As we are in the holiday season, everyone celebrates differently due to cultural backgrounds & religions. There usually is a deeper meaning to the holidays besides just incentives and plenty of holidays celebrated besides the common ones of Halloween and Christmas. A few students were asked the following questions: What’s your favorite holiday? How do you celebrate the holidays in your family? What do the holidays mean to you? Why do you think there are holidays?
Bontu Keba views holidays more from a religious standpoint. She talks about celebrating her two favorite religious holidays “which are the Orthodox/Ethiopian Christmas/Nativity and Easter/Pascha. Ethiopian Christmas is usually celebrated on the 7th of January and is also the day where fasting ends, it usually is celebrated at church typically on a Saturday evening then from 1 to 3 on a Sunday morning: where we sing hymns, have prayer, various chants, etc.”
Keba says, “Easter is similar but before we break our fast for Easter there is a period called holy week where we prostrate in remembrance of Jesus’s Christ’s Crucifixion. But these holidays are tied to my faith and draw me closer to God through the divine liturgy performed and the various things that we do. These holidays for me are moments to continually remind myself of the greatness of God (even though I should be doing it everyday).” Keba reminds us of the purpose of holidays, a way for us to praise God even more, and gain more knowledge than before.
Holidays vary by culture, and XiaoYi Luo says the holiday of Lunar New Year is one of her favorites within her culture. Luo describes the holiday as a different calendar compared to western countries, but still having a traditional calendar just for holidays and birthdays, daily use would be the international one. “Similar to New Year in the US,” says Luo “we just celebrate it differently, buying new clothes, and other things, mainly red color before the new year. During the new year, we hang up ‘DuiLian,’ we visit other families, relatives, with gift[s], children get red envelope[s], we will have big dinner, we go see lion dance, this is my favorite one.
Luo says that holidays like Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day are like what we have in the U.S. “We also have a mid autumn festival, eating moon cake, celebrating QiXi, this is usually for couples.” She also said they celebrate Children’s day on June 1st. “That’s the one I’m most excited about when I was little. I can eat cake and at dinner time and get gifts. [But] the most important one, National Day on October 1st, we’re celebrating the independence of the Republic of China in 1949.”
As Luo talked about receiving gifts, Anastastia Higtz reflected on the importance of giving around the holidays besides just exchanging gifts. Higtz celebrates the holidays by “opening gifts with the people I love the most and eating together remembering the good times we had in the previous year and hoping for good times in the future.” She says her favorite holiday is Christmas because “it’s the one time I’m able to talk to as much of my family as possible because almost all of them celebrate the holiday.” For students like Higtz, the holidays mean a time to be with family and friends and be grateful for everything that you have since others may not get the same opportunities.
Henry Espinoza Diaz spoke about celebrating the holidays with his family and “embracing our Mexican culture.” Diaz says his mom and aunt usually make around 200-400 tamales on Thanksgiving and on Christmas. They even make a tamale that’s about the size of a dinner table. “My favorite holiday is Christmas because the small family I have in the U.S. gathers to celebrate. Though it’s not many people, I’m still grateful that they’re able to join and celebrate these holidays,” says Diaz. “Holidays are important to me. I get to see my brother, who lives out of state in Massachusetts. Holidays, to me, signify the reunion of people for a few days. Their minds are off work, and instead, they focus on their families. Moreover, holidays also involve cultural and religious aspects.”
Senior Kennedy Malone celebrates the holidays with her family by cooking, watching holiday movies, listening to music, and traveling. “My favorite holiday would have to be Christmas,” says Malone. “To me the holidays mean a time to relax, rejuvenate, and reset. Allowing time to reconnect with friends and family, and being especially more considerate and do good deeds for others even if you don’t know them.” Malone think the holidays allow people to “come together in one place, celebrate unity, peace, establish reconnections and improve relationships.” This shows another importance to the holidays as it gives us time to have a mental health break and reflect as this is the time where seasonal depression hits the most in a busy work season for students.
Holidays have different values but are all important from family to religion to history whatever it means but it reminds and reunites us all and sheds light on us during the hard times. So I hope everyone who reads this has a good and happy holiday! 🙂
