The holiday season is usually the time to think of home. It is no different for sailors far from home and land to celebrate the holiday season with the following traditions.

1. Boat Parades
2. Holiday Songs
3. A Full Christmas Dinner
4. Christmas Boat Decorations
5. Sailing Superstitions

1. Boat Parades

It is common practice for seaside communities to have ship or boat parades for Christmas. The ONE15 Christmas Boat Light Parade™ is an ode to that tradition.

Read more about the 2019 ONE15 Christmas Boat Light Parade here.

2. Holiday Songs

Sailors have a long tradition of entertaining themselves with song. Much before the Christmas carols we know came about, songs related to the story of Christmas such as “The First Noël,” “The Holly and the Ivy,” and “I Saw Three Ships” were contemporary with 18th-century pirates.

3. A Full Christmas Dinner

On board the Royal Navy during the First World War, Christmas was celebrated with a religious service on the ship, after which the Captain and the officers would visit the messes in the lower decks. It is tradition for them to take a seat and sample every dish at each of them.

4. Christmas Boat Decorations

Nikolaos, the patron saint of Greece, is known as the protector of sailors and seamen. It is tradition in Grecian islands to set out small fishing boats decorated with lights on Christmas in his honour. He is traditionally also represented in brine-soaked clothes and face covered with perspiration as he has been fighting storms to save ships and sailors from drowning.

5. Sailing Superstitions

It is considered bad luck to set Sail on a Friday, as it alludes to the Crucifixion of Jesus, whereas it is Good luck to begin on a Sunday, The day of the resurrection.

The original article was published on the Nov-Dec’20 issue of Longitude, ONE°15 Marina’s Club magazine. Read it here.