List of Countries Where Christmas Celebration Face Restrictions
- VIVA/Anisa Aulia
Jakarta – Christmas Day, is a significant Christian holisay commemorating the Jesus Christ birth. It's celebrated by billions of people around the world, both religiously and culturally in every December 25.
Christmas is characterized by various traditions like attending church services, exchanging gifts, decorating homes with lights and Christmas trees, singing carols, and sharing meals with family and friends.
But, there are some countries bans Christmas celebration for variety of reasons. Here is a list of some of the countries that do not allow Christmas Day, as reported from various sources.
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1. North Korea
North Korea has a non-existing relationship with Christmas. This holiday and the celebration of it was officially banned in 2014. Christmas is regarded as being a Christian holiday, so the government of North Korea sees it as a direct competition with their religion of Juche.
With this country being hailed as a Hermit Kingdom, allowing Christmas is viewed as a sign of Western influence.
So, North Korea has sought to keep western culture out of its country and has even gone as far as punishing anyone celebrating Christmas.
2. Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, churches, crosses and Christian meetings of any kind are illegal throughout the country. There are no churches and even the wearing of any kind of religious symbol is forbidden.
A Christmas tree or lights outside are unthinkable. For Christian households, Christmas must be celebrated in secrecy.
And for any Christian converts in a Muslim family (converting is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment or lashes), they are often forced to hide their faith, acting like a Muslim who doesn’t celebrate Christmas—celebrating Jesus only silently in their hearts.
3. Brunei
While Christmas is acknowledged as a religious holiday for Christians, public celebrations and the display of decorations are restricted.
4. Tajikistan
Tajikistan has a reputation of banning many different things. As a result, one of the more recent banning’s for this country was Christmas. This included giving presents, collecting money, Christmas dinner, Santa Claus or Father Frost, and even Christmas trees.
So, all of the secular aspects of the holiday were prohibited through a decree issued by the education ministry.
With the country being mostly Muslim, leadership sees any perceived ‘deviation’ from cultural norms as suspicious. However, extremists who celebrate these holidays sometimes face harassment and persecution.
5. Yemen
With Islam being the official religion of Yemen, Christmas is not a publicly celebrated holiday. In fact, the country has not observed Christmas for several decades.
However, in 2020, six years after a civil war broke out in the country, a small neighborhood in Al-Jahmiliya lit hundreds of candles on December 25th, to draw the world’s attention to end the war in their city Taez.
6. Somalia
For the past eight years, since 2015, Somalia has banned the celebration of Christmas outright. In 2009, the country adopted the Sharia Law which is a religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith.
Government officials give out warnings that anyone who partakes in these Christian activities could threaten the Muslim faith of the nation.
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