Holidays Around the World

by Picadome Students

The students at Picadome have been studying Winter holidays around the world. They learned about Christmas holiday celebrations in Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Italy. Hanukkah and Kwanzaa traditions were also studied by the students.

		The poinsettia is the traditional flower of the season in Mexico.
Las Posadas is Mexican holiday celebrated in December.		The children get to try to break the piñata. Each is blindfolded and they try to hit the piñata with a stick so the treats will fallout.
		In Sweden, the eldest daughter in each family dresses like Saint Lucia in a white dress with a red sash, and wears an evergreen wreath with seven lighted candles on her head.
	"La Befana" occurs on January 6th. La Befana is an old lady with a big nose and an red mole. She flies around on a broom and carries with her a big black bag filled with sweets and presents for children all over the world.		The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. Typical Christmas Italian cakes are Panettone, Pandoro and Torrone.
The Christmas tree originated in Germany. During the four weeks of Advent a candle is lit on the Advent wreath. Father Christmas brings the children treats if they are good, and sticks and coal if they are bad.
	Gingerbread called "lebkuchen" is a traditional German holiday food.		The colors for Kwanza is green, red and black. The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are the mat, the candleholder, the 7 candles, the unity cup, the crops, the corn and the gifts.
		The students studied Hanukkah traditions. The "Dreidel " game is a Hanukkah tradition.