Tis the season to be jolly, and I want to know what traditions you and your family’s share. Different people from different backgrounds all have different ways to celebrate the holidays, and I’m eager to hear some. For me and my family, we always stay up till midnight on Christmas Eve and open all our presents together. But what are some of your traditions? Freshman Bianca Grangasingh’s family, “always puts up our Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving” and “opens our presents on Christmas morning.” Freshman Cindy Nguyen and her family celebrates Chinese New Year, which is a spring festival and the most social and economic holiday in China.
Of course not every family has holiday traditions. And some do but don’t recognize them because it always happens or it’s just a simple little thing like they always watch the same movie every year or they always go Christmas shopping a week before Christmas. Traditions are different for different families from different backgrounds. Some adapted throughout time, and others have to do with religion or culture. It’s interesting to hear about different traditions and different holidays that others have, it gives you an insight to their world and their experiences. For sophomore Eyota Powell, her and her family always “put up a (Christmas) tree, bake cookies, (and) open presents on Christmas Eve.” But I have been talking a lot about Christmas, so how about a little history on some other holidays around this time?
Hanukkah lasts for eight days, the eight days stand for significance, when the Maccabees successfully rebelled against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. “Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights and it remembers the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.” As said in Hanukkah-The Jewish Festival of Lights. And according to the Talmud, a late text, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day’s lighting. The eight days are celebrated with lighting candles each night. The most common game played during this celebration is the dreidel, the dreidel is a four sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The four letters are the first letter of the phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham,” which means “A great miracle happened there.” Each player puts a coin, nut or chocolate coin in a pot and the top is spun, if the letter is “nun” nothing happens, if it’s “gimel” the player wins the pot, if it’s “hay” you win half the pot and if it’s “shin” or “pe” you have to put another item into the pot and the next person has a spin.
Kwanzaa on the other hand is a seven day festival that celebrates African and African American culture and history. It starts on the 26 of December and ends on January 1st, and the name Kwanzaa comes from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in the Swahili language, which is an Eastern African language spoken in countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. During Kwanzaa a special candle holder called a kinara is used. A kinara hold seven candles, three red ones on the left, three green ones on the right with a black candle in the center. Each night of Kwanzaa one candle is lit, this is quite similar to the lighting of the menorah in the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah.
I got this information from whychristmas.com.
is the season to be jolly, and I want to know what traditions you and your family’s share. Different people from different backgrounds all have different ways to celebrate the holidays, and I’m eager to hear some. For me and my family, we always stay up till midnight on Christmas Eve and open all our presents together. But what are some of your traditions? Freshman Bianca Grangasingh’s family, “always puts up our Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving” and “opens our presents on Christmas morning.” Freshman Cindy Nguyen and her family celebrates Chinese New Year, which is a spring festival and the most social and economic holiday in China.
Of course not every family has holiday traditions. And some do but don’t recognize them because it always happens or it’s just a simple little thing like they always watch the same movie every year or they always go Christmas shopping a week before Christmas. Traditions are different for different families from different backgrounds. Some adapted throughout time, and others have to do with religion or culture. It’s interesting to hear about different traditions and different holidays that others have, it gives you an insight to their world and their experiences. For sophomore Eyota Powell, her and her family always “put up a (Christmas) tree, bake cookies, (and) open presents on Christmas Eve.” But I have been talking a lot about Christmas, so how about a little history on some other holidays around this time?
Hanukkah lasts for eight days, the eight days stand for significance, when the Maccabees successfully rebelled against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. “Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights and it remembers the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.” As said in Hanukkah-The Jewish Festival of Lights. And according to the Talmud, a late text, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day’s lighting. The eight days are celebrated with lighting candles each night. The most common game played during this celebration is the dreidel, the dreidel is a four sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The four letters are the first letter of the phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham,” which means “A great miracle happened there.” Each player puts a coin, nut or chocolate coin in a pot and the top is spun, if the letter is “nun” nothing happens, if it’s “gimel” the player wins the pot, if it’s “hay” you win half the pot and if it’s “shin” or “pe” you have to put another item into the pot and the next person has a spin.
Kwanzaa on the other hand is a seven day festival that celebrates African and African American culture and history. It starts on the 26 of December and ends on January 1st, and the name Kwanzaa comes from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which means “first fruits” in the Swahili language, which is an Eastern African language spoken in countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. During Kwanzaa a special candle holder called a kinara is used. A kinara hold seven candles, three red ones on the left, three green ones on the right with a black candle in the center. Each night of Kwanzaa one candle is lit, this is quite similar to the lighting of the menorah in the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah.
I got this information from whychristmas.com.
