Billie Rose:
I drew a snowflake and some of the big Christmas tree. I also drew the little tree. I drew Santa's clothes. I drew one of the oranges with wrapping paper on them. Its a celebration in the chinese year. You write a wish on the wrapping paper and attach it to an orange. Then you toss it up into the wishing tree! I learned about lots of different holidays, New Years, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Diwali and many more. I really liked working on this this mural.
Teddy:
While we were making this mural we learned a lot about holidays and traditions. Here are a few things we learned:
During Hanukkah you put the candles in the menorah from right to left then light the candles from left to right. I learned that the four symbols on the dreidel mean " A great miracle happened there." During Chinese New Year you are supposed to throw wishes, written onto fancy paper tied to oranges, up into a wishing tree. If it gets stuck in the tree it means your wishes will come true. You also burn incense. I also learned that during Rosh Hashanah music is blown through a hollowed out Ram's horn called a shofar and people eat apples dipped in honey and go to a stream and empty their pockets into the stream which symbolizes getting rid of all the bad things you have done and starting out the new year fresh. My favorite traditions of all these holidays is throwing the wishes into the wishing tree and eating apples dipped in honey. Yum!
Connie:
This is becoming something of a seasonal tradition for our Homeschool and our family. Sometime after Thanksgiving a seasonal madness sets in for us and at some point we long to apply the breaks and we begin to question. What is it about this time of year?
Last year, when December rolled around we were deep into our Native Americans unit study so, we thought we would look into Native American celebrations and traditions that coincide with this season. There are lots of traditional harvest festivals, powwows and circles that happen during the fall. Winter, however, peoples turn their thoughts to the fading warmth and shorter days. Religious and cultural celebrations reflect a certain amount of angst over the increasing darkness and the questions of how, why, and when the sun will return to shower its fullness and gifts upon the earth... Winter Solstice. We looked at Soyaluna and similar celebrations including the Hopi snake ceremony. When the sun has moved so low in the sky that there is the possibility that it may never return, peoples act in varying ways to bring her back. For example, the Hopi snake ceremony focuses on stopping the sun from her descent and chasing her back into the sky to shine upon the people once more. This of course is an oversimplification of a deeply spiritual and complex time for peoples both in their historical and in their contemporary practices. We understand and respect peoples religions and cultures and do not mean to convey or engage in any slight while pursing our explorations and discussions...
This year, once again, come December, we were experiencing our annual social frenzy. Holidays, recitals, concerts, performances, relatives, card-making, gift making, gift giving, decorations, driving around looking at the lights, cooking, etc. Once again, it seemed appropriate to slow down and take some time to reflect and to ask why? Why this time of year? What are we doing? What is everyone else doing? Are the holidays always about religion? How far beyond European cultures does this seasonal whirlwind reach?
What we found was really, really interesting.
In perhaps every culture, every nation, every religion, there is a significant annual holiday celebrated sometime between the end of November and the end of February. Even as we write this, Chinese people throughout the world are celebrating the coming of the New Year. This year being the year of the pig. The celebrations that have been happening during these winter month include numerous New Year and Year's End celebrations, requiring reflection, purging, cleaning, turning away from the past looking to the future, religious holidays of birth abound and are yet another way of turning our collective faces towards the future. Most notably, Solstice seem to be the common thread, the divining factor, the hallmark fixing our gaze and our minds to the end of dark times and forward to times of possibilities. We discovered, perhaps with little surprise, that many, many of these celebrations across cultures, religions and time, are referred to as "Festivals of Light."
Here's a short list of some of what we explored:
Solstice Celebrations: Pagans
Kwanzaa: African American
Hanukkah: Jewish
Ramadan: Muslim
Yalda: Persia & Iran
Bodhi Day: Buddhist
Yule: Iceland
Chinese Winter Solstice
Chinese: New Year
US: New Year
Diwali: India
Gantan: New Year in Japan
Sol: Korean lunar New Year
Chaul Chnam Thmey: New Year in Cambodia
Xyoo Tshiab: New Year for many Hmong tribes in Cambodia
Songkran: New Year in Thailand
Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year
Christmas: Christian
This does not exhaust the list, but these are all celebrations that we looked at this year. What we did, this time around, was more of a survey. We amassed information made a mural and a book. We also collected lots of information about foods and traditions and practices engaged in during this season. Next year, I am sure, we will revisit this topic and try out some of the recipes and traditions. We always approach these topics with the greatest respect for the peoples, the religions, the cultures and the beliefs that we explore.
Peace.
