Thursday, December 19, 2013

Chinese Gift Exchange: Strange or Little Known Christmas Traditions from Around the World


The 40 Days of Blogging Challenge has assigned quite the topic today. I don’t know many strange Christmas traditions from around the world, but I did learn of a tradition unknown TO ME a few years ago. Chinese Gift Exchange which I have since learned can be played a variety of ways, includes the ability for people to “swap” gifts within a group “during their turn” but they risk the gift being swapped by someone else on “their turn.” You end up not even knowing which gift you will receive with until the very end. When I saw it played in a close-knit family, I enjoyed watching the bargaining and maneuvering from one cousin to another.

Traditions can be fun and normally are associated with joyous memories. But there IS one Christmas tradition that is strange and not filled with joy whatsoever. It seems to have become a media tradition to air “Special Reports” on the possibility of “new and possibly faith shattering” information about Jesus Christ or the ancient Church. Funny part is, the Orthodox Church in the vast majority of cases was already aware of this so-called damaging evidence, and had already investigated it, and had already declared it bologna CENTURIES ago.

So we are only a few days away from Christmas…..get ready for the annual traditional shocking revelation by the media about Jesus Christ and the Church. I wonder what it will be this year. Maybe they will discover that Saint Athanasios, you know…the guy who gave the world the Creed and the Scripture Canon, was exiled by the Empire, and this will “prove” the Church that eventually agreed with him was covering something up…..It’s kind of like Chinese Gift Exchange, you never what you get until it’s all over!

This post is written for the 40 Days of Blogging Challenge sponsored by the Preachers Institute. You may find other blogs participating in this challenge. I hope you enjoy this year’s Advent journey.

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