Holiday Celebrations Are Universal

Every other year when I was a kid, my parents would pack up my brothers and me to visit our relatives in India. We went in December, to take advantage of school breaks for the lengthy trip. Those years, we moved our Christmas celebration at home to early December (somehow, Santa knew our travel schedule and understood the need for a special early gift delivery). Then we’d wake up on Christmas morning, often still jet-lagged from 18 hours of air travel earlier that week, blinking at the sun and palm trees in my grandparents’ courtyard. It wasn’t the chilly, snowy Christmas we were used to; we often went to the beach on Christmas afternoons. But my parents and aunts and uncles set up a makeshift Christmas tree for us, and that tree and going to Christmas mass were talismans of the familiar. Even in my father’s predominantly Hindu hometown, there was an air of celebration on Christmas that imprinted on me the universality of joy at that time of year.

My Irish mother and Indian father adapted their share of holidays when they moved to America (to be honest, I’m still not sure my mother has bought into Thanksgiving). Growing up as a third-culture kid, I came to embrace something of a universal approach to holidays. If it’s a holiday anywhere, I’m up for celebrating. 

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Holiday traditions are adaptable. Historians tell us that the birth of Christ likely took place in spring, when shepherds were tending to their young flocks. Early Christians adopted the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice to mark Christmas, and Christmas trees originated in Germany in the 16th century. The Jewish tradition of celebrating Hanukkah has shifted over centuries to light candles instead of oil in the menorah, and include secular customs like gelt and dreidels. St. Nicholas Day is observed December 5 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, it’s more about St. Lucia Day on December 13. Simbang Gabi takes place with daily masses in the Philippines from December 16 to 24, while Christmas Eve is the day for the Feast of the Seven Fishes and Kwanzaa starts December 26. 

December is packed with holidays, and why not? No matter how it came about — and what if any faith you embrace — we all deserve a moment at the end of the year to mark and celebrate the fact that we made it through another 12 months. Let’s gather with people we care about, our family or chosen family, raise a glass, eat something lovely, and cherish the moment and each other.

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