What most Luxembourgers are longing for is hardly special in Canada: a white Christmas.
What does Christmas in Canada look like though? And what has changed due to the pandemic? Nadine Kremer has been looking for answers in her correspondence from Quebec City.
Audio in Luxembourgish / French.
Janie Duclos explains that Canadians usually meet up with family, spending evenings playing music or simply eating. A favourite Canadian dish is a “tourtière”, a meat pie, made with pork, veal or beef and potatoes.
It is also common practice to spend some time outside when it snows. Children especially enjoy having snowball fights at Christmas. Afterwards, the tradition is to warm up with hot chocolate, according to Ms Duclos.
However, since October only people who live alone are allowed visitors, limited to just one guest at a time. In November the government announced the lifting of this restriction, allowing up to 10 people to spend Christmas together. But as cases began to surge again, the exception was quickly rescinded.
This meant that carefully laid Christmas plans fell through for many Quebecois. The sole exception in place is for people who live alone to be permitted to join just one other household in a “bubble” from 17 December to 11 January, according to François Legault, Prime Minister of Quebec.
The government has enacted this policy to support single people, and in particular to enable students to spend Christmas with their parents, provided they are an only child. No family is permitted to host more than one person.
Janie Duclos says that in light of these restrictions the festive period feels very different this year. Several people have decided to postpone the festivities. She says that Canada’s Christmas traditions are meant to be enjoyed with family, hence the postponement.
Besides Christmas, New Year’s Eve celebrations will be cut short too as Quebec’s PM extended - and even expanded - restrictions until 11 January.
After Christmas, all non-essential retail will close for two weeks and working from home will become mandatory. As is the case in Luxembourg, pupils will be taught from home for one week after the Christmas break. These measures should be seen as a sort of quarantine before and after the holidays.
One silver lining, however, is that skiing, sledging and other outdoor winter activities will be allowed. And if Canada has anything in abundance it is snow.
