Dec. 12, 2017

Every country celebrates holidays, whether they are traditional or specific to that country. A lot of the time, holidays like Christmas and New Years are celebrated pretty similarly but depending on that country’s culture, they are sometimes changed. In some countries, like France, Christmas is celebrated differently, for example, Christmas Eve is seen as a more of an important holiday than Christmas day. It is called Le Réveillon and in France, it is celebrated at midnight with a long dinner.

“A lot of the time people think that Saint Nicholas and Père Noël, or Santa Claus, are the same person but they are not. So, Saint Nicholas is an actual person and  Père Noël is based on this person as well but, Saint Nicholas is someone who came to rescue children and so, he is seen as the patron saint of children,” Kimberly Yee, French teacher, describes Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is celebrated on December 6, the night of December 5 children will place their shoes outside and if they were good then Saint Nicholas would come and place candies and presents in

their shoes, if they were bad then Père Fouettard would take them away from their families.

“New years goes back to ancient civilizations first understanding calendars, the 360 or 365 day year and the significance of the winter solicits,” Robert Smithrud, one of the history teachers explains a little about the origin of the New Year.

Holidays and cultural celebrations are important in many different places. There are so many different holidays and some of them are Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the Chinese New Year. As described in an article called Multicultural Winter Holiday Celebrations, each of the previously mentioned holidays/celebrations are celebrated during a certain time to celebrate an event. Each is unique and has its own traditions. Though some holidays are celebrated differently depending on the country, beliefs, and overall cultural, one specific theme seem to stick with many of the winter holidays, and that is family.