The Gift of Holiday Traditions: Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas
December is a month of holidays, celebrations, gift giving, and—to the glee of students and educators alike—school vacations. Before taking time off to enjoy the holidays, take the opportunity to discuss with students the way different cultures contribute to what becomes a popular holiday tradition. How do holidays develop over time and how do they relate to one another? And how do holidays figure in the popular imagination, such as in stories and novels? With this feature, teachers and parents can share with students the various gifts of tradition and culture countries around the world have contributed to December holiday celebrations in the United States.
Beginning Activity:
In order to prepare your students to explore the ways that holidays have evolved over time, teachers and parents might begin with the following simple exercise, appropriate for students of all ages. Have the student pick a favorite family holiday. Ask students to interview various family members, especially parents and grandparents, if possible, about their favorite traditions both now and when they were a child. Some might remember watching a favorite play, movie, or television show every year. Others might recall decorations, favorite food or drink, or even a family activity or game. Which of these activities are still part of their family holiday tradition, and which are no longer done? Ask students to investigate why certain traditions ended, and when others began. They might find that changes occurred when new family members were added, or when they moved from one place or another. Students can conclude by writing a brief essay about their family traditions, old and new, including those lost or recently added.
Creating a Holiday: Kwanzaa
The History Channel Exhibit on Kwanzaa, via the EDSITEment reviewed Internet Public Library, provides an extensive history of this relatively new, secular holiday, which is celebrated from December 26th until New Year’s Day. For each of these seven days, celebrants recognize a principle or value, like Unity or Self Determination. Each day is also associated with a symbol, such as Mazao, crops that “symbolize work and the basis of the holiday” or Zawadi, which are “meaningful gifts to encourage growth, self-determination, achievement, and success.” Kwanzaa itself is a word adapted from a Swahili phrase for “first fruits.”
The exhibit details the history and development of Kwanzaa, created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor at California State University, Long Beach:
After the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Dr. Karenga searched for ways to bring African-Americans together as a community. He founded US, a cultural organization, and started to research African "first fruit" (harvest) celebrations. Karenga combined aspects of several different harvest celebrations, such as those of the Ashanti and those of the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa.
—via History Channel
Kwanzaa is not only a wonderful celebration of family and culture, but also a fabulous example of how holidays develop through the creative combination of historical circumstances, cultural antecedents (in this case, African harvest celebrations), and creative thinking.
Activity:
Ask students to explore the Kwanzaa website, noting the specific features of the holiday and how it was created. If they have access to RealPlayer, you might consider encouraging them to watch the two minute video about Kwanzaa’s development, featuring Dr. Karenga. Provide students with the following chart to help track each day’s principle and symbol and their respective meanings.
| Day |
Principle and Its Meaning |
Symbol and Its Meaning |
Dec.
26
(Day 1)
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Dec.
27
(Day 2)
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Dec.
28
(Day 3)
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Dec.
29
(Day 4)
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Dec.
30
(Day 5)
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Dec.
31
(Day 6)
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Jan.
1
(Day 7)
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Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights
Of course, symbolism and principle values are at the heart of all winter holidays, and Hanukkah is no exception. Hanukkah is celebrated in Jewish communities from Paris to Syria and Boston to St. Louis where families can be found lighting one of the candles of the menorah and exchanging gifts for each of the holiday’s eight nights. Hanukkah celebrates a miracle that occurred after the Jewish people reclaimed their temple from Syrian conquerors. Refusing to worship the Syrian’s Greek deities, the Jews rebelled and eventually won back their temple after a three year war. As part of the celebration, the victors wanted to light the menorah, but they had only a single day’s worth of oil available. The oil, however, lasted for eight days, leading to the eight day celebration of Hanukkah, known also as “The Festival of Lights.” The History Channel exhibit on Hanukkah, available through the EDSITEment reviewed Internet Public Library, provides a history of the holiday, including descriptions of some traditions, like the Dreidel, a four sided top used in a game:
The dreidel game was popular during the rule of Antiochus before the Maccabees' revolt, a time when soldiers executed any Jews who were caught practicing their religion. When pious Jews gathered to study the Torah, they had the top ready in case they heard soldiers approaching. If the soldiers appeared, they would hide the holy scriptures and pretend to play with the dreidel.
—via History Channel
Explore with students how objects take on a variety of meanings. After sharing with them the above example, discuss how symbolism can not only result from creative artistry, but also from necessity, such as in times of war or dispute.
Activity:
Explore with students the following questions (the difficulty of the questions can be adjusted according to the level of the student), using the History Channel exhibit on Hanukkah as a guide:
- How did Hanukkah become a holiday?
- How was the Maccabee family involved?
- What does Hanukkah mean?
- What is the significance of the menorah?
- What are some popular foods available for Hanukkah?
- What are two popular traditions for Hanukkah, and what do they represent?
After discussing answers to the questions, ask them to consider the many meanings of the word “dedication,” (“dedication” is the translation of the Hebrew word “Hanukkah”). A dedication can be a consecration; it can also mean perseverance. Explore how both meanings are appropriate in this context. Finally, ask students to consider how these traditions compare those practiced by the students’ family today? For those students who do not celebrate Hanukkah, encourage them to investigate and share similarities and differences to their own holiday traditions. What are some symbols popular in their celebrations, and what is their significance?
Christmas
The Christmas holiday, which celebrates the nativity of Christ, is as diverse as the many countries that celebrate it. While the actual date of Christ’s birth is disputable, many suggest that the date of the holiday was a Christian replacement for pagan and polytheistic rituals related to the winter solstice. Many holiday traditions grew out of a combination of religious and secular celebrations and customs, but gift giving has become a consistent tradition in all of the December holidays. No one deliverer of goodies and gifts is more recognizable in the popular imagination than that jolly old fellow, Saint Nick, and his trusty elves and reindeer. With little more thanks than an occasional glass of milk, cookie, or carrot for Rudolph, Santa travels the world delivering presents to children and symbolizes the underlying theme of generosity during the holiday season.
Yet the legend of Santa Claus and other traditions as we know them in the United States, such as the Christmas tree, were created through a compilation of legends and customs from around the world. In the EDSITEment lesson plan, What They Left Behind: Early Multi-National Influences in the United States, students explore European influences on the development of all aspects of America, including a song about “Sinter Klaas” from the Netherlands. For more background information on how Sinter Klaas became Santa Claus in the United States, encourage students to visit History Channel, available via the EDSITEment reviewed Internet Public Library. Younger students just learning the history and culture of Christmas celebrations may want to visit the brief history of Christmas at America’s Story, a part of the EDSITEment-reviewed Library of Congress American Memory website.
Activity:
Students can explore this map, made available through the History Channel, which describes the celebration of Christmas in a variety of cultures. Students, individually or in groups, can choose one culture or place to explore. Using the map as a starting place, students can research the region’s contributions to the Christmas holiday. Students might consider the following questions:
- How does the tradition compare with those practiced by the students’ family today? For those students who do not celebrate Christmas, encourage them to investigate and share similarities and differences to their own holiday traditions.
- What does the tradition reveal about the culture that developed it?
- How has the tradition changed over time, if at all?
- What does the tradition represent or symbolize?
Students can use the websites listed above to continue their research. They should keep track of how a holiday ritual originated and which cultures contributed to its development.
A Gift Giving Season
Exchanging gifts has certainly become a favorite holiday tradition in many families, and many can relate to the difficulty of finding that one special gift for a loved one. O. Henry, the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter, captured such a spirit in his ironic tale, “The Gift of the Magi,” available as an electronic text via the EDSITEment reviewed Center for Liberal Arts. In this Christmas tale, Della longs to buy a special gift for her husband, Jim, but is hampered by her meager savings of less than two dollars. With love trumping vanity, Della sells her glorious, waist-long hair for twenty dollars so that she can buy Jim’s present, a watch chain. O. Henry, famous for his “surprise” endings, concludes this tale with rich situational irony.
Of course, some curmudgeons do not feel any pressure to find gifts at all. Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843, popularized “humbug” for holiday scrooges everywhere in this enduring holiday classic about redemption and family. On one fateful Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge watches his past, present, and future life from an outside perspective while being accompanied by three ghosts. An electronic text version from the UVA e-text center is available via the EDSITEment reviewed Center for Liberal Arts, which also links to an extensive website on Charles Dickens’s life and works. The EDSITEment reviewed Victorian Web also has a host of informative details about Dickens, including an Introduction to A Christmas Carol that includes a review of the story’s composition and an examination of its basic themes.
Ebenezer Scrooge is not the only literary figure to receive guests on Christmas Eve. Students young and old alike remember the beginning words to perhaps one of the most famous Christmas poems, “A Visit From St. Nicholas”—"'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." EDSITEment-reviewed America’s Memory contains a brief America’s Story feature on this staple holiday poem, believed to have been written by Clement Moore in 1822. The poem with illustrations is available through the UVA e-text center, via the EDSITEment reviewed Center for Liberal Arts.
Final Activity (appropriate for all ages):
Using the resources in this feature, students can examine their own family traditions, how holidays develop in different cultures, and the role of holidays in literature. For an enjoyable final activity, ask students to write a poem or a story about their favorite holiday, incorporating at least one special family tradition within the story. Students can focus on a favorite food that is a staple in their celebration, a game (like the one played with the dreidel), or some other aspect of the holiday.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Internet Public Library
American Memory
Center for Liberal Arts
Victorian Web
Standards
NCTE/IRA
1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 8, 9, 12
National Council for Social Studies
I — Culture
II — Time, continuity, and change
III — Peoples, places, and environments
IV — Individual Development and Identity
V — Individuals, groups, and institutions
IX — Global Connections
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