New Year’s Eve is a time for the world to anticipate a brand new year with celebration and festivities. Cultures across the world have different ways of celebrating this holiday, whether it’s through parties, family get-togethers, or in a more religious aspect. My entire family is Russian, and the Russians absolutely love New Year’s Eve and often celebrate it all night long with friends and family. My family has always celebrated New Year’s Eve with equal parts sophistication and hilarity, making this fun holiday one of the most important and memorable ones for us. Though many countries and their people may have big celebrations on New Year’s Eve, there is something about the traditional Russian way that makes it so amazing to experience. …show more content…
At this point, the younger children have already fallen asleep and have been carried off by their fathers into any available beds in the house. My father’s cousins and friends, having drank a bit excessively, usually end up passed out on the couch or in a chair. The women are too tired to begin cleaning, except for my grandmothers who seem to be on the constant move. I usually look through the night’s photographs on our cameras and laugh along with my mother, female cousins, and aunts at the memorable moments. Everyone always feels the familial bond tighten after such events, and it’s something that Russians look forward to all year long. New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest holidays for us, even surpassing Christmas. By morning, the food and alcohol may be gone, a few people may not remember the entire night, and every joke and story known to us may have been retold multiple times, but the memories do not fade away. Russians hold strong family values and love to share their homes and their love with friends and family, especially when it comes to ringing in the New Year by welcoming it with love, warmth, partying, and
Christmas Eve dinner came about and it became evident that her family had just about taken mixed race to another level. She had a cousin, Rebecca, that was married with a child and their small family was white and Jewish (Senna 296). Danzy’s sister had three children that were half Pakistani and they lived in England (Senna 296). Her brother was married to a Chinese woman and they had a young daughter together (Senna 296.) Carla Latty, Anna’s orphaned daughter, was cohabitating with an Indian woman. Senna discovered that at this family dinner, some of them are blood related and are just meeting for the first time. She recognizes the history that they all share in some shape, form, or fashion. Yet, it is not a day of rainbows and lollipops. Danzy and her sister have hurt each other and there is tension. Her brother and his wife hide their infant in the bedroom upset that the other children present had infected their baby. Her cousin’s daughter has declared herself as a lesbian at the age of eleven. Despite all of the obstacles and hurdles her family has faced, Danzy considers the Christmas Eve dinner “a victory” (Senna 301). Danzy’s brother says that “Anybody who finds him offensive can get the […] out” about a gift given to his child (Senna 300). That was his way of approving the
... Religious Customs, History, Legends, and Symbols from around the World; Supplemented by a Bibliography and Lists of Christmas Web Sites and Associations. Detroit, Mich: Omnigraphics, 2003. Print.
This story may seem solely comedic, but within it is a darker tale of a Russia where, in the current times and those prior to it, social rank and position were key. ...
Makovsky has created a majestic piece of work that manages to convey the different aspects of a wedding day, and more specifically a traditional 1800's Russian Wedding. Through his shapes, colors, tones, light, value and an incredible attention to detail, Makovsky has stepped beyond the boundaries of the medium and transferred an idea of “traditional” marriage and sparked a dialogue of what traditional should constitute and whether or not it's right for everyone. Being able to step into a piece of time gives one an outlook on what life was like back then and a chance for reflection on what time is like now. The attention to detail, down to the most inanimate and tiny object, gives the painting the illusion of being real, rather than blots of paint on canvas.
...as a very important day. Diwali; the word itself meaning “row of lights,” is another prominent Hindu holiday and occurs on what we know as New Year Eve—December 31st. It is a festival lights in which last for a five days. The lighting of candles signifies the welcoming of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Gambling is a norm on Diwali as it is seen as a way of assuring good luck for the upcoming year. The fourth day of Diwali is especially significant as it is the beginning of the lunar month of Karttika. On this particular day many celebrate religious customs to signify the New Year according to the Vikrama calendar (“Religion Facts,”n.p).
ChristmasThe year's most celebrated holiday is celebrated on December 25th, both in homes and churches worldwide. The meaning for Christmas is to recognize Christ's birth, of which the exact date is not known. During the fourth century the Bishop of Rome set December 25th as Christ's birth date. Some authorities claim that the choice of December 25th was made because it coincided with Chanukah, Mithraic's feast of the sun god, and the people of northern Europe's winter solstice feast. The winter solstice is the time of year in the Northern Hemisphere when the noon sun appears to be farthest south. (All About American Holidays, 1962 Encyclopedia Encarta, 1998)The Saturnalia was celebrated for seven days, during the period of time when the winter solstice occurred.
My family had many memorable holiday and birthday celebrations that are still valued by me as I age and move up in life. Before my parents decided to divorce we used to cook all day and night on Christmas Eve and when we finally decided to sleep, or my parents decided, we would wake up at 4:30 in the morning to open presents. I believe that custom is still with me to this day because I still wake up at 4:30 in the morning on Christmas Day. I think that customs depend on the emotional connection. My family would sit around the living room and laugh, talk, and reminisce about different times in their lives. We used to have a big celebration for birthdays and would invite everyone. It was always a personal affair that we would cook for and dance and just have a great time with family and close friends. It was a beautiful thing and it was extremely enjoyable. I cherish those moments with my family and I plan to have those customs and also to add my own customs into my own family one day in the
According to Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, the average Russian drinks 18 liters (equivalent to 38 pints) of strictly vodka each year. Vodka is Russia’s favored drink and has a strong Russian history. Although vodka has provided a large issue to the economy due to the abuse of the substance, there are many good outcomes from the production of it with respect to jobs and tax revenue. The Russian government has tired to enforce multiple different ways of curbing the vodka consumption from the citizens, but they do not last. Russia has a large distribution of vodka around the world and the income keeps many Russians employed. For Russia, vodka is an occupation, pleasure and a devil, and a way of life.
This is an atypical tradition most Colombians practice during New Year's’ Eve. The purpose of this tradition is to literally burn failures, regrets, and any kind of negative or bad energies from the year that just passed, so that the year that is to come is fresh and ready to have a superb beginning. How do we do this? During the last days of December, families buy a “doll” made from old clothes, cardboard, paper, straw, and that looks like a person. These dolls are popularly sold on streets and some families even make and build their own one. Then, on the last day of the year, people celebrate New Years with the figurine, (called the “año viejo”, more on later), as a guest. They dance with him or her, fool around with it, and place it in
Unlike Chinese New Year, New Year’s is always on January 1st every year and no other day. However, the Chinese use its own calendar to determine the New Year day; most other people use different calendars to determine when New Year’s Day is on. In many countries, they use the Babylonian philosophies to determine the time of the New Year. New Year’s around the world all have different traditions to celebrate the holiday, unlike the Chinese, who limit themselves to a few traditions. One of the most known traditions during regular New Year’s is the ball drop in New York. Although the New Year’s around the world is very different from Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year stands out the most, because it has its own traditions that do not need to follow the traditions of the regular new year and does not need to be in the same day every year like the regular new
Emma, Marissa and I are in charge of the making the lefse. This has been our job ever since we were little girls, becoming experts through all our years of experience. My grandma makes the most amazing food and always has enough to feed us for a week. After we stuff ourselves full of delicious, lasagna, salads, and hot dishes all made with love and while the adults lean back comfortably in their chairs, us kids go put on our pajamas and troop downstairs to open our gifts. The most memorable gift would be the ring my grandma gave me that used to be my great-grandmothers who died a couple days after my grandma turned fifteen. My great-grandma loved to travel and had a great passion for fashion, so this circle of metal with a little diamond in the middle and a floral pattern surrounding it, had been bought in California and has been in the family since. “Bang, bang, bang!” A huge pounding comes from the front door. Dogs bark, adults grin, and we race to open the creaky door. Santa Claus, eyes twinkling, dressed in red with coal-black boots, and swinging a sack over his right shoulder, steps inside. He plops down heavily; ringing merry bells and passes them off to David, my brother, telling him seriously to keep ringing them so Rudolf won’t fly away without him. With wide eyes, little David shakes the bells with such rigor that if Rudolf was in the North Pole he would be able to hear them. We each take a turn perching on his knee, hesitant at first but then opening up and telling him our age and that, “yes we have been really, really, really good this year.” As Santa’s beard tickles our chin as we lean in close for a picture and his big belly shakes as he laughs at the same time as you start to giggle. Then he opens his sack and pulls out gifts wrapped in colorful paper for each of us. With a few cookies for the road, crumbs in his beard and a
The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ.The word Xmas is sometimes used instead of Christmas. This tradition began in the early Christian church. In Greek, X is the first letter of Christ's name. It was frequently used as a holy symbol.
In many ways Christmas is similar to Thanksgiving in the way we celebrate it. We switch sides, sometimes Christmas is at our house, tons of food is made and we play games. Depending on what side of the family we’re spending Christmas with, there’s a theme, for example, about two or three years ago we spent Christmas with my mom’s side of the family and it was a pajama party and last Christmas we spent with my dad’s side the theme was ugly Christmas sweaters. Every year no matter where we spend Christmas, we always have to get some of my great grandma’s amazing and delicious Champurrado. She makes Champurrado every single year, she won’t tell anyone how she makes it for some reason, but her Champurrado is like heaven in a cup. On both sides of my family,it’s tradition for us get together on Christmas Eve and we have dinner, watch movies, play games, and even take naps, all until midnight and that’s when we open our presents. Also, on both sides, the adults do White Elephant and sometimes depending on what the majority vote is, they’ll do a secret santa exchange. The only thing my mom’s side of the family does differently than my dad’s, is that prior to getting together on Christmas Eve, the adults put each kid’s name in a hat and each person draws a name, and the name they draw is the kid they have to buy a gift for, and they’ll say the least or most amount of money they can spend on that gift.
The Chinese New Year is fifteen days long and each day involves a different custom based off of a different ideology such as cleaning your house will wipe away the bad luck of the preceding year. Halloween although originating in Ireland, was carried to other countries and is now often seen as an equivalent to the popular Day of the Dead Celebration in Mexico. Although, Day of the Dead is about celebrating dead loved ones, the act of dressing up in costumes happens in both celebrations. Halloween follows the ideology that children dress up in costumes and go collect candy from people’s houses whereas day of the dead is centered around the ideology that for one night dead loved ones can be reunited with their families. Easter and the popular Jewish holiday Passover are often seen as the same thing because they fall around the same thing and both celebrate spring. All around the world countries celebrate independence days that are on different days but they all represent relatively the same thing. But, different countries hold different ideologies for their independence days. For
Celebration is present in everyone's lives and cultures, celebration can help to express ourselves through tradition. Celebration is a universal and the biggest way that many cultures celebrate is through the celebration of life, birthdays.There are many ways to plan a party depending on what theme or vibe you want and whom the party is for but I give you a foolproof way to plan a successful evening dinner birthday party.