Archive for 2009

Traditional Maori Craft in New Zealand

Carving by Shanti, shanti

The Maori were the first people in New Zealand and Rotorua is a town steeped in Maori history and culture. It is located in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. A great place to gain first-hand knowledge of some of the traditions of Maori culture in Rotorua is the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute at Te Puia. Here you can watch traditional weavers and carvers carrying out thier craft.

Some of the original students from the school’s beginnings in the 1960s are still here and teaching the three-year diploma students. While they are teaching the next generation about the history and methods behind their craft, they also welcome visitors to chat and ask questions. You can find out the meaning behind the various patterns and how natural resources are used to great effect.

Later, visitors have the opportunity to purchase some of the items in the shop that are actually made on site. With the care and attention given to each item, of course, this artwork comes at a price. But if you are in the market for something original to take home, chances are that you may also get to chat to the artist who has made it. This makes for a personal souvenir for the visitor and a welcome recognition of the artist. In turn the tradition of these craft will carry a value that will keep it going well into the future.

Read more:
New Zealand’s volcanic vanilla
Summer rituals in New Zealand
The best of Thailand at Pattaya floating market

Cooking chapati in Nairobi, Kenya

This photo comes to us from Isabelle Prondzynski (prondis_in_kenya).

She says, “Cooking chapati on a jiko. Laborious work!

The charcoal fired jiko drops its ashes below; the little door at the bottom regulates the heat if necessary. The chapatis are cooked on a thick iron griddle which spreads the heat evenly and is used only for this purpose.”

I say, “It looks delicious!”

Pocketcultures loves to talk about food from around the world. If you have some photos, why not join our Food of the World Flickr group?

Read more:
Home-made Chinese pancakes (Food of the World)
A Kenyan festive lunch (Food of the World)

Streets of Yemen

This week we’re featuring two Yemeni bloggers who write about life in their country. Most of their posts are in Arabic, but with Google Translate and a bit of patience, we can see a bit of Yemen through the eyes of some Yemeni women.

Shells is about ‘Yemeni girls and the surrounding community’. In the post Shells and Pearl she says:

I mean in pearl every yemeni woman who try to be stronger and overcome all difficulties that she faces, shell are the environment around the pearl as family (father, mother, brothers, sisters and husband). Sometimes this shell dosn’t have a flexibility so this leads to damaging of the very fine pearl but even those pearls try to have her own identity and personility whatever happens. Sea is the society which also sometimes makes restrictions on the pearl, ocean is the whole world. So all of these things surround the little pearl. Is she lucky or poor? What can she do to deal with all of these things?

The second blog, Feeling (scroll down for English), aims to write about social issues. In a series of posts, the author Rahaf has been exploring the situation of street children in Yemen.

These bloggers were trained by the Hand in Hand Initiative, which is a project supported by Rising Voices, aiming to enable Yemenis to add their voices to the global blogosphere. This interview with project leader Ghaida’a al-Absi is also worth a watch to find out more about Yemen and the project, which has produced 67 new bloggers so far.

Read more:
More Middle East blogs from Blogs of the World
What is the future of Arabic dialects? Different dialects of Arabic and where they are spoken
Reem Kelani’s introduction to Arabic music
The dying art of Yemeni shoes and Kutnu fabrics

Christkind or Weihnachtsmann? Christmas in Germany

Christmas traditions in Germany vary a lot, depending on the area you live in, and also if this area is predominantly a Catholic or Protestant one.  We even have two entities bringing presents: the Christkind and the traditional Santa or Weihnachtsmann. Most Germans do share one of the following traditions though:

The start of all Christmas-related actvity (especially as it is also the opening day of our world-famous Christmas Markets) is marked by the first Advent-Sunday, four weeks before Christmas. Most families will light the first candle on their Advent wreath, adding a burning candle each week until all four candles are burning on Christmas Eve.

(image via)

The first important day for most children is December 6 (Saint Nicholas day), when they have to put their shoes outside the door to have Santa Claus fill the shoes with sweets and little presents. This does depend on if the children have been naughty or nice: nice children will receive the aforementioned sweets, naughty children only get a “Rute“, or rod, to represent the fact that they’d have received a spanking back in the old days.

The one main difference to most European Christmas celebrations is that for Germans Christmas Eve is the most important day. Though no official holiday, most people will finish work around noon, to be home in time to set the tree and prepare the elaborate evening meal. And it is after this dinnner that children will receive their presents, so you can imagine the state they are in come dessert (or even worse, come Papa’s cigarette after dessert).

After the unwrapping and connected commotion most families will settle down for the evening to watch TV or chat under the Christmas tree, though in some areas families will attend late Mass around ten in the evening.

A nice local tradition from the Rhineland is that instead of serving a vast, multi-course meal people will sit down to a helping of sausage and potato salad. After all that hassle you had before the holidays, chasing down presents and preparing the household, Mama does not want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen.

After all the feasting and excitement on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are reserved for visiting relatives and friends (and more eating), and of course to relax and wind down. And to start thinking about the plans for the New Year’s Eve-party.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr! (Merry Christmas and a happy new year!)

This was the last in our series of Christmas around the world posts.

Read the rest here:
Sunny Christmas: Christmas in New Zealand
Magic Christmas – Christmas in Catalunya
Christmas regained – Christmas in Romania
Windy Christmas – Christmas in Costa Rica
White Christmas – Christmas in the UK

Sunny Christmas: Christmas in New Zealand

First events on the Christmas calendar in New Zealand? Santa parades! In the first or second week of December many towns and cities have a parade which kicks off the excitement of Christmas for the youngest Kiwis. The streets will be lined with parents and kiddies who enjoy watching the singing and dancing. But the highlight is when Santa himself arrives in his sleigh decked out in Christmas reds. And, since Christmas falls in the summer down here in the Southern Hemisphere, Santa can often be seen wearing shorts, sunglasses and jandals (flip-flops).

The weeks leading up to the 25th of December will be busy as people shop for Christmas presents and also attend parties put on by their place of employment. The office Christmas party is a tradition where people tend to let loose with their workmates and enjoy the end of the work year together. Depending on where one works, you might be having the party in-house, or some employers will book a restaurant or maybe even a dining cruise. There is usually food and drink and sometimes there is also a “Secret Santa” element to the party. For this, everyone will buy a gift that costs up to a specified limit, usually just 5 or 10 dollars, and all the gifts will be collected, mixed up and then handed out randomly. You never know what you will get or who will end up with the present you bought.

Christmas in New Zealand is very much centered around family and being outdoors. As it’s also school holidays, many families will leave town for a few days or even weeks to relax at the beach. They may stay in a caravan or a bach. Whatever they choose, the aim is to get away from it all. A day or two before Christmas everyone will pack up the car and head out to the destination of choice. Upon arriving they will settle in, finish wrapping presents for under the tree, have some food and perhaps some New Zealand wine or beer and let the relaxing begin until Christmas morning when it’s time to open presents.

While Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere is all about keeping warm and cozy during the winter weather, New Zealand Christmas is more about enjoying the sunshine. Heavy roast dinners are not as common and many people will have barbecues and, if they are lucky, get to eat the seafood they’ve caught that day. Having said this, there is one thing that is essential to the Kiwi Christmas dinner table, and that is the pavlova. A pavlova is like a meringue that is the size and shape of a cake. It is adorned with fruit such as berries or kiwifruit to offset the sweetness of the meringue.

On the morning of the 25th, Christmas Day, everyone will wake up and open the presents that have appeared under the tree from Santa. Kiwi’s tend to have either a fake or real fir tree with lots of decorations as is common in Europe. But there is also a New Zealand Christmas tree called a pohutukawa. These trees grow all over the country and are marked by bright red, brushlike, blossoms around Christmas time. When the landscape begins to turn red, Kiwis everywhere start to get that summer feeling and look forward to Christmas.

Although New Zealand has a recognised bi-cultural European/ Maori heritage, you can see that many of our Christmas traditions have a lot in common with those of European countries. But one thing that sets our festivities apart is the wonderful summer weather we have in December. Everyone should experience a warm Christmas at least once in a lifetime!

Come back tomorrow for our final Christmas around the world post, Christmas in Germany, by Marcel.

Read more:
Magic Christmas – Christmas in Catalunya
Christmas regained – Christmas in Romania
Windy Christmas – Christmas in Costa Rica
White Christmas – Christmas in the UK

Magic Christmas: Christmas in Catalunya

Catalunya is in the north-east part of Spain and has a distinct language, culture and traditions of its own. Whereas in Spain Christmas is celebrated with a big family meal on the evening of 24th December, in Catalunya Christmas is celebrated on the 25th with a big lunch.

Tió the magic log. Credit

But before lunch, generally in the morning, (although some families make it on Christmas eve), we have a particular Catalan tradition, where children and not so children make “cagar el Tió”, which as a literal translation would be to make “the log poop”.

OK forget the translation, better I explain it! So you get a log and children feed it starting a couple of weeks before Christmas (usually Santa Llúcia on the 13th december). During the night parents remove the food and next day the child thinks that the log has eaten it, and it’s good because the more it eats the more presents it will “poop” or give.

On Christmas day, children go to the kitchen and pray, then they get a stick and while singing a song which can change from area to area in the differents parts of Catalonia but all about the “Tió”, they hit the log which is covered with a blanket.

caga tió,
tió de Nadal,
no caguis arengades,
que són massa salades
caga torrons
que són més bons!”

(poop log, christmas log, don’t poop salty sardines; they are too salty. poop nougats, which are nicer!)

“Tio” under his blanket. Credit

When the children finish the song, they remove the blanket and underneath they find the presents! (which while praying in the kitchen the parents have hidden under the log and covered with the blanket) and really, children are so happy they don’t think how come the log “poops” presents.

If the child has been not behaving properly during the last year at some point the “Tió” will give coal, which usually is a candy with the aspect of coal. At my home however, as we were good children (of course!) the coal was put at the last try to indicate that the “Tió” didn’t have anything else to poop.

Unfortunately like other traditions this one was fading with the omnipresent Santa Claus, however, recently it seems it’s beginning to be “trendy” again.

This was a guest post by Meritxell in Catalunya. Thanks Meritxell!

Visit again tomorrow for Christmas in New Zealand, by Marie.

Read more:
Christmas regained – Christmas in Romania
Windy Christmas – Christmas in Costa Rica
White Christmas – Christmas in the UK