December Holiday

As December marks the end of the year for the Gregorian Calendar, many celebrations from many cultures approach. The most popular Christian celebration is the well beloved Christmas. What of some other holidays around the same time of the year? Enjoy this small introduction to some different popular celebrations around the world!

Hanukkah (Also spelled as Chanukah)

This is a Jewish holiday, celebrated by the Jewish population around the world. Now I hope no one feels deceived by the timing of this holiday, since it is not certain that it would fall in December, but it could also potentially fall in late November. This is because the date for it is decided by the Hebrew calendar (it would start on the 25th day of Kislev). Also known as The Festival of Lights, this holiday lasts for eight days. For this holiday, a game called dreidel is played, the menorah is lit for the eight nights of celebration, gelts and sometimes chocolate coins are distributed and celebrated with loved ones.

Krampusnacht (5th December)

Widely celebrated in Bavaria, Eastern Europe and Germany, Krampusnacht is a rather unjolly pagan holiday. This is the night where Krampus (also known as Horned God) punishes misbehaved children. The creature’s name is derived from the German word “krampen”, meaning “claw”. This holiday is truly haunting to children, since in the celebrations, very elaborate costumes are involved. So, it is no wonder that this holiday has turned into adults scaring children into behaving.

Sinterklaas (5th December)

For this Dutch holiday, Sinterklaas is believed to visit children in the Netherlands, traveling by boat all the way from Spain, and puts gifts in kids’ shoes in the night. This night is also known as “Pakjesavond”. There is also a tradition of building a “boat” for Sinterklaas to put the presents into. The children wait and wait for Sinterklaas to show up to their homes, but there is always a “distraction”, and children are told that they have just missed Sinterklaas when they were distracted. The main event for this holiday is that small children receive gifts and you get some good quality family time. There are many TV specials for this cherished holiday. This holiday is very close to Sinterklaas’s birthday (on the 6th of December), but this is not frequently celebrated.

Bodhi Day (8th December)

In Buddhist tradition, Bodhi day is celebrated on the eighth of December each year. This day is to celebrate the founder of the Buddhist date, popularly known as Buddha.  It is a day of reflecting on the ways of enlightenment. It is one of calmer traditions compared to the ones we mention in this article. It is commonly celebrated by eating some cookies and having some tea, decorating a Bodhi tree or by meditating.

Kwanzaa (26th December – 1st January) 

The name for this holiday comes from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, and the meaning of this is “first fruits” in Swahili. This is the newest holiday on this article, created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga who was a professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University. His goal was to bring the African American community together. In pursuit of this, he decided to research African harvest celebrations and several elements of these led to the customs of Kwanzaa. This holiday is based around seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative Economics, purpose, creativity, faith. Each night of the celebration, one of the seven candles on the Kinara is lit and one of the aforementioned principles are discussed with friends and family.

Some Wisdom:

It should be recognized that every family and loved ones have their own traditions around this time of the year and how these holidays are celebrated varies drastically from person to person. This article fails to give the attention these holidays deserve, and we are sure we missed many more important and fun celebrations. But we hope this interests you to explore more traditions! During holidays especially, togetherness and respect is encouraged and what better way to achieve this than putting your time into what someone else finds important, right?

All of the information was retrieved from the site: https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/international/international-december