Winter is always a fun, busy time. Everyone is running around at the last minute for presents and preparing for exams, and the year is coming to a close. Most of you are familiar with Christmas and celebrate it with your families by giving gifts, seeing family, and decorating Christmas trees. But winter isn’t just a big time for everyone because of Christmas; the rest of the world has its own unique holidays and winter traditions. You can even see a lot of them here in America with all the people of different cultures we have. I’m sure you know quite a few holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, etc. But there is so much more out there. From yule logs to horse skulls, you'll learn about just a few other winter holidays (and Christmas traditions you may not know) celebrated around the world.
One of the oldest winter holidays that is still celebrated today is Yule. Celebrated by Pagans, Yule is a 12-day celebration beginning on the Winter Solstice. The purpose of Yule is to honor the gods for all they do. Historically, people would thank the gods for good weather, harvest, hunting, etc. It is often celebrated with festivals, burning a Yule log, altars, giving gifts, and performing rituals.
This next holiday tradition was originally a Yule one but has merged with Christmas. In Latvia, Mummers are people who dress up as animals, spirits, death, etc. and go around to houses with gifts and blessings. They do this to turn away evil spirits and bring good fortune to the community. They also drag a burning Yule log to show the ending of the past year’s struggles.
This next tradition is from Whales in the United Kingdom. Mari Lwyd is an old tradition coming from Celtic mythology, although it is so old it is hard to tell if it really comes from the Celts or is a mix of many cultures over the years. The people of Whales take a horse skull and dress it up in clothing and operate it as a puppet as they take it around town. They go to houses where they will perform a song with the people who live there. They go back and forth with Mari (the horse skull) asking for entry and the people who live there playfully reply no again and again in clever song lyrics. Eventually, however, they are welcomed in and a party commences.
With these holiday traditions, hopefully you learned something new and can possibly add it to your family’s traditions, or just appreciate the diversity in our world and how amazing and unique all the different cultures and their traditions are.
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