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In places around the world where people observe Christmas, they do so with a wide variety of religious, secular and folk traditions. Most traditions are celebrations of the birth of Jesus Christ, (observed on December 25th in most places, on January 7th by some Eastern Orthodox churches), but many incorporate other customs and figures, such as Santa Claus, Father Frost, Saint Nicholas the Krampus and others. Last Tuesday, January 6th, was Epiphany, the day the Magi became the first religious figures to worship the infant Jesus Christ, and the conclusion of the Twelve Holy Days of the Christmas season. Here is a collection of people around the world observing traditions and ceremonies of the Christmas Season. ( 30 photos total) 
Catholic nuns of the Sisters of Bethlehem, some who have taken a vow of silence, pray during the Christmas mass in the Beit Jamal Monastery near Jerusalem, late Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
Dominic Eggert wails while meeting Rick Mariarty dressed as Santa Claus during a Christmas party Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/The St. Cloud Times, Dave Schwarz) #
People walk near a Christmas tree outside the Bird's Nest, also known as the National Stadium, on Christmas Eve in Beijing, China on December 24, 2008. (REUTERS/Jason Lee) #
Men jump into the icy waters of a lake in an attempt to grab a wooden cross on Epiphany Day in Sofia, Bulgaria on January 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov) #
The sun rises above the Orthodox Church in the town of Novogrudok, 150 km west of the capital Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, as morning temperatures dropped to around -15 degrees Celsius. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) #
Men perform the traditional Bulgarian "Horo" dance in the icy winter waters of the river Tundzha in the town of Kalofer, Bulgaria some 200 km east of the capital Sofia, during the Epiphany Day celebrations on January 6, 2009. (BORYANA KATSAROVA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A Palestinian boy dressed as Santa Claus makes his way to the Latin Catholic Church in Gaza City as Palestinian Christians attend the last Sunday mass before Christmas on December 21, 2008. Some 2,000 Palestinian Christians live in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images) #
A man rides in his cart, pulled by ponies, before the annual horse race organized by Orthodox believers in the Romanian village of Pietrosani, 45km north of Bucharest, Romania on Epiphany Day January 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Mihai Barbu) #
Pope Benedict XVI blesses the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as he adresses the "Urbi et Orbi" message to the City and to the World at the Vatican on December 25, 2008. The Pontiff in his Christmas message warned that the world was headed toward ruin if selfishness prevails over solidarity during tough economic times for both rich and poor nations. Speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on the day Christians commemorate Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, Benedict XVI declared that the "heart of the Christian message is meant for all men and women". (OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP/Getty Images) #
A catholic woman reads the Bible after a Christmas Eve mass at the temporary Bailu Township Church on December 24, 2008 in Pengzhou of Sichuan Province, China. The church, destroyed in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, was rebuilt in a makeshift house. Many pilgrims have come to worship at the church today with commemoration for the victims, over seven months after the devastating earthquake. (China Photos/Getty Images) #
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