Winter Holidays Around the World
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The air is thick with holiday spirit. We love how excited children are to join in the celebration. The joy is palpable.
Part of a Montessori approach is providing education that teaches students about the world beyond their little bubbles. Cultural, social, and community education are infused in all subjects and lessons.
This post will briefly explore various holidays celebrated around the world. What fun to know our worldwide community all pauses around the same time to reflect on what truly matters to us.
Christmas
Probably the best-known holiday this season, Christmas is widely recognized as a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is celebrated on December 25th every year, with Christmas Eve being celebrated the day before.
Many Christmas traditions had origins dating before Christmas was even a recognized holiday. These pagan festivals and traditions were adopted by Christians.
Today, many people of many religions, backgrounds, and cultures celebrate Christmas. The most common traditions include:
🎄 Cutting down and/or decorating an evergreen tree
🎄 Hanging stockings for gifts
🎄 Santa Clause delivering gifts to children
🎄 Christmas music and caroling
🎄 Cookies and baking
🎄 Exchanging gifts and cards
Hanukkah
Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It lasts nine days and usually starts sometime in late November or early December.
Israel and Jews, a highly persecuted population, remember the significance of when they regained control of Jerusalem at this time in 165 BC.
Text and tradition cite the miracle of the menorah. After the purification of the Temple, the candle is said to have burned for eight days, even though it only had enough oil for one day. This is the origin of the tradition of the 8-day holiday.
Some traditions typically associated with Hanukkah include:
🕎 Lighting the menorah (8 candles + one for lighting - one lit per night of the festival)
🕎 Playing the game of dreidel
🕎 Making and eating foods fried in oil
🕎 Exchanging gifts
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is a holiday of African-American culture celebrated from December 26 - January 1. It was first created and celebrated in 1966 by Maulana Karenga.
Karenga’s intent in starting Kwanzaa was to give African-Americans a holiday of their own. He said he wanted them to have a holiday to celebrate themselves and their history.
In 1997, its official position and purpose shifted to be a celebration of family, community, and culture. Many people who celebrate Kwanzaa today also celebrate Christmas as well.
Traditions associated with Kwanzaa include:
🍲 Family gatherings
🍲 A large feast (Kwanzaa means “first fruits”)
🍲 Songs + dances
🍲 African cultural celebrations
Boxing Day
Boxing day is originally a United Kingdom holiday celebrated on December 26th.
It was originally a holiday meant to give servants a day off. Traditionally, masters would give their servants a box - sometimes containing leftovers from Christmas or gifts for their families.
As its origin is today mostly irrelevant, Boxing Day’s popularity is declining. Countries where this is still recognized generally use it simply as a day off of work.
Winter Solstice
The Winter Solstice usually falls on or around December 21st. This is the shortest day – or longest night – of the year (in terms of hours of daylight). Officially, this is the start of the winter season.
Historically, this date carried much more weight, as early cultures were much more dependent on weather and proper food preparation for survival.
Many cultures around the world still honor traditions associated with the winter solstice, and many of these traditions are the very ones that have been adopted by Christmas.
Yule
Yule (also called Yuletide) is a 12-day festival of German descent. It seems to originally be connected to a mythological hunt. It begins on Winter Solstice and ends eleven days later.
Scholars debate about the origin, intent, religion, and even culture in which Yule began. Because of this, traditions related to Yuletide are also very unclear. Like many other holidays, its traditions have been adopted, borrowed, and morphed by other religions and holidays.
Some of the traditions that originally belonged to Yuletide are:
☆ Feasting (originally involving some sort of animal sacrifice)
☆ Burning a special log on the hearth
☆ Caroling (technically, Yuletide had an earlier version of this called “wassailing”)
New Year’s (Eve) | Watch Night | Omisoka | Hogmanay
While it goes by many names, the New Year holiday is probably the most universally recognized holiday worldwide. There are only a handful of countries that don’t recognize January 1 as the start of the New Year.
The Gregorian Calendar marks the passing of each year on December 31, and the start of the following year on January 1. People worldwide enjoy staying up until midnight to “ring in the new year.”
Some of the ways this can be celebrated are:
❇ Staying up until midnight
❇ Parties – food, music, dance
❇ Fireworks
❇ Going to church
❇ Singing
❇ Concerts
❇ Publicly-aired party
Happy, Merry Everything
Whatever and however you and your family celebrate this season, remember how magical a time it is for your child.
Traditions are a fun way to involve children as well as connect them to the bigger family and community circles for generations. Talk with them about the rich history and meaning behind the events and activities surrounding this season. Adopt new traditions, celebrate old ones, make up a unique-to-your-family tradition.
From us at Academy of the Winds, we wish you and yours all the best this holiday season.