Last week, I wrote about Christmas, but there are of course other important winter festivals around this time.
Chanukah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, lasting eight days. Last night was in fact the first night of Chanukah this year (the dates vary as the Jewish calendar is lunar).
In most families, children receive Chanukah presents. Each night the Chanukiah is lit, adding one more candle for each night, and always lighting it with the central candle (the Shamash). There are lots of traditional Chanukah foods, such as Latkes (fried potato cakes) and bubullahs (fried, soft puffed pancakes made of finely ground matzah, which are often eaten with jam or sugar). There are many traditional Chanukah songs too and it’s a very fun, joyous festival.
Kwanzaa first started as an African-American celebration in 1966. However, since the early 1970s it is also celebrated in the UK. Seven candles are lit over a period of seven days in a special candle-holder called a Kinara, and the festival is based around seven key principles:
Unity (Umoja)
Self-determination (Kujichagulia)
Collective work and responsibility (Ujima)
Cooperative economics (Ujamaa).
Purpose (Nia).
Creativity (Kuumba)
Faith (Imani).
This is really a very short summary of these festivals. If you’d like to find out more, please click here: Chanukah Kwanzaa – and if you feel I’ve left out anything important, please do write about it in the comments below!
I could continue endlessly, because apart from anything else, how do you define an ‘English-speaking country’ or winter celebrations? But I hope these past two blogs have given you some idea of some of the traditions and festivals.
If there are other important traditions, foods or TV programmes that you think deserve a mention, then please tell us about it in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you and to learn more!
Whatever festivals you celebrate and whatever traditions you follow, I’d like to wish you a very happy, relaxing and peaceful holiday season.
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