# Countries without Christmas?



## Traduim

I wonder if anyone here know about countries or cultures which do not celebrate Christmas at all.

 I mean no Santa, no Christmas trees, no Ben-Hur and The 10 Commandments on TV...


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## lauranazario

Islamic countries... Communist China...
LN


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## Tomas Robinson

Traduim said:
			
		

> I wonder if anyone here know about countries or cultures which do not celebrate Christmas at all.



Think "non-*Christ*ian" countries  

Happy holidays!


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## vachecow

I was reading something about that......i know that in non Christian cultures they do not celebrate, but in the United States, several members of other religions have non Christmas related celebrations at this time of year simply because it is one of the few times that they have no work/school


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## Tomasoria

Hey  Josep, the Ten Commandments and the Ben-Hur thing is always on T.V for Easter. In Xmas time is Mr.Scrooche and Raphael singing El TAMBOLIRERO (what a torture...¡¡¡).

 Does anyone here hate Xmas??? as for me, I think that EL Corte Inglés, Harrod's and Galeries lafayette are making me hate Xmas...

   Mary Krismas...


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## vachecow

Tomasoria said:
			
		

> In Xmas time is Mr.Scrooche


speaking of Scrooge......


			
				Tomasoria said:
			
		

> Does anyone here hate _Xmas_???


How did the term "xmas" originate??  I hear/use it a lot.


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## Lems

vachecow121 said:
			
		

> speaking of Scrooge......
> 
> How did the term "xmas" originate??  I hear/use it a lot.


Every time I see your nick and avatar I salivate remebering the delicious cream cheese _La Vache que Ri_...   

BTW, looking at your location made me salivate again, now for another brand...    

About the Xmas term, take a look here.

Lems
_____________________________________________________
Fairy tales: horror stories for children to get them use to reality.


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## ayed

Hi, all of you.
I am from Saudi Arabia.
any question about celebrations?
thank you


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## lsp

More on the use of Xmas from howstuffworks.com:

According to the book Did you ever Wonder... by Jeff Rovin, the word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. The use of the shortened form "Xmas" became popular in Europe in the 1500s.

The word Xmas is so common in advertising most likely because "Xmas" and "sale" have the same number of letters, and "Xmas" is significantly shorter than Christmas.

*Merry Christmas!* 
*Lsp*


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## vachecow

Hah    Thanks Lems!!


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## Janna82

Traduim said:
			
		

> I wonder if anyone here know about countries or cultures which do not celebrate Christmas at all.
> 
> I mean no Santa, no Christmas trees, no Ben-Hur and The 10 Commandments on TV...


Hi everyone, I'm from Jordan which is a non-christian country   
Anyway about your question, in the middle east, it differs from country to another, and it depends whether there are christians in the country or not,  here in Jordan,  a proportion of our population is christian, so though it's not a Christian country, when walking around in the country you would see many manifestations of Celebration, like Christmas trees, Santa..... But since the country as a whole is not Christian, we would only take the 25th Dec off of work and schools, but of course christians are allowed to be away for more than that. So, basically there is something different about the country during this season, but celebrating Christmas here is not like in other Christian countries

Cheers


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## tintinnabulum_m

Well, talk about the countries without Christmas, the most populated country in the world - China - does not celebrate Christmas. People do know about Christmas, they may say something like merry Christmas to each other, but they never do treat it as a holiday. I think Chirstmas day (or maybe the day before or after depending on the year) is also an exam day for many Chinese student. Junior High school student are tested on so-called "little subjects", which are the subjects other than English, Chinese, Math, Chemistry, and Physics. This may change now though, I haven't been in China for several years...


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## Silvia

Janna, that's interesting, I didn't know your country had the 25th as a holyday. What happens in mixed schools? Is it compulsory to allow Christian people days off?


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## Avalon

what about israel?


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## lsp

The country of Nazareth and Bethlehem, of course Israel has Christmas!


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## Silvia

lsp said:
			
		

> The country of Nazareth and Bethlehem, of course Israel has Christmas!


 Maybe you'd like to read this


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## lsp

But there _is_ Christmas in Israel, more so this year than in the recent past, from what I've read. I wonder when this script was written, and how, in the birthplace of Jesus, they are so disappointed about not "feeling like Christmas." If they wanted to be "gathered around the tree exchanging gifts. The CD player would be serenading us with holiday cheer, a cup of hot cider or egg nog and a fire crackling in the fireplace," they could have stayed home (wherever that may be)!


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## vachecow

Doesn't Israel have more Jewish people than _Christ_ian people?  Wouldn't that mean that _Christ_mas wouldn't be a big thing over there?
I may be wrong.....


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## lsp

The founders of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all semitic. Each religion is deeply rooted in Israel, even though the percentages of the population are not distributed evenly.


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## krumholtz

Jesus was born and died as a good Jew, so were the apostles. the day of his circumcision is actualy the day christians celebrate the begining of a new year, that mean, on the 8'th days from his bearth. It is right that not many christians are in Israel, but since Jesus was born here in Israel, the Xmas have a special significance here. Just to remind you, for the Jews the Messiah didnt arrive yet and no one knows if he was born lately, so they have to wait with their celebrations till he comes.
Happy New Gregorian Year!


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## vachecow

Ah, thanks for your input!


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## Janna82

silviap said:
			
		

> Janna, that's interesting, I didn't know your country had the 25th as a holyday. What happens in mixed schools? Is it compulsory to allow Christian people days off?


the Dec 25th and Jan 1st is a holiday in our country because of the population which consists of some christians, in other middle eastern countries, like Lebanon for example, where the population consists of a larger number of christians than here in Jordan, and since the country as a whole is a christian country, they would take a longer christmas holiday than here... and regarding mixed schools........... well, most of the time, christian students or workers would take more than one day as a holiday to celebrate their feast


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## Janna82

lsp said:
			
		

> The country of Nazareth and Bethlehem, of course Israel has Christmas!


Well about Israel, the israelis are mostly jewish as i believe, and the christians in Bethlehem and Nazareth are arabs, and yes of course they celebrate christmas, and there are certain prayers in Christmas eve, and I believe you all know that the most ancient and holy churches are there


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## Silvia

Yes, but what I meant is: is there a law about holidays? Or is it just left at your boss's discretion?


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## Janna82

silviap said:
			
		

> Yes, but what I meant is: is there a law about holidays? Or is it just left at your boss's discretion?


the law only gives one day, and actually it's changeable from one establishment to another, and depending on managers, if there is a big number of christians working in one establishment, and the absence of all of them would affect the work, half of them would take for example the 26th and the other half would take the 27th, but if the christians are not the largest proportion of the establishment, all of them would take the 26th.


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## Silvia

Thank you, Janna


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## Janna82

silviap said:
			
		

> Thank you, Janna


Very glad to help    Anytime


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## vachecow

Just in case anyone was wondering........80% if Israelis are Jewish
2% are Christian
16% are Muslim
as of 1998


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## flurk

Lems said:
			
		

> Every time I see your nick and avatar I salivate remebering the delicious cream cheese _La Vache que Ri_...
> 
> BTW, looking at your location made me salivate again, now for another brand...
> 
> About the Xmas term, take a look here.
> 
> Lems
> _____________________________________________________
> Fairy tales: horror stories for children to get them use to reality.


Don't want to seem picky, but the brand is actually called "La vache qui rit"
qui = who
que = what
3rd person singular of the verb "rire" (to laugh) is "rit". The form "ri" is the perfect tense, as in: j'ai ri (I have laughed)


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## vachecow

The cow who laughed......hmmmm...if I ever go to Belgium/France I will have to try some!


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## Silvia

flurk said:
			
		

> qui = who
> que = what
> (I have laughed)


 Not exactly

Le mot que tu m'a dit = object
Le mot qui semble le plus adéquat = subject


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## lsp

vachecow121 said:
			
		

> The cow who laughed......hmmmm...if I ever go to Belgium/France I will have to try some!


It is delicious, and it is sold at all the grocery stores, look around if you aren't going to Belgium/France for a while.


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## amenrah0303

ayed said:
			
		

> Hi, all of you.
> I am from Saudi Arabia.
> any question about celebrations?
> thank you


hi, i saw your letter in the forum. just wanna ask, do you also celebrate christmas and new year? my sister is working there in saudi arabia and she told me that they are not allowed to celebrate these two, is she right?


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## vachecow

lsp said:
			
		

> it is sold at all the grocery stores


Really!  On the eastcoast?   I'm goin shoppin!!!


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## Avalon

oh, when i posted "what about israel?" i didn't mean that to be a question, but rather, an answer.  it is a predominantly jewish country, so i guess they don't celebrate christmas, since christmas day is supposed to be the day that us christians celebrate jesus' birthday.


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## vachecow

silviap said:
			
		

> What happens in mixed schools? Is it compulsory to allow Christian people days off?


Christain of non Christian, people are happy to take time off (for Christmas all kids get off school)


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## ABSURDO

personally i hate christsmas time,  i think it was an invention of the white protestant anglosaxon part of the world. unfortunately that people is actually reigning the worlds fate


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## vachecow

lsp said:
			
		

> It is delicious, and it is sold at all the grocery stores, look around if you aren't going to Belgium/France for a while.


They were all out at my local grocery store...must be good...now I really can't wait!


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