Celebrations

Celebrations

Celebrate! Holidays and Festivals Around the World

How are special days celebrated throughout the world? Every culture has its own special

traditions and reasons for celebrating and, in this project, students will learn how holidays and

festivals are celebrated all over the globe. Students will explore celebrations, traditions and

symbols related to a holiday or festival from their home countries and then investigate those from other parts of the world. In a culminating activity, students will share their information and create  symbolic representations of their researched holiday from across the globe.

A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law in which normal activities, especially business or work, are to be suspended or reduced. Generally holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate something of cultural or religious significance. Holidays may be designated by governments, religious institutions, or other groups or organizations. The degree to which normal activities are reduced by a holiday may depend on local laws, customs, or even personal choices.
The concept of holidays has most often originated as religious observances. The intention of a holiday was typically to allow individuals to tend to religious duties associated with important dates on the calendar. In most modern societies, however, holidays serve as much of a recreational function as anything else.
In many societies there are important distinctions between holidays designated by governments and holidays designated by religious institutions. In many predominantly Christian nations, for example, government-designed holidays may center around Christian holidays though non-Christians may instead observe religious holidays associated with their faith. In some cases, a holiday may only be nominally observed. For example, many Jews in the Americas and Europe treat the relatively minor Jewish holiday of Chanukah as a working holiday, changing very little of their daily routines for this day.

Celebration may refer to:

• Party, a social gathering or celebration
• Festival, a community gathering to celebrate something in particular
• The observance of a feast day or holiday
• The celebration of the Eucharist
• A Southeast Alaska Native cultural event