Happy Holidays! Have you ever thought about holiday traditions and how they are observed? Celebrations can be specific to countries, cultures, regions, and families. During this holiday season, consider how your ELs (English Learners), as well as your other students, might observe the holidays. Be willing to celebrate similarities and differences. These may include, but are not limited to, the following.
- Family traditions – Advent calendars and Christmas wreaths, concerts and cantatas
- Cultural traditions – Stockings in the US and clogs or shoes in the Netherlands; Three Kings Day parades in Europe and Latin America and New Year’s Day parades in the US; depending on where you are from, you can either eat a Yule Log for dessert or burn it in your fireplace; the huge Christmas Markets in the cities of Austria
- Religious practices – Living Nativity on Christmas Eve (USA) and Las Posadas from December 16-24 (Mexico)
- Gift-giving and receiving – USA usually does this on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, while in the Netherlands, this day is December 5 or 6 and Sinterklaas lives in Madrid, Spain
- Clothing – Santa hats and Christmas sweaters are popular in the US
- Festive food – turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, ham and mashed potatoes (USA); mutton and yams, chicken and rice (Nigeria); roasted pork and stuffed tomatoes (Argentina)
- Special recipes – pumpkin or pecan pie, hot cider or eggnog, plum pudding or ginger bread
- Festive colors – In the US, festive colors include red, green, gold, and silver. Chinese New Year colors are red (good fortune and happiness) and gold (wealth). Incidentally, Chinese New Year will be celebrated February 1, 2022. When using festive colors, it is important to avoid using red ink when writing one’s name or signing your own. In many cultures, writing a name in red (the color of blood) implies a death wish or the conjuring of a curse for that person.
Personally, I love going to a candlelight Christmas Service on Christmas Eve, hearing the Christmas story, and singing Christmas carols and hymns. My family also hangs stockings on the stair railing (this tradition is particular to our current home) and then opens them after the Christmas Eve service.
This holiday season, I encourage you to share one or two of your holiday traditions with your class and encourage your students to also share their traditions with you and their classmates.
I wish you all a Joyful Merry Christmas and a Happy Blessed New Year! Feel free to comment below and share some of your traditions. I look forward to reading them!
Jené Conklin
Sources include https://www.whychristmas.com/ and https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/holidays/photos/fun-holiday-traditions-around-the-world.