By Genette Nowak
Las Posadas in Latin America & Spain
Background: Starting on December 16, Christmas festivities in Spanish-speaking countries build up over the course of nine days of candlelit processions, known as Las Posadas. The days that lead up to Christmas Eve, symbolize the nine months of pregnancy.
Tasty Treats: Feasting is a very important aspect to Las Posadas. Families indulge in ponche (punch), buñuelos (sweet fritters), pozole (hominy, pork and chile stew) and tamales.
Decorations: Homes display red poinsettias, display a nativity scene and light candles inside of paper bags. It is also customary to suspend a piñata shaped like the Christmas star.
Unique Customs: Children gather to reenact the Holy family’s quest for lodging in Bethlehem. They dress in colorful, festive costumes and are followed by even younger children posing as angels. During the parade called Santos Peregrinos they sing traditional songs as they move from house to house looking for lodging. In Mexico, this tradition dates back to the sixteenth century and commemorates the birth of the Aztec sun god.
Background: The Chinese Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration that finishes with the Lantern Festival, marking the end of the winter season.
Tasty Treats: Dining tables are filled with mandarin oranges, uncut noodles, dried fruit, taro cakes and turnip cakes.
Decorations: Red oval lanterns hang in homes. Fresh blossoms are placed into pretty vases. Happy wishes are written on red paper and are strung about.
Unique Customs: Villages gather to watch the lion and dragon dances. Elders place money into red envelopes and present them to their children hoping to pass along good fortune. Families take part in a thorough cleaning of their home to sweep away any bad energy that maybe lurking.
Makar Sankranti
Background: Makar Sankranti is the major Hindu harvest festival. According to the lunar calendar, when the sun moves from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn, it commemorates the beginning of harvest season and the cessation of the northeast monsoon in South India. It is one of the few Hindu festivals celebrated on the same date every year, January 14. This holiday focuses on inner peace and the relation of the self to the eternal world. On this day, participants thank those who have contributed to their wellbeing. Gratitude is offered to the sun as a symbolic appeal for a plentiful harvest.
Tasty Treats: Dishes vary from region to region but often families eat bandaru laddu (flour, cardamom, sugar and cashew), kajji kaayalu (deep fried pastry) and other sweets made with sesame.
Decorations: Many Hindu families decorate their doorways with leaves from the banana and the mango trees.
Unique Customs: Many Hindus in India gather on their rooftops to fly colorful kites. The kite flying festivities allow the people to celebrate happy moments and bask in the sun’s warm light.
Kwansaa
Background: December 2011 will mark Kwanzaa’s 45th annual celebration. The holiday was established in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a former chairman of African Studies at California State University, Long Beach. After the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, Karenga sought a holiday to unite the African-American communities of the United States. Kwanzaa is a combination of the harvest celebrations of the Ashanti and the Zulu.
Tasty Treats: Peanut soup, yams, and collard greens are traditional African delights. In the 1980s macaroni and cheese found its way to the Kwanzaa table.
Decorations: The Kinara, a candleholder, is the major symbol of Kwanzaa. Families also decorate using colors such as red, black and green. Red represents blood that was shed for freedom, black represents skin color and green is symbolic of the fertile land.
Unique Customs: Candles are lit for each night of the holiday observed annually between December 26 and January 1. Each candle represents a principle: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. On the sixth night they eat a large feast called Karamu.
Chanukah in Israel
Background: Chanukah is the Festival of Lights. In Hebrew it literally translates to “dedication.” Chanukah celebrates the liberation of Israel from Antiochus, a revolt that was led by Judah Maccabee. Upon entering the Old Temple, Judah’s men sought to relight the temple’s menorah, but only a little bit of olive oil was found. Miraculously, the candle burned for eight nights.
Tasty Treats: Anything that is fried in olive oil. The preferred treats are latkes (potato pancakes) and jelly donuts.
Decorations: It’s quite simple, the menorah.
Unique customs: For eight nights, families gather around the menorah and say a prayer over the candles. Children spin the dreidel and receive gelt, chocolate coins, from older family members.
