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Winter Celebrations

December 2021/January 2022

Winter Celebrations December 2021/January 2022

Increase Awareness of Family Celebrations

As we enter the holiday season, many people in Iowa think of Christmas as the ultimate holiday of the season. Regardless of whether families celebrate Christmas for secular or religious reasons, the prevalence of Christmas might shadow other holidays, festivals, and events that occur around the world at this time of the year.


While most schools do not bring attention to religious holidays, it is important to be aware of which celebrations might occur in December and January and be important to the students and families in your schools. Observance of these celebrations outside of school might result in families traveling to meet with other family members, or even in students who are a little more tired or distracted in class due to the excitement of these winter events.


In this edition of our SMORE newsletter, we offer some basic information on winter celebrations that take place in December and January in other parts of the world. To access more information for any given celebration, click on the blue button title to be taken to a website for that holiday or observance.


We, at Heartland AEA, wish each of you a wonderful winter break at the end of December, and a warm holiday season of happiness and celebrating with families and friends.

Photo Credits

All photos in this SMORE newsletter have been downloaded from Pixabay, and do not require photo credits.

December 26 is a public holiday known as Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The term is of British origin, and the Oxford English Dictionary traces its earliest print attribution to 1833, four years before Charles Dickens referred to it in “The Pickwick Papers.” The exact roots of the holiday name are unknown, but there are two leading theories, both of which are connected to charity traditionally distributed to lower classes on the day after Christmas.

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One idea is that December 26 was the day centuries ago when lords of the manor and aristocrats typically distributed “Christmas boxes” often filled with small gifts, money and leftovers from Christmas dinner to their household servants and employees, who were required to work on December 25, in recognition of good service throughout the year. These boxes were, in essence, holiday bonuses.

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These days, December 26 is a popular holiday in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries for watching sports such as soccer and cricket, shopping and visiting friends.

Diwali, or Dipawali, is India's biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas holiday is to Christians.

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Over the centuries, Diwali has become a national festival that's also enjoyed by non-Hindu communities. For instance, in Jainism, Diwali marks the nirvana, or spiritual awakening, of Lord Mahavira on October 15, 527 B.C.; in Sikhism, it honors the day that Guru Hargobind Ji, the Sixth Sikh Guru, was freed from imprisonment. Buddhists in India celebrate Diwali as well.

The eight-day Jewish celebration known as Hanukkah or Chanukah commemorates the re-dedication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt.

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Hanukkah, which means “dedication” in Hebrew, begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar and usually falls in November or December. Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts.

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According to the Talmud, one of Judaism’s most central texts, Judah Maccabee and the other Jews who took part in the rededication of the Second Temple witnessed what they believed to be a miracle. Even though there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, the flames continued flickering for eight nights, leaving them time to find a fresh supply. This wondrous event inspired the Jewish sages to proclaim a yearly eight-day festival.

The retail cycle each year, from the launch of new books to the reading of these books at Christmas, is known as Jólabókaflóðið, which translates roughly into English as ‘the Christmas book flood’.

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This tradition began during World War II once Iceland had gained its independence for Denmark in 1944. Paper was one of the few commodities not rationed during the war, so Icelanders shared their love of books even more as other types of gifts were short supply. This increase in giving books as presents reinforced Iceland’s culture as a nation of bookaholics – a study conducted by Bifröst University in 2013 found that half the country’s population read at least eight books a year.

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Every year since 1944, the Icelandic book trade has published a catalogue – called Bókatíðindi (‘Book Bulletin’, in English) – that is sent to every household in the country in mid-November during the Reykjavik Book Fair. People use the catalogue to order books to give friends and family for Christmas.

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During the festive season, gifts are opened on 24 December and, by tradition, everyone reads the books they have been given straight away, often while drinking hot chocolate or alcohol-free Christmas ale called jólabland.

Kwanzaa, annual holiday affirming African family and social values that is celebrated primarily in the United States from December 26 to January 1. Both the name and the celebration were devised in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a professor of Africana studies at California State University in Long Beach and an important figure in Afrocentrism. Karenga borrowed the word kwanza, meaning “first,” from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, adding the seventh letter, an extra a, to make the word long enough to accommodate one letter for each of the seven children present at an early celebration. (The name Kwanzaa is not itself a Swahili word.) The concept of Kwanzaa draws on Southern African first-fruits celebrations. Kwanzaa is celebrated from Wednesday, December 26, 2021 to Saturday, January 1, 2022.

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Although Kwanzaa is primarily an African American holiday, it has also come to be celebrated outside the United States, particularly in Caribbean and other countries where there are large numbers of descendants of Africans. It was conceived as a nonpolitical and nonreligious holiday, and it is not considered to be a substitute for Christmas.

Las Posadas, celebrated yearly from December 16-24, is a religious festival traditionally held in Mexico and parts of Latin America. Translating to ‘The Inns’ in Spanish, Las Posadas is an important part of the Christmas festivities. Over the nine nights of celebrations, parties are held at different people’s homes. Before each gathering, all the guests form a procession to mark Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn on the night of Jesus’s birth. The march is usually led by an angel as a symbolic act of Mary and Joseph finding shelter in a stable when they were unable to find lodging in Bethlehem. The parties are joyous occasions, including prayers, food, music, fireworks, and piñatas!

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The Posada celebrations were originally held in the church but the custom spread. Later it was celebrated in haciendas, and then in family homes, gradually taking the form of the celebration as it is now practiced by the time of the 19th century. Now, neighborhood committees often organize the posadas and a different family will offer to host the celebration each night. The other people in the neighborhood bring food, candy, and piñatas so that the costs of the party don’t fall only on the host family.

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Adults, including musicians, follow the procession, which visits selected homes and asks for lodging for Joseph and Mary. Traditionally, the procession is always refused lodging, though the hosts often provide refreshments. At each stop, passages of scripture are read and Christmas carols are sung.

Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday in China, and it is also widely celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, and countries with a significant overseas Chinese population. While the official dates encompassing the holiday vary by culture, those celebrating consider it the time of the year to reunite with immediate and extended family.

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Commonly known as the Spring Festival in China, Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration marked by many traditions. At home, families decorate windows with red paper cuttings and adorn doors with couplets expressing auspicious wishes for the new year. Shopping for holiday sundries in open-air markets and cleaning the house are also beloved traditions.

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The Lunar New Year’s Eve reunion dinner is the highlight that kicks off the holiday, a feast with a spread of symbolic dishes, such as a whole fish representing abundance, that bring good luck and fortune. The fifteenth and final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival, during which people have tangyuan, or sweet glutinous rice balls, and children carry lanterns around the neighborhood at night to mark the end of the celebration.

New Year’s Day is the most important day of the year in Japanese tradition, and therefore New Year’s Eve – omisoka – is spent doing a thorough clean of the house, taking a long bath to clean oneself, and making sure one has clean clothes to wear in order to bring in the New Year in a fresh, clean state, not just in body, but in mind as well.

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Eating a bowl of toshikoshisoba at 11pm is also an important Japanese tradition. Toshikoshi literally means to “cross over from one year to another”, and eating the long noodles are said to help in the crossing. It is considered to be bad luck to leave any toshi-koshi soba uneaten, so make sure you eat every last bite!

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Most families across Japan either stay up to listen or go to a temple to listen to Joyanokane, which begins at the stroke of midnight. Joyanokane is the tolling of the great giant bells or gongs at Japan’s Buddhist temples; the bell at the Chion-in Temple in Kyoto weighs 74 tonnes! Every bell is struck exactly 108 times, and it signifies getting rid of each of the 108 earthly human desires, called bonnos, believed to cause earthly suffering. Japanese Buddhists believe, by hearing the bells toll 108 times, you can be relieved of all the bonnos, and begin the New Year with a fresh slate.

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On New Year’s Day it is important to eat your first meal with new chopsticks! All the meals eaten on the first three days of the New Year were traditionally cooked on omisoka, and are called osechi. Cooking during the first three days of the New Years was said to be bad for the Kitchen Kami, the Kitchen God, so everything had to be prepared beforehand. Today, in modern day Japan, most people just buy osechi at the grocery or convenience store, and only eat it on the first day of the New Year. Another reason why osechi used to be prepared in advance was in order for New Years to be spent worshipping at Buddhist or Shinto altars, making resolutions, and praying for good luck.

For millions of Orthodox Christians around the world, and particularly in eastern Europe and Russia, Christmas is actually in January.

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Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, however, the celebrations often begin at midnight on “Christmas Eve”, meaning January 6.

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The reason these dates are different is down to the calendars being used to calculate the dates. Julius Caesar introduced a calendar in 46BC based on the advice of Egyptian astronomer Sosigene, who had calculated the lunar year. But his measurements were wrong by about 11 minutes, and over the centuries the dates of major Christian holidays had drifted so much it became an issue. To fix this, the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582, and this is the one we still use today.

Soyal is the winter solstice ceremony of the Zuni and Hopi peoples held December 21, the shortest day of the year. Participants ceremonially bring the sun back from its long slumber, mark the beginning of another cycle of the Wheel of the Year, and work on purification.

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Pahos prayer sticks are made prior to the Soyal ceremony, to bless all the community, including homes, animals, and plants. The sacred underground kiva chambers are ritually opened to mark the beginning of the Kachina season. It is the traditional time to welcome the sun back from its winter slumber. The official ceremony starts on the shortest day of the year and is a symbol of the “Second Phase of Creation.” Various prayers and rituals are performed in hopes of a bountiful life for the next year. Here is a closer look at several celebrations that occur.

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Many Native American tribes base their ceremonies on a cyclical calendar. For the Hopi, December is the month when the Katsinam returns from the San Francisco mountains and brings back the sun after long dark nights. The Katsinam are spirits that guard and guide the members of the Hopi tribe. They play a key role in each ceremony, including Soyal. They are the messengers who send prayers into the universe for a prosperous and healthy new year for all mankind.

St. Lucia’s Day, festival of lights celebrated in Sweden, Norway, and the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland on December 13 in honour of St. Lucia (St. Lucy). One of the earliest Christian martyrs, St. Lucia was killed by the Romans in 304 CE because of her religious beliefs. St. Lucia's Day is observed on Monday, December 13, 2021.

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In Scandinavian countries each town elects its own St. Lucia. The festival begins with a procession led by the St. Lucia designee, who is followed by young girls dressed in white and wearing lighted wreaths on their heads and boys dressed in white pajama-like costume singing traditional songs. The festival marks the beginning of the Christmas season in Scandinavia, and it is meant to bring hope and light during the darkest time of the year. Schools generally close around noon on the day of the festival so that families can prepare for the holiday. Families observe St. Lucia’s Day in their homes by having one of their daughters (traditionally the eldest) dress in white and serve coffee and baked goods, such as saffron bread (lussekatter) and ginger biscuits, to the other members of the family. These traditional foods are also given to visitors during the day.

For the northern half of Earth (the Northern Hemisphere), the winter solstice occurs annually on December 21 or 22. (For the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs on June 20 or 21.) The winter solstice is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight in the whole year, making it the “shortest day” of the year. Thankfully, after we reach the winter solstice, the days begin to once again grow longer and longer until we reach the summer solstice—the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.

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You might be more familiar with the winter solstice as the day with the shortest amount of sunlight. But around the world, many cultures still celebrate the longest night of the year with unique winter solstice traditions. Click on the Winter Solstice button above to find out what they are.

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