A curious Christmas ritual takes place each year in Japan.

"Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii" ‑ or "Kentucky for Christmas", is the habit of eating Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) on 24th December.

It began as an inspired bit of marketing in the 1970s, when KFC noticed that expatriates who craved Christmas turkey turned to fried chicken as the closest available substitute.

Now a popular Japanese tradition, customers queue around the block, and some pre‑order their meal as early as October.

Christmas, of course, is not a religious holiday in Japan, where a tiny minority of the population is Christian.

But Kentucky for Christmas demonstrates how easily commercial interests can hijack religious festivals ‑ from Diwali in India to Passover in Israel, but most notoriously, Christmas in America.

[Source: BBC]