A little supplement to the pub quiz here. Around the World the Christmas period is celebrated in some very different ways. In which countries do the following occur: 1. Santa Claus arrives on a steam boat, and also bad children will be sent in a sack to Spain ? 2. This was the first country to use a Christmas tree in a public place. 3. The so called 'Christ Child' is a girl in which country ? 4. In which country does the Christmas cake have a broad bean hidden in it ? 5. In which country is Christmas eve called 'Wigilia' and no food is eaten until the first star is visible in the sky (if it's a cloudy night you go hungry) ? 6. Presents are also brought by small gnomes called 'Nisse' in which country ? 7. In this place the most important Christmas decoration is a bamboo pole with a lighted star lantern on it. 8. A huge straw goat is built for the start of advent, where ? 9. Which country has processions which start on Christmas day and continue through to New Year's Eve ? 10. In this place December 28th is the day of the innocent saints and is very much like april fool's day in other countries.
Cologne, could you mark this according to how many we get right, but don't specify which we got right until someone gets them all right? That way we can feed off each other. I think these multi-question puzzlers are much more fun that way. I'll have a crack at it tomorrow. A little sozzled now.
Ok. The rules are: To take the plunge and try to answer all 10, and I will then tell you how many you have right out of 10, but without saying which are right (until we have a winner). So, who's going to take the plunge first ? The winner ends up with all ten.
1. Greece 2. Czech Republic 3. Kenya 4. Belgium 5. Singapore 6. Denmark 7. Philippines (not just because of BBs answer, my departmental VP is from there) 8. Hogs Head Inn, Hogsmeade (sorry, couldn't resist - anyone who knows their HP will know what I'm referring to) 9. Trinidad & Tobago 10. Moldova
Thanks for attempting this Hornetonsecondbase - your result is 1/10. A possible second was very close (hit the crossbar).
I have just double checked on this - you now have 2 from 10. This is because of 2 languages which are very close to each other.
1. Holland - where Christmas is already over for kids (Sinterklaas comes from Madrid on 5th Dec with his helpers, the Black Peters, who take the naughty ones away). 2. I don't think anyone is really sure - and probably depends on the definition of 'public place'. The Romans decorated temples with them during the festival of Saturnalia, or, outdoors, decorated fir trees were first used in Tallin, Estonia, during the 15th century. 3. Germany - my nephew in Munich used to write his Christmas wishlist to Christkind 4. Portugal - and whoever finds the bean has to buy/supply the cake the following year 5.Poland. 6. Nisse being hobgoblins, I would imagine Norway? 7. The Philippines 8. A guess - Jamaica? 9. Switzerland 10. 'Día de los santos inocentes' - Spain.
It helps being a teacher - I set my class something very similar to while away Tuesday afternoon, my last day of term...
Now I'm in a quandary - I'm guessing either #2 as I hedged my bets with a double answer, or #8 as it was a pure guess, based on goat being a popular dish there. Or maybe even #3 as the Swedes celebrate St. Lucia day...
Amazing what you can find when you look hard enough... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christmas-yule-goat-burns_us_583fb79be4b0c68e047ee713 #8 is Gävle in Sweden?
You have it BB. With 10 points from 10 you are now declared official Watford not 606 Santa Claus The answers were. 1. The Netherlands - apparently Sintaklaas arrives on Jan. 6th by steam boat - always at a different port. He always leaves from the Hook of Holland (they actually divert normal shipping for this). There are similarities to this in Belgium, but without the Spanish connection. 2. Estonia (Just before Latvia). 3. The 'Christkind' is always female on German Christmas markets - the most famous being Nuremberg. 4. Portugal (though some Spanish speaking countries also do this) 5. Poland 6. Norway or Denmark - gnomes are called something else in Sweden. 7. The Phillipines 8. Sweden (Gävle). Unfortunately it got burned down within 24 hours this year. 9. Switzerland - More precisely the Bernese Oberland. 10. Spain - maybe also some S. American countries.
That's why I made my comment about if anyone had seen QI on Thursday, they would've got number 6 as Sandi Toksvig referred to it.
