(crossposted to our senior classes’ blog)
In Western cultures, we often refer to the winter season as the festive season. For many, it starts with Thanksgiving, and ends with New Year’s Day or the lunar new year (also called the Chinese New Year). Different cultures celebrate different holidays throughout the darker months of the year – some of the most well known are Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, the Winter Solstice and Chinese New Year, but they are by no means the only celebrations that occur at this time. Each family has its own traditions for the winter holidays, some based in culture, some based in religion or spirituality, and some based simply in connecting with friends and family. For this week in the Student Blogging Challenge, we’re going to learn a little bit about each other and the traditions and festivities we celebrate.
First of all, I would like you to go complete this poll. Make sure you use the “Other” category if you celebrate something not on their list – or, correspondingly, if your cultural and/or religious beliefs lead you not to celebrate any traditional cultural or religious holidays (because not all people do).
Second, although there are a number of different activities on the Student Blogging Challenge post, I would like to see you choose to respond to either Task One or Task Two (or both, if you want) – I’m curious about your family’s traditions. I’m going to alter the phrasing a little bit, though:
Task One: Family Celebrations
What is the most important tradition you and your family share in the winter season? It may or may not be related to a religious celebration; write about something that you do together that “marks” the holiday or winter season for you. Explain its significance in some detail – remember, you’re trying to engage your audience with your writing.
Task Two: Photo Spark
Take or create an image that represents winter or winter celebrations for you, and write an explanation of why or how it does so. Remember our learning around copyright – don’t select a photo that someone else has created or taken without their permission, either directly or in the form of a Creative Commons license.
If you’d like to check out some of the other activities – and you’re welcome to do them IN ADDITION to one or both of the above tasks – you can find them here:
