Treat Williams, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn and Bob Balaban give bril-liant performances -- leaving us with the impression that they and the entire production were composing a love letter to a beloved literary work.

TV SERIES“Ricky Gervais Show” Complete First Season “Top Chef: D.C.” The Complete Season 7 “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” Season 2“The Real Housewives of Orange County” Season 3 “The Sarah Jane Adventures” The Complete Third Season “iCarly” Season Two, Volume Two “Big Love” The Complete Fourth Season“Make It or Break It” Season One, Volume Two“Enemy at the Door” Series Two“Mannix” Fourth Season“Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern” Collection 4 Pt.2

TOP TEN MOVIES

1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (PG) Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes2. The Tourist (PG-13) Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp3. Tangled (PG) animated4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1 (PG-13) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson5. Unstoppable (PG-13) Denzel Washington, Chris Pine6. Black Swan (R) Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassell7. Burlesque (PG-13) Cher, Christina Aguilera8. Love and Other Drugs (R) Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway9. Due Date (R) Robert Downey Jr., Zack Gali-fianakis10. Megamind (PG) Will Ferrell, Tina Fey

TOP TEN VIDEO, DVD of December 4, 2010

Top 10 Video Rentals1. Grown Ups (PG-13) Adam Sandler2. Toy Story 3 (G) animated3. Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) Zach Efron4. Ramona and Beezus (G) Selena Gomez5. Predators (R) Adrien Brody6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PG-13) Michael Cera7. Sex and the City 2 (R) Sarah Jessica Parker8. How to Train Your Dragon (PG) animated9. The Karate Kid (PG) Jaden Smith10. Jonah Hex (PG-13) Josh Brolin

Top 10 DVD Sales1. Toy Story 3 (G) (Buena Vista)2. Grown Ups (PG-13) (Sony)3. Ramona And Beezus (G) (20th Century Fox)4. How to Train Your Dragon (PG) Dream-Works)5. The Karate Kid (PG) (Sony)6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PG-13) Univer-sal7. The Original Television Christmas Classics (NR) (Genius Products)8. Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) (Universal)9. The Pacific (M) (Warner)10. Sex and the City 2 (R) (Warner)

PICKS OF THE WEEK“Machete” (R) -- “Machete” started out as noth-ing more than a fake trailer in the Robert Rodri-guez/Quentin Tarantino flick “Grindhouse.” But fans of the film clamored for more, and so Ro-driguez went ahead and made it into a feature-length “Mexsploitation” opus that will thrill any fan of low-budget ‘70s drive-in cinema.Danny Trejo stars as Machete, a former federal agent whose family was murdered by a samu-rai sword-carrying drug lord (Steven Seagal). Machete is hired by a guy to assassinate an anti-immigration senator (played with scene-stealing relish by Robert De Niro). What follows is a series of hilariously over-the-top action set pieces and brilliant stunt casting (Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba and others make cameos). It’s just an awe-some series of hot chicks and stuff blowing up and cheesy dialogue that adds up to two hours of guilty-pleasure entertainment. If you liked “Grindhouse” or “From Dusk Til Dawn,” you’ll love “Machete.”

“Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: Complete Series” (Unrated) -- Eighteen discs, 62 hours of fun from all five seasons, plus a slew of great special features and an 80-page book. Watch Rocky pull a rabbit out of his hat! AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN! See our heroes thwart the evil machinations of Boris and Natasha. Thrill as Mr. Peabody and Sherman travel through time in the Wayback Machine. Delight in the myriad Fractured Fairy Tales. Return once again to those Saturday mornings of your youth by mak-ing yourself a bowl of sugary cereal and rooting for your favorite alumnist from Wossamotta U. That’s what I’magonna do.

“Howl” (R) -- James Franco delivers a riveting performance as legendary Beat poet Allen Gins-berg in this ambitious production chronicling the writing of, and obscenity trial surround-

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¥ It was American author, social critic, economist and political commentator Thomas Sowell who made the following sage observation: “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

¥ Visiting the longest chain of mountains on Earth requires some rather special arrangements -- aquatic ones, to be precise. The 10,000-mile-long Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as its name indicates, is located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The only parts of the chain above water are a few volcanic islands, including Iceland and the Azores. ¥ Those who live in Florida probably won’t be sur-prised to learn that they live in the state with the most instances of lightning every year. ¥ If you travel to Alaska, you can go to the North Pole -- the town of North Pole, that is. It’s not the real deal, though. The town is actually 1,700 miles south of Earth’s geographic North Pole. ¥ Famed American composer Philip Glass was a member of both the cab driver’s union and the steelworkers’ union before he became enough of a success in his chosen field to become a member of the musicians’ union. ¥ In 2000, psychiatrists at Italy’s University of Pisa published their finding that being in love is biochem-ically indistinguishable from severe obsessive-com-pulsive disorder. ¥ What do the lawn sprinkler, rubber shoe heels, portable ironing boards and tire treads have in com-mon? They were all invented by the same man, Eli-jah McCoy, an African-Canadian inventor and engi-neer.

***Thought for the Day: “Excess on occasion is ex-hilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.” -- W. Somerset Maugham

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Christmas (continued):• Pudding is important in the Christmas traditions of Great Britain. While making the pudding, the British have a traditional practice of making a wish while mixing the ingredients in a clockwise direction.• In Italy, a dinner of several kinds of seafood, sometimes called the “Feast of the Seven Fishes,” is popular for the Christmas Eve meal. • A Christmas tradition in Estonia takes place on Christmas Eve, when the whole family goes to the sauna together.• He is known throughout the world by various names: Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Krin-gle, Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, St. Nick and Pere Noel. On Christmas Eve, children all over the world lie in their beds while “visions of sugarplums dance in their heads.” When they awake, they will excitedly check to see if Santa Claus visited and left them gifts.• On the west coast of Africa, in Liberia, most homes have an oil palm for a Christmas tree, which is dec-orated with bells. On Christmas morning, presents such as cotton cloth, soap, sweets, pencils and books are exchanged. Also on Christmas morn-ing, a church service is held in which the Christmas scene is enacted and hymns and carols are sung.• In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, it is customary for the streets to be blocked off around Christmas so that people can roller-skate to church.• In Bangladesh at Christmas time, Christian men in each village plant full-sized banana trees along the paths to churches. They plant them in two rows, and then bend them over to form an arch. They make oil lanterns out of bamboo poles and tie them on the arches, lighting the way to church.• In Ethiopia, Christmas is called Ganna and is observed on January 7. People gather in both an-cient churches carved from solid volcanic rock and more modern churches that contain three concen-tric circles. Exchanging presents is a small part of their Christmas celebration. Children usually only receive necessary items like clothing. • In the Netherlands, the Dutch eagerly await De-cember 6, for it is on this day that they celebrate St. Nicholas Day, the coming of Sinterklaas. Sinterk-laas sails from Spain every winter, and Dutch chil-dren fill their shoes with hay and sugar for his horse on St. Nicholas eve and awake to find them filled with gifts such as nuts and candy. On St. Nicholas Day, they celebrate with family get-togethers and feasting, after which everyone settles down to pre-pare for Christmas Day on December 25.

Continued on page 7!

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Call Now! 208-704-9972Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada and many other Commonwealth nations. It is spent with family and friends at open gather-ings with lots of food, fun and fellowship. And it has nothing to do with pugilism.

• How did the name “Boxing Day” come into exis-tence? Some think the name derives from an old English tradition: In exchange for ensuring that wealthy landowners’ Christmases ran smoothly, their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses (and sometimes leftover food). • In those countries that observe Boxing Day, De-cember 26 is commonly referred to both as Boxing Day and as St. Stephen’s Day.• If Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then the next weekday is declared a bank or public holi-day. In the United Kingdom and some other coun-tries, this is accomplished by Royal Proclamation. • In some Canadian provinces, Boxing Day is a statutory holiday that is always celebrated on De-cember 26. • In Canadian provinces where Boxing Day is a statutory holiday, and it falls on a Saturday or Sun-day, compensation days are given in the following week. If Boxing Day falls on a Sunday, Christmas Day would be on a Saturday, so in countries where these are both bank or public holidays, the statu-tory holiday for Christmas is moved to Monday, December 27, and the statutory holiday for Boxing Day is moved to Tuesday, December 28.• Canadian shops open their doors as early as 6 a.m. on Boxing Day to let in people, who often line up in front of shops during the night. They also refer to this post-Christmas clearance sale week as the “13th month.”• Many stores have major sales on Boxing Day, and the online version of these deals is sometimes known as Cyber Boxing Day. In the UK in 2008, Boxing Day was the busiest online shopping day of the year. In 2009, many retailers with both online and London’s High Street store locations launched their High Street sales on Boxing Day.• Boxing Day was recognized as a bank holiday in the UK and Wales through the Bank Holidays Act of 1871.• According to folk culture, on Boxing Day the wren, the king of the birds, was captured in a “box” and taken to each and every house in the village where he was asked for a good year and successful har-vest.• A particularly whimsical Boxing Day tradition has many people in Britain gathering along the coasts attired in clownish or weird dresses. They’re all there to indulge in a tradition called Boxing Day Dip (or at least watch), where they dance in shallow waters to entertain the observers while assembling money for charity.

TRIVIA

1. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What was Eng-lishman Josiah Wedgwood famous for making?2. LITERATURE: Who wrote “This Side of Par-adise”?3. HISTORY: When did New Jersey legalize casinos?4. ENTERTAINERS: By what name was come-dian William Claude Dukenfield better known?5. TELEVISION: On which television show did “The Simpsons” family first appear?6. GEOGRAPHY: To what island group does St. Croix belong?7. ART: What does a pieta depict?8. MYTHOLOGY: What are the nine patron goddesses of the arts called?9. U.S. STATES: Which U.S. state is known as the Gem State?10. POLITICS: Who was Adlai Stevenson’s vice presidential running mate in 1956?

ANSWERS

1. Pottery (Wedgwood tableware)2. F. Scott Fitzgerald3. 1976 4. W.C. Fields5. “The Tracey Ullman Show”6. U.S. Virgin Islands7. Mary and the body of Jesus8. The Muses9. Idaho10. Estes Kefauver

SPORTS QUIZ

1. True or false: Cal Ripken is the Baltimore Orioles’ all-time home run leader?2. Name the pitcher who led the National League in losses four consecutive seasons (1977-1980).3. When was the last time Clemson’s football team won at least a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference title?4. How many times in NBA history has the league had four 60-win teams in the same sea-son?5. Who was the last person before Washing-ton’s Alexander Ovechkin in 2009-10 to win the NHL’s Hart Trophy (regular-season MVP) two consecutive years?6. Since the Chase format began in NASCAR’s Cup division, how many times has a non-Chase driver won at Charlotte Motor Speedway?7. Men’s tennis star Roger Federer won 14 of his first 15 tournament finals when facing U.S. players. Who was his only loss to?

ANSWERS

1. True. He had 431 home runs. Eddie Murray is second, with 343.2. Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves (16-20 in 1977, 19-18 in ‘78, 21-20 in ‘79 and 15-18 in ‘80).3. It was 1991.4. Once -- 1997-98 (Chicago and Utah each won 62 games; Seattle and the Los Angeles Lakers each won 61).5. Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek in 1996-97 and 1997-98.6. Once -- Jamie McMurray in 2010.7. Andre Agassi, in 2002 in Miami.

The Tidbits® Paper is a Division of Tidbits Media, Inc. • Montgomery, AL 36106(800) 523-3096 • E-mail: tidbits@tidbitsmedia.com • All Rights Reserved ©2008

Information in the Tidbits® Paper is gathered from sources considered to bereliable but the ac cu ra cy of all information cannot be guaranteed.

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FLASHBACK TRIVIA

1. Which Alfred Hitchcock film featured this song: “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)”?2. Who came strolling through the door wearing Johnny’s ring? Bonus for the song title.3. Name the four members of the group who sang the 1965 hit “California Dreamin’.”4. Who sang “You’re Still a Young Man,” and when?5. What is Babyface’s real name? What has his first No. 1 single?6. Which song mentions dancing in Philadel-phia, Baltimore, D.C., the Motor City and LA?7. Who had No. 1 hits with “Daughter” and “Giv-en to Fly”?

ANSWERS

1. “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956), sung by Doris Day.2. Judy had his ring in “It’s My Party,” Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit off the “I’ll Cry If I Want To” album.3. The Mamas and The Papas: Denny Doherty, John Phillips, Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliot.4. Tower of Power in 1972. Forty years after they started, the soul group still tours.5. Kenneth Brian Edmonds had a hit with “Love Saw It” in 1989. Edmonds apparently has a section of highway named after him in Indianapolis.6. “Dancing in the Streets,” first recorded by Martha and the Vandellas in 1964.7. Pearl Jam, in 1993 and 1998 respectively.

• Christians of most denominations in Hong Kong celebrate Christmas with hundreds of church ser-vices spoken in Chinese. There are also services held in English for the Europeans who live there. They also send exquisitely decorated Christmas cards, and these cards often show the Holy Fam-ily in a Chinese setting. Santa Claus is known as Sing Daan Lou Yan (Christmas Old Man) in Can-tonese or Sheng Dan Lo Ren in Mandarin.• There is a sweet Christmas tradition in Scan-dinavia. A little gnome called Julenisse puts the presents under the Christmas tree at night. The children leave a bowl of porridge out for him. • It is from Scandinavia that most of our Yule log traditions derive. The dark cold winters inspired the development of traditions concerned with warmth and light. Yuletide, meaning “the turning of the sun” or the winter solstice, has traditionally been a time of extreme importance in Scandinavia.• For a long time, it was considered dangerous to sleep alone on Christmas Eve. The extended fam-ily, master and servant alike, would sleep together on a freshly spread bed of straw. • The Yule log was originally an entire tree, care-fully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The butt end would be placed into the hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room. The tree would be fed into the fire and the entire process was carefully timed to last the en-tire Yule season.• The Chlausjagen Festival or Feast of St. Nicho-las is celebrated in Switzerland at dusk on Decem-ber 6. The week before Christmas, children dress up and visit homes with gifts. Ringing church bells to call people to midnight mass has become a tra-dition, and each village competes with the next for the “best” bell ringing. After the service, families gather to share homemade doughnuts called ringli and hot chocolate.• A Maltese Christmas traditionally is centered on the Christ’s crib or presepju. The child’s version of the church crib is called grolta. The crib figures are called pasturi and represent Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, angels, villagers and ani-mals such as cows and sheep. • Wreaths have a long history that can be traced back to the ancient Druids. They believed that hol-ly, an evergreen with bright red berries, had magi-cal properties. Wreaths were first created when holly and other evergreens were arranged in a circular shape.

DECEMBER BABIES (continued)

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ANSWERS

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