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Chatting About Holiday Traditions

© Stacy Peters-Walters

In our classrooms, we have a large mixture of students who may practice a variety of religions, and therefore, observe many different holidays. Also, each family has its own traditions based on religious and secular beliefs. It is important for students to learn that there are many different holidays that are celebrated and celebrated in a variety of ways. The History Channel web site offers a fantastic look at the celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza. The site can be found at http://www.historychannel.com/cgi-bin/fr...

The Christmas section contains links to The Real Story of Christmas, which discusses how Christmas has evolved as a religious and secular celebration; World Traditions, which contains a map of the world where students can read how different countries celebrate Christmas; The Evolution of Santa Clause, which discusses the how the character of Santa Clause has evolved; Christmas Trees contains information about the traditional use of Christmas trees throughout time; plus links to the story Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Clause and A History of Toys and Games.

The Hanukkah section contains links to History of Hanukkah, which contains the story of Hanukkah; Traditions, which discusses the Menorah, Latkes, the Dreidel and Sufganiyot; and a link to Amazing Hanukkah Feats.

The Kwanza section contains links to History of Kwanza, which explains how Kwanza began and a link to The Seven Symbols, which discusses the seven symbols that are used during the celebration of Kwanza.

Information about Ramadan can be found at http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/MSA/events... This site explains the Meaning of Ramadan, Who Fasts During Ramadan, fasting times, Devotion to God, Food in Ramadan and The Spirit of Ramadan. For older students, there is an interesting one-page site which discusses how a 14-year-old American citizen celebrates Ramadan. It can be found at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/editor...

I like to have students read through this information on the web rather then presenting it myself or printing it out. Reading from a web page is a skill that needs to be practiced. Once students have read this information, I like to have them post messages to a school bulletin board.

Bulletin boards are easy to make. Most web design packages contain wizards that will walk you through setting one up. I like to use the wizard in FrontPage2000. Once I have the bulletin board set up, I will post 2 questions to the bulletin board that I ask the students to respond to.

1. Please tell me what you thought about the articles. Do you have any questions about these four holidays?

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