Celebrations and Traditions:
Connecting with Others and Creating Community

What a splendid time of year!

The holiday season provides time for us to connect with family, friends, and our community in meaningful ways. It is an ideal opportunity to learn about and share in each other’s cultural celebrations and traditions and feel part of an inclusive and diverse community. This includes our school community.

Connecting with others and learning about their cultural celebrations and traditions is an important part of developing intercultural understanding. Celebrations occur throughout the year and provide opportunities for all of us to learn about the different beliefs, religions and festivals celebrated by the children and adults in our schools, and around the world.

Children learn from each other how and why people celebrate, and begin to understand that everyone’s traditions and practices hold special meaning for them just as theirs do for themselves. Including parents, colleagues and yourselves extends and enriches the learning. It helps us all to learn about and appreciate diversity, our differences and similarities, and to understand more about our own and each other’s identity.

Some families may adopt aspects of different cultural celebrations into their own, and multicultural families often celebrate a mix of the cultural traditions in their unique family backgrounds. In December these celebrations may include Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Christmas, Omisoka, the Winter Solstice, Las Posadas and many others.

Some cultural and family traditions accompany our celebrations or may simply be part of the way we lives our lives, or both. Here is one example.

La Passeggiata: Connecting with the community

Last Christmas good friends gave me a charming book called, happy: Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World published by lonely planet. This was an ideal gift for me as I am always keen to learn more about other cultures. It was quite remarkable that the first page I opened to was La Passeggiata, the lovely Italian tradition of strolling through town at the end of each day; perfect as I live in Lucca!

La passaggiata occurs in towns, villages and cities throughout the country. It takes place from late afternoon through early evening when the shops close and people head home or to the many restaurants for dinner. Children, parents, friends and neighbours of all ages walk together, meet and chat, maybe share a gelato and warmly greet each other. Here in Lucca la passeggiata takes place on the walls of Lucca or the main shopping street, the Via Fillungo. There is a sense of connection and belonging, not only for the Italians themselves, but for all of us who have chosen to make Lucca our home. Greetings such as ‘Ciao bella!’, ‘Ciao tesoro!’, ’Ciao caro!’ are often followed by kisses and warm embraces.

At this time of year la passeggiata is particularly vibrant and colourful with the shops beautifully decorated for the holiday season. It is a time to offer warm holiday greetings to each other as well, and kisses are followed by the sound of ‘Tanti auguri!’ and ‘Buon Natale!’

You may wish to teach your students about la passeggiata, and create the experience at your school to deepen the sense of community.

The book happy also includes cultural practices and traditions from many different cultures in many different countries that contribute to a feeling of happiness. Each tradition is described along with suggestions of how we might create a similar experience and gain understanding. While it serves as inspiration for our own wellbeing many of the entries can be used as a basis for creating learning engagements that help develop aspects of intercultural understanding in our schools.

When school begins or resumes for you in January invite your students to share the cultural and family traditions that were part of their celebrations. What did they do? Did they try any new traditions or share their traditions with someone new?

Those of you who have registered on my website may have downloaded the free lesson plan, Wish: Wishing Traditions Around the World by Roseanne Thong. This beautiful picture book provides a wonderful basis from which to learn about the cultural and family wishing traditions of others, and discover the similarities and differences that exist. It provides another opportunity to learn about some of the deeper layers of culture.

Buone feste a tutti voi!! Happy holidays to all of you!