Festivals of Light

[Boyd Roberts]

It’s that time of year – Festivals of Light

Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, was celebrated by Hindus on November 12^th. Before too long many schools will shortly be taking a winter break, coinciding, in some cases, with the celebration of Christmas, and in others with Hanukkah, or festival of light.

This time of year gives plenty of opportunities for IGCA participants to explore different traditions and to Understand Other Cultures and Outlooks.

Diwali

Find out more about Diwali:

Ages 8 – 12

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zh86n39/articles/zjpp92p

 

Age 13 up

A short video (2 mins) in which a teenager talks about Diwali celebrations

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zt42tfr/articles/zkkvt39

 

Hanukkah

 

Find out more about Hanukkah (28 November) at:

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/hanukkah/ (age 13+)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/holydays/hanukkah.... (age 13+)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/search?q=hannukah (ages 8-13)

 

And to find out about Diwali and other festivals of light, visit

https://globaldimension.org.uk/festivals-of-light/

 

Christmas

Christmas is widely celebrated, and there are many local traditions and variations. Within the IGC Award, the aim is for students to go far beyond the study of quaintly different Fs of food, festivals, fashion. But, as many students look forward to celebrating festivals over the holiday period, perhaps they could spend a little time finding out about the celebrations others will be enjoying. Do they know, for instance, that there are at least two dates on which Christmas is celebrated around the world? And they could find out that Christmas is now being celebrated in countries with no Christian tradition, simply for general enjoyment. 

Find out more about Christmas at:

https://globaldimension.org.uk/event/christmas-day/2019-12-25/

 

There are a number of websites where celebrations in a number of different countries are described, and links to a few are given below.

Students can check whether the descriptions of festivities and traditions in their own country are accurate, and perhaps find out what the websites say about celebrations and traditions in other countries.

Why Christmas. Com? Claims to be the biggest site on the Internet concerned with Christmas. Refreshingly, it does not accept any adverts. http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/

Santa’s net also presents brief outlines of traditions in different countries. http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm .

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/christmas-traditions-around-the... also has descriptions of traditions in a few different countries.

For light relief have a look at unusual Christmas traditions on

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/articles/13-quirky-christmas-trad...

Look also at some other relevant Global Dimension’s posts:

Santa at https://globaldimension.org.uk/santa-claus/

Festive inspiration at https://globaldimension.org.uk/festive-inspiration/