Jamaican Christmas Traditions

Christmas is a festive time for a lot of people. This festival brings hope, joy and happiness in the lives of many people. The festival is associated with parties, feasts and family reunions accompanied with Christmas music. Families start preparations for the Christmas well in advance. The homes are cleaned and decorated with twig of evergreen trees and wreaths. The buying of Christmas tree and decorating it with ornaments, lights and tinsel is a special activity for every family. A lot of traditions are related to Christmas. Every nation has its own set of Christmas traditions, which differ due t the culture. Jamaican Christmas traditions are related to family.

The Christmas is one of the most celebrated festivals in Jamaica. People come together and have parties with great food and drinks. The Christmas celebrations start in mid December and end with New Year. The entire fortnight is spent enjoying festivities with family and friends. Christmas is the biggest event for every family member and so preparations for it starts as early as last week of November. The gifts are exchanged and people visit each other's homes. Santa Claus and his gifts are important part of Christmas celebration in Jamaica. The Jamaicans enjoy singing of Christmas carols and listening to Christmas music.

On the Christmas day, many Jamaicans go to church and attend mass. Prayers are offered to Jesus. Jamaica is an island. It does not snow during Christmas just like European countries. Yet, the Christmas celebration is reaches its epistle on Christmas eve. The Christmas dinner is a traditional and special meal. The dinner has rice with peas, roasted pork and beef. The desert is a special fruit cake baked for Christmas. This fruit cake is soaked\d in rum. This is a specialty of Jamaicans. During Christmas, Jamaicans enjoy sorrel as a drink. This drink is prepared from sorrel, a meadow plant with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar, orange peel and rum. This beverage is served cold wit ice.

A parade is organized during Christmas. This parade has revelers draped in masquerade of various hues. This parade is called as Jonkanoo. The people wear white mask and play characters like horse head, horned cow head, policeman and so on. These parades were a normal feature during Christmas on Streets of Jamaican cities. Today, this tradition is diminishing and now it is just a part of cultural events held during Christmas. During Christmas, a grand market is organized in Jamaica. This grand market is nothing but a fair that has traditional dance, music, food, etc. It is a complete entertainment package for a family.

These grand markets were organized on weekend before Christmas as well as on Christmas Eve. People used to go and enjoy the food music as well as buy gifts for family and friends.