It’s Christmas eve, the streets are decorated with flashing colored lights, people laughing and a friend has handed you a beautifully wrapped gift. A friend opens a gift with anticipation to find surprisingly that the gift is totally beyond their expectation–there is only an apple with a “Merry Christmas” sticker on it. 

This might look weird that people give an apple as a Christmas present. Well, although it seems silly, it has its own special meaning and best wishes to the person who received it.

Christmas, is considered an important festival in western history for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, not only has an important status for Christians, but has become popular around the world. The celebration of Christmas has many meaningful traditions in western cultures. In recent years,  it has also begun to attract Asian cultures including the Chinese.

Although Christmas is not a public holiday in mainland China, it has been gaining popularity in recent years, especially in large cities. Christmas has become one of the major annual events for Chinese people.

China only has one percent of Christians, most of the people only know a few things about Christmas, so while the celebration is not driven by religion, they have developed their special ways of celebrating Christmas and created their own unique cultural traditions. 

Qiuyue Yao, a student who lives in Shanghai, China, shared the unique Chinese tradition that grows from Christmas. 

“Chinese people give apples to represent peace on Christmas eve,” She said, “to bless relatives and friends so that they can have a more amazing life in the New Year.”

In Chinese, Christmas eve is called “Ping An Ye” (平安夜), meaning peaceful and quiet evening, and the word for apple in Mandarin is ‘Ping Guo”, which shares the same sound of the first syllable with Christmas eve. The Chinese people advocate peace and happiness, so they created the tradition to give apples as gifts to people they care for on Christmas eve, symbolizing the best blessing. The apples sold during Christmas time are different from the apples from markets, they have messages printed on the skin (in Chinese): ‘love’, love hearts, and ‘peace’, etc. 

Unlike Western celebrations like family parties, Chinese people are more likely to treat Christmas as a social event than family, in which a lot of young people hang out with their friends, enjoy the happiest moment with holiday on-sale activities. 

“People go out to watch a movie or hang out with friends.” Celina, a Chinese student at Skyline, memorized. “ People pay to play in Santa costumes and there are beautiful lights out in the streets to take pictures and have fun.” 

However, China’s Christians treat Christmas as the most important annual festival and generally celebrate it religiously, sometimes more so than in the West. 

Serene Li, a Chinese Christian who belongs to that 1% of the total population, shows a different and more religious tradition to celebrate Christmas.

“As a Christian, I celebrate Christmas by reflecting over the whole Advent season, which has four main parts: Hope, Peace, Love, Joy,” She said. “ Over the Advent season, churches light up a weekly candle as a symbol of each part.” 

Christmas has a really special value in their heart. For them, it’s a time of “joyful expectation– a reminder to be hopeful, joyful and peaceful”, as Li further explained. 

“Christmas would not make sense to me if I do not believe that Jesus Christ was born and that He is my joy,” She said, “Spending time to reflect on the year and praying with my loved ones is the most valuable thing to do for me during Christmas.”

Nowadays, Christmas has spread in many countries and being accepted by a different culture, many people expressed that it demonstrates the cultural diversity of the world which is beneficial for people to recognize and acknowledge beautiful cultures and unique traditions among the world.

“The difference of celebration provides a variety of traditions during Christmas time; there is never a dull moment,” Teresa, a Chinese immigrant who has lived in Canada for several years, commented. “You also get to learn about all the intriguing traditions other nationality groups might hold.”

According to the statistics from World Population Review, over a hundred other countries celebrate Christmas with their own traditions, with over 160 celebrating Christmas in total.

“Everyone has traditions that are unique to them. By celebrating Christmas in different ways, we are also celebrating our differences.” Teresa continued.

In the current world, people rarely appreciate the differences between each other and how each individual has a wonderful and beautiful story to tell. The holiday season is a chance for people to realize and recognize that the different cultures, traditions, and ethnicities are the best gifts of all. Christmas really gives people this opportunity, to celebrate this “Gift”.

“The different ways people celebrate Christmas can show the character of each country or state people are from,” Celina smiled. “It can take away racial stereotypes and bring more people connected together with you, no matter where you are from.”