Every year we say “Happy Holidays,” but do we ever think about what the words really mean? The holiday season actually encompasses six different holidays – Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and New Year’s. Each of these holidays has a unique origin and meaning.
According to a survey done by lawnstarter.com, 92.85% percent of people in the United States will be celebrating Christmas this year. While Christmas is the celebration of the birth of baby Jesus in the Christian faith, a Pew Research Center report states that it is in fact also celebrated by 80% of non-Christians. This includes those who are atheists and agnostics, as well as those who practice other religions. It became accepted as a secular celebration in the 20th century honoring friends and family through gift giving, get-togethers over food and other activities. Secularizing the holiday has made it more inclusive. Most participate in these activities on the evening of December 24 and the day of December 25.
Christmas has its roots tied to the pagan holiday of Yule. Yule is celebrated from December 21 through January 1. To this day it is a winter festival celebrated by Germanic people. It can be tied back to the ancient “Wild Hunt” of the Norse god Odin and the Celtic celebration of the Winter solstice. The focus of the celebration is on renewal and rebirth, the light’s triumph over darkness. Yule symbols that have made their way into Christmas celebrations include the Yule Log, holly, mistletoe, and evergreen wreaths. It is still celebrated in some parts of the country, and many parts of Europe, with old traditions including lighting bond fires, reenacting the battle between the dark Holly King and the light Oak King, and in some countries, offering allegiance to a wild boar. In this country, it has become more tied to Wicca and activities are very much like Christmas, only using more natural elements to make things by hand for decorations and gift giving.
Hanukkah, also known as Chanukah, is an eight-day festival celebrating the Jews’ victory over the Greeks in the second century BCE, according to the Accidental Talmudist. “At the time, Jerusalem was ruled by the Seleucids, ethnic Syrians who were part of the Greek empire. The Seleucids tried to impose Greek values on the Jews and pressured them to stop worshipping God and following the tenets of their faith,” says the website. “Many Jews went along with this plan and assimilated into Greek culture, but a feisty minority refused to comply. Led by Judah the Maccabee, these faithful Jews with only primitive weaponry managed to defeat the mightiest empire in the world. They drove the Greeks from the Holy Land, reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem, and rededicated it to the service of God.” It is known as the Festival of Lights, and an important part of the celebration includes the lighting of the menorah. There are also special foods, like crisp latkes and fluffy, jelly-filled donut-like sufganiyot, and games with a top-like dreidel.
From December 26 until January 1 Kwanzaa is celebrated. Schoolhouse World blog explains the holiday as “a Pan-African holiday that traces back to traditional African harvest celebrations. The name derives from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning first fruits. It was created in 1966 by Maulana Ron Karenga, a professor, author, and activist, and is a celebration of Black culture, history, heritage, values, and communities. Karenga founded the holiday during the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans to reconnect with their heritage.” Prominent symbolic items used during Kwanzaa placed on a table around which a family gathers each night include a candle holder called the Kinara, which is a menorah with an arm removed; under the kinara is a mat called a Mkeka, adorned with Muhindi, which is corn to represent the children in a household, Mazao, fruit to represent the harvest, and Zawadi, gifts.” Colors related to the holiday include red symbolizing the blood or struggle of the participant’s ancestors, black to represent their skin or people, and green is the future or land upon which they reside. Each day of celebration offers an underlying principle, including unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
Festivus has been celebrated in some places as early as 1966, but it was not picked up by the general public until it was the subject of an episode of the television show Seinfeld. It is a secular “alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas holiday season,” according to Wikipedia. It is celebrated as an opportunity to air grievances, dine with friends and family and feats of strength. The celebration began with the O’Keefe family, one of whom was a writer for Seinfeld. Practices tied to the holiday are growing over time, and now there is a national movement to make it a recognized holiday. More people celebrate it than do Kwanzaa or Yule, according to the Lawn Started survey.
New Year’s rounds out the celebrations by launching everyone into the new year. The earliest reported celebrations of the new year go back to ancient Mesopotamia in 2000 BCE. While it has been around as long as man has followed the change of seasons, the time of the new year has been defined by different cultures at different times, including September 21, December 21 and March 21. The ancient Romans moved it to January 1 in 153 BCE, and it was stuck there until the Christian Church moved it to December 25, according to Britannica.com. It was moved back to December 1 in 1582 by the Roman Catholic Church. The rest of Europe eventually came to adopt that date, with Russia being the last in 1918, after the Russian Revolution. Other parts of the world still celebrate it at different times, anywhere from October 5 through April 15 on the Gregorian calendar. Two foods tied to luck in the new year are black-eyed peas in the Southern United States, and cabbage in other parts of the country. The first New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square took place in 1907 to welcome in 1908.
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