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Christmas in Summer

by Patrick

Everybody learned in school that the seasons are opposite in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres – so, for example, when it’s winter in Asia, it’s summer in Australia. But sometimes you northerners seem to forget! From time to time, Japanese people are surprised when I mention that people in Australia celebrate Christmas in summer. “What? Really!? Oh, yeah… that’s right, isn’t it.”

For historical and cultural reasons, Australia has inherited most of its Christmas traditions from Britain and other parts of Europe, so even though Christmas is in summer, we still display images of snow outside, a warm fire inside, and Santa Claus in his thick, woolly coat and boots. You may have seen images from Australia of ‘surfing Santa’, wearing shorts on a sunny beach, or Santa having his sleigh pulled by kangaroos instead of reindeer – and those images are funny and quite popular, but not yet as popular as the traditional European images.

However, there are some old traditions that Australians have changed to suit the hot weather. For example, more and more Australians are no longer serving a hot, British-style roast turkey or roast ham for Christmas lunch. Instead, they prefer cold meats and salads, or a barbeque outside.

Australians also invented a Christmas tradition called ‘carols by candlelight’. People gather in a park, at night-time, to sing Christmas carols together under the starry sky. Everybody holds a candle, in a cup to catch the melted wax. The stars are brighter in the Southern Hemisphere, and all the candle flames look like a second starry sky on the ground. It’s very beautiful, and it’s easy to relax because the night air is quite warm in summer.

An interesting side-effect of Christmas taking place during summer is that television in Australia is really boring at Christmastime. In Britain and America, since it’s so cold, everybody stays inside and many people watch television, so all of the TV channels try to broadcast something new and interesting. But in Australia, Christmas is in the middle of everybody’s summer holiday, so television has never become an important part of Christmas.

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