This holiday season, many UC High students will be decorating their houses with strings of colorful lights and getting poked every so often by the triangular tree in their living rooms. But some students will be busy with a different kind of holiday- or several different kinds, that is.
On the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which occurs at a different time every year, Junior Lena Barbakh goes to a mosque in the early morning with her family to pray. “After morning prayers, we go and visit with family and friends for the rest of the day to celebrate,” she explained. Eid al-Fitr is a three-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, according to the Religion Facts website. The holy day is celebrated with communal prayer, or salat, at daybreak on the first day, and is followed by festivities such as exchanging gifts (religiousfacts.com).
Later comes Eid al-Adha (“Festival of the Sacrifice”), a celebration of supreme submission to God. The holiday is four days long, and the first day is much like that of Eid al-Fitr. Muslim families gather to perform Qurban,the sacrifice of a sheep, cow, or another similar animal. The meat is then shared with the poor, friends and neighbors (religiousfacts.com). “We also eat this good bread called mamoul,” Barbakh explained.
But mamoul is probably not on the menu for Junior Sebastian Le Bras- a tasty latke is more likely. Le Bras celebrates Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday that starts on the twenty-fifth day of the Jewish month Kislev and lasts for eight days, according to the Chabad website. Hanukkah is based on the Jewish belief of a miraculous occurrence in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem over 21 centuries ago. A group of faithful Jews had only a one-day supply of olive oil to light the menorah (a special candelabra with seven candles), but it miraculously burned for eight days (chabad.org).
During Hanukkah, Jewish families light one candle on the menorah each night of the holiday until all eight candles are lit (chabad.org). Unlike lighting the menorah, giving gifts is not a central tradition of Hanukkah. Though exchanging gifts is not customary, kids may receive a small gift on each day of Hanukkah. But this does not worry Le Bras too much. “My dad is Christian, so I still get stuff on Christmas too,” he revealed.
Sophomore Erin Maxwell’s holiday season is focused on giving gifts to her ancestors and gods. According to a website describing different New Year’s traditions, the Buddhist New Year occurs at different times of the year in different countries and lasts anywhere from one to four days. Buddhist New Year celebrations vary in that they can either be social or private, but all traditional celebrations start with offering prayers to Lord Buddha and lighting candles in temples and monasteries (123newyear.com). “My family has a shrine of our gods and ancestors, and we invite them to come home and celebrate with us by praying to them and offering food,” Maxwell described.
In addition to visiting friends and family, Buddhist New Year’s Day is filled with people reflecting on their past lives in attempt to rectify the mistakes they previously made. In Buddhist countries, people bathe statues of Buddha to wash away wrongdoing and bad luck from the year before (123newyear.com).
Though these holidays may not be as widely known or celebrated as Christmas, their celebrants are just as enthusiastic. UC High has a rich mixture of students with many holiday traditions.