Cross-cultural
Celebrations of Light
"Cultural
celebrations of light have occurred across the world and throughout
time."
Contributed by:
Kathryn Darrow
Grade: 3
Manchester Elem. Middle School
Manchester, VT
Celebrations of Light Around the World
Journey North teacher Kathryn Darrow has been lucky enough to travel far and
wide. And during these travels, she has observed about many unique and interesting
celebrations focused on light. Kathryn has shared some of these celebrations
with her students, who in turn have learned more about the celebrations through
research projects and by actually holding some of the unique celebrations in
the classroom.
As
your students observe the changing photoperiods at the secret locations
around the globe, you might want to think about engaging them in a little "global
education" by having them explore some the celebrations of light that
take place around the world. It's a great opportunity for cross-cultural
learning!
Here
is some helpful background information from Kathryn about the various
festivals, and how her students celebrated one of them right at her
school:
"I've been
participating in Journey South/North for many years now. A twin interest
of mine has always been global education
and, combined with
my experiences abroad, teaching about other cultures was natural. The pattern
I began to see was the major religious/cultural celebrations centered on
light--both creating artificial light in the darkness and celebrating the
return of natural sunlight. Perhaps these observations originally were to
ward off the fear of increasing darkness but they certainly also reinforced
the concept of a community coming together joyfully.
"These
are the representative celebrations that I have chosen in chronological
order. Some are determined by the lunar calendar
while others have a definite
date.
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur
Chinese Moon Festival
Diwali (Indian New Year, Festival of Lights)
Halloween/El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)
All Saints' Day
Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr
Hannukah
Christmas
Groundhog Day/Candlemas
Chinese New Year
Passover
Easter
Nou Ruz (Persian New Year)
"While
some of these festivals have lights as a part of their celebration, others
are determined by the moon or signify the
beginning of a new year,
a rebirth, and, I hope, represent a fair balance of traditions. I'm sure
there are others that I haven't found or which might be similar to others,
like a Tet Trung Thu in Vietnam similar to the Chinese Moon Festival or Feast
of Lights in Myanmar similar to Diwali. I also recognize there may be other
other cultural festivals you may want to study, depending on the interests
of the class or our curriculum. The ones I listed above are some that stress
common symbolism and central concept.
"Students in my class celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival in class. Students
had heard a book about the Moon Festival, made Chinese paper cut butterflies
from a folktale I read them and ate Moon Cakes made by a mom/chef.
"You and
your students may want to observe and celebrate other celebrations in your
class. "
Best,
Kathryn