Holiday Rituals

Throughout cultures there are holiday rituals, meaning people take certain days to stray from their normal routine and celebrate the holiday. As the holiday's change, the rituals change. The American culture tends to celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving, and a handful of others.

Christmas-> "Myths and rituals fill the Christmas holiday, from Santa's adventures at the North Pole to others' adventures under the mistletoe" (Solomon, pg. 537). The Christmas holiday ritual is for Santa to deliver gifts to the homes while the children are sleeping. Once the children awaken on Christmas morning they will have a handful of gifts both under their Christmas tree they decorated with their family and the stockings they hung on their fireplace.

Halloween-> "In contrast to Christmas, it celebrates evil instead of good and death rather than birth" (Solomon, pg. 538). The Halloween holiday ritual is to get dressed up either in a scary costume or as a favorite character. Parents take their kids from house to house saying "trick or treat" and in return they get handfuls of candy. As children get older they will no longer go trick or treating, they will go to haunted houses.

Valentine's Day-> "We relax our standards about sex and love and we express feelings we may hide during the rest of the year" (Solomon, pg. 538). The Valentine's day holiday ritual is to go out to a nice romanic dinner with a loved one. The male typically brings the female flowers, chocolates, a teddy bear, and/or balloons as a gift to show their love.

New Year's-> They typical New Year's holiday ritual is to have a big party with friends and family to celebrate the new year. Around midnight on December 31st, people will turn on their TV to count down and watch the ball drop to celebrate the new year. A toast of champaign and blowing of party whistles are also common.

Easter-> The typical Easter holiday ritual is to die eggs, hunt for eggs filled with candy, and find Easter baskets full of gifts that the Easter bunny hid over the night.

Thanksgiving-> The typical Thanksgiving holiday ritual is to have family gather at one house or restaurant and have turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and much more. The idea of Thanksgiving is to be together with family while eating a big feast and giving thanks to everything everyone is thankful for.

As the holiday's change, the rituals change. Holiday rituals are a nice time for people to switch up their normal routine, and spend time with family and friends. From year to year these holiday rituals typically stay exactlythe same.