Holidays Around the World

B1 – Intermediate

Holidays are not just a time to stay at home or do some outdoor activities. Most of the holidays that are celebrated have historical and religious significance.

Read the list of holidays celebrated in other countries and share your own.

Winter

Hanukkah
For eight days each November or December, Jews light a special candleholder called a menorah. They do it to remember an ancient miracle in which one day’s worth of oil burned for eight days in their temple. On Hanukkah, many Jews also eat special potato pancakes called latkes, sing songs, and spin a top called a dreidel to win chocolate coins, nuts, or raisins.


St. Lucia Day
To honor this third-century saint on December 13, many girls in Sweden dress up as “Lucia brides” in long white gowns with red sashes, and a wreath of burning candles on their heads. They wake up their families by singing songs and bringing them coffee and twisted saffron buns called “Lucia cats.”


Christmas
People celebrate this Christian holiday by going to church, giving gifts, and sharing the day with their families. In some parts of Europe, “star singers” go caroling — singing special Christmas songs — as they walk behind a huge star on a pole.+


Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa, which means “First Fruits,” is based on ancient African harvest festivals and celebrates ideals such as family life and unity. During this spiritual holiday, celebrated from December 26 to January 1, millions of African Americans dress in special clothes, decorate their homes with fruits and vegetables, and light a candleholder called a kinara.


New Year
In Ecuador, families dress a straw man in old clothes on December 31. The straw man represents the old year. The family members make a will for the straw man that lists all of their faults. At midnight, they burn the straw man, in hopes that their faults will disappear with him.


Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is observed in many countries that follow lunar calendars, including Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, China, Malaysia, and more. Lunar New Year can be celebrated in January, February, March, April, September, or November, depending on the lunar calendar, but February and April are the most common times. Lunar New Year traditions vary from culture to culture. Some examples include exchanging red envelopes or silk pouches containing money, setting off fireworks, playing games, eating traditional dishes, cleaning the house, and holding parades with colorful costumes.


Mardi Gras
The time of Lent is a solemn one of reflection for Christians, so the Tuesday before Lent begins is a time of merry-making for many people around the world. In New Orleans, people wear costumes and attend huge parades for the festival of Mardi Gras. Brazil’s Carnaval also features parades, costumes, and music. This day is also known as Shrove Tuesday. In England, some towns have pancake contests in which women run a race while flipping a pancake at least three times.

Spring


Basanth
In Pakistan, boys celebrate the first day of spring in the Muslim calendar with exciting kite-fighting contests. After putting powdered glass on their strings, they use the strings to try to cut off each other’s kites. Whoever keeps his kite the longest wins.


Holi
For this Hindu spring festival, people dress in green. Children then squirt each other with water pistols filled with yellow- or red-colored liquid. They also blow colored powder on each other through bamboo pipes. Everyone gets soaked — and colorful — to celebrate spring.


Songkran
In Thailand, a special three-day water festival on April 13–15 marks Songkran, the Buddhists’ celebration of the new year. Parades feature huge statues of Buddha that spray water on passersby. In small villages, young people throw water at each other for fun. People also release fish into rivers as an act of kindness.


Aboakyere
The Effutu people of Ghana make a special offer to the god Panche Otu each spring with the deer-hunting festival. Two teams of men and boys, dressed in bright costumes, compete to be the first to bring back a live deer to present to the chief. Then they all dance together.


Easter
On Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People attend church and also enjoy different Easter customs. In Germany, people make “egg trees” that are decorated like Christmas trees. In Hungary, boys sprinkle girls with perfumed water — and in return, girls prepare a holiday dinner for them.


Passover
The highlight of this major Jewish holiday is the Passover seder. During these two special dinners, families read from a book called the Haggadah about the ancient Israelites’ exodus, or flight, from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. As they honor their ancestors, Jews reaffirm the importance of freedom.


May Day
To celebrate the return of spring, children in England dance around tall poles decorated with ribbons, called maypoles. Their dancing wraps the ribbons tightly around the pole.

Summer


Midsummer Day

The sun continues to shine long after midnight in Scandinavia when Midsummer Day is celebrated in late June. To celebrate, Swedish villagers decorate a spruce trunk — called a najstang — like a maypole. In Norway, families light bonfires along the fjords.


O-Bon


Japanese people keep the memory of their ancestors alive with a festival held during the summer called O-Bon. People put lit candles in lanterns and float them on rivers and seas. They also visit and clean the graves of those who have died. In the ancient city of Kyoto, people light giant bonfires.


Arapaho Sun Dance
A religious festival centering on the sun dance takes place during summer in Wyoming. Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone, and members of other Plains Indians tribes dance around a pole topped by a buffalo’s head. The buffalo is a symbol of plenty, and dancers wish for good fortune in the year ahead.


Ramadan
During this holy time, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar year, Muslims do not eat, drink, or smoke from sunrise to sunset for an entire month. Instead, they spend their days in worship, praying in mosques. At the end of Ramadan, people celebrate with a festival known as Eid-al-Fitr.

Autumn

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
In September or October, Jews believe that God opens the Book of Life for ten days, starting with Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and ending with Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). During these days, the holiest in the Jewish year, Jews try to atone for any wrongdoing and to forgive others. A ram’s horn trumpet, known as the shofar, is blown before and during Rosh Hashanah and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.


Labor Day
In 66 countries, the contributions of workers are honored on Labor Day. In New Zealand, Labour Day is marked on the fourth Monday of October and celebrates the campaign for the eight-hour workday. Now, New Zealanders have a extra day of rest from work — and a three-day weekend for picnics and other activities.


Day of the Dead
On November 1 — called Día de los Muertos — Mexicans remember their loved ones who have died by visiting them and having a meal right in the graveyard. Stores sell sugar-candy caskets, breads decorated with “bone” shapes, and toy skeletons.

Discussion Questions:

1. What holidays do you enjoy celebrating?
2. Are there holidays in other countries that you wish were also celebrated in your country?
3. What are the holidays in your country that allow people to not go to work?
4. On certain holidays, do you prefer to just stay at home? Or do you enjoy going out of town?

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18 replies on “Holidays Around the World”

1. What holidays do you enjoy celebrating?
I enjoy celebrating Christmas holidays. It is the time when I meet with my family around of a nice table full of food.
It is also time to give gifts to my loved ones.

2. Are there holidays in other countries that you wish were also celebrated in your country?
I found curious the Kwanzaa celebration, sound funny to decorate the houses with fruits and vegetables.

3. What are the holidays in your country that allow people to not go to work?
We have several holidays that allow us to not go to work such as Christmas, Easter, Sant Joan, Labor day, etc.

4. On certain holidays, do you prefer to just stay at home? Or do you enjoy going out of town?
It depends on the holiday. In Christmas, as we have two weeks of holidays, we try to enjoy some days with the family and the rest of days travelling with friend.

Nice work on your writing practice.

Take a look at how to rewrite this response:

And the other rules that they could add would be:
Not knock the wooden houses
Respect the rest of local residents

In addition, the other rules that I would add could be: no knocking on the wooden houses and respecting the rest of the local residents.

Keep going with this exercise.

1. What holidays do you enjoy celebrating?
Christmas is a time to be with the whole family and especially I love seeing the children’s faces when Santa Claus visits our house and leaves the gifts
2. Are there holidays in other countries that you wish were also celebrated in your country?
No, I think that each country has its traditions and they are not always exportable to other countries.
3. What are the holidays in your country that allow people to not go to work?
I think we have 14 holidays where it is not necessary to go to work, some of them are religious, traditional and some social.
4. On certain holidays, do you prefer to just stay at home? Or do you enjoy going out of town?
At Christmas I prefer to stay at home, but at Easter I prefer to go out and visit different places in Spain and learn about the traditions of each town.

Nice job with your writing practice.

Here is how you can revise this sentence:

At Christmas I prefer to stay at home, but at Easter I prefer to go out and visit different places in Spain and learn about the traditions of each town.

On Christmas, I prefer to stay at home, but in Easter, I prefer to go out and visit different places in Spain and learn about the traditions of each town.

Always have fun writing!

I enjoy celebrating the Christmas holidays because it is an important time to be with family. I love when we sit around a table full of food and drink and spend hours and hours explaining our life, our concerns, our day to day while laughing at our problems.

It would celebrate another party that looks like Holi, Hindu spring festival. In fact, in Spain it is sometimes celebrated in some places, but it is not an official festival, but I think it is a festival that people like.

Another holiday that I would enjoy is the Mexican November 1, the day of the dead. I love your painted skulls. I love all kinds of skulls, I have many elements with skulls, for example, t-shirts, scarves, home decoration objects, paintings, etc… and I would celebrate this date with more fun and with painted skulls.

The holiday in my country that allows people not to go to work is Christmas, Easter, specific days such as Santa María or Labor Day and we have other days depending on the community that your life is. For example, in Catalonia we have a September 11 which is the Day of the Fatherland, and a part of the Catalans claims our independence from Spain. This is celebrated with a large demonstration and its very emotional day.

I like to explain my favorite Christmas day, that is the night of December 24 because with my family we celebrate the “Cagatió”. It is a traditional festival in Catalonia and consists of affectionately hitting a wooden trunk with a stick and when doing so, it shits gifts.

On certain vacations I prefer to enjoy in my city and seize the day.

You did well in writing your answers to the discussion questions.

Turn your attention to the following sentences and see how it can be improved:

I love your painted skulls.

I love these painted skulls.

The holiday in my country that allows people not to go to work is Christmas, Easter, specific days such as Santa María or Labor Day and we have other days depending on the community that your life is.

The holidays in my country that allows people not to go to work are Christmas, Easter, specific days such as Santa María or Labor Day and we have other days depending on the community that your life is where you live in.

Continue moving forward with developing your writing skills!

I enjoy so much Christmas holidays as I love how the city is decorated with lights and music. Also, I use to reunite with my family, who I see only few times across the year.

I didn’t know many holidays festivals that are mentioned in the text. I would especially like to celebrate Songkran and O-bon because I love water and Japanese culture; moreover, I think it’s important to commemorate our ancients too, but not only with the Day of the Dead, which is more like Halloween. I think Asian festivals are best than European ones.

In Spain, some holidays that allow people to not go to work are Christmas, New Year, Easter, Labor Day, and Day of the Dead.

I certainly prefer to enjoy holiday days, but not always I’m able to go out of town, especially those that are one only day. I don’t like to stay at home, so I try to go out with friends.

It’s great that you keep doing this exercise. Eventually, you will see more and more improvement in your writing skills.

Here is a better way to write this sentence:

Also, I use to reunite with my family, who I see only few times across the year.

I also usually reunite with my family, whom I only see a few times during the year.

Keep being consistent with your practice.

I enjoy Christian and not religious holidays, but of course all those taht are part of my culture.
Instead of celebrating Halloween for example I prefer to celebrate the holy patron of the city where I live. I’m not American and I think that we are changing too much our way to celebrate holidays and traditions. We need to respect all culture, to appreciate other customs, but we do not have to forget our and that’s why we should be proud.
It is grat to have free day at work when there is any Holiday here in Spain, but I also remember those days in Italy when it is holiday, like Italian Republic Day, and I always remember to enjoy it to my family and closest friends.
In Spain those holidays that aren’t religious and allow people to not to go to work are the labour day celebrated on 1st of May, August fair celebrated on 15th August, the day of Hispanity celebrated on 12th October and finallu 1st o Genuary.
Usuallly, when there are any holiday and that is near the weekend I try to make any cheap plan with my friends, like visit villages around Madrid or other cities, Staying at home for me it’s pretty boring and I always try to do something that is not stay on the couch watching tv.

Good job trying to write your answers. Just keep going with your practice so you get better and better at this.

Here is just one sentence you can revise:

Usuallly, when there are any holiday and that is near the weekend I try to make any cheap plan with my friends, like visit villages around Madrid or other cities,

When there are some holidays or it is near the weekend, I usually try to make some cheap plans with my friends, like visiting villages around Madrid or other cities.

Here’s to your next entries!

1. What holidays do you enjoy celebrating?

I like celebrate christmas holidays. I like see the city decorate with lights and meet with my family.

2. Are there holidays in other countries that you wish were also celebrated in your country?

I would like celebrate the holi party like in India, and see all the people with colors for the street.

3. What are the holidays in your country that allow people to not go to work?

On summer holidays people don’t go to work, they go to the beach or the mountain and spend this time with familiy or friends relaxing and enjoying the time doing other activities that in your daily day you can’t do.

4. On certain holidays, do you prefer to just stay at home? Or do you enjoy going out of town?

In christmas time i prefer stay at home or my family home, but on summer holidays i prefer visit other countries or other cities.

Your efforts are much appreciated. Keep up the good job.

Remember: like + -ing. Also, do not forget to capitalize proper nouns such as the name of the holiday “Christmas”.

I like celebrate christmas holidays.
I like celebrating Christmas holidays.

1. Sincerely, I don’t like the typical vacation like Christmas. Maybe I can be the Grinch.
2. I don’t know the holidays calendar in other countries. And in this moment, I think that the celebrations like Halloween, “El día de los muertos” or Saint Patrick (Is a holiday in Ireland) are instaurated in many countries altough they celebrate differents rituals. Globalization things.
3. Summer and Christmas.
4. In this moment, I prefer go out. I like visit other countries and walk, learn and lost in this places.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on different holidays around the world.

Look at better word choices you can use in these sentences:

Sincerely, I don’t like the typical vacation like Christmas.
Sincerely, I don’t like the typical holidays like Christmas.

I think that the celebrations like Halloween, “El día de los muertos” or Saint Patrick (Is a holiday in Ireland) are instaurated in many countries altough they celebrate differents rituals.
I think that celebrations like Halloween, “El día de los muertos” or Saint Patrick (a holiday in Ireland) are celebrated in many countries although they celebrate different rituals.

1- Holidays are the perfect time to be together as a family. These are the times when children learn the family values and experience the traditions.
2- I would like to celebrate for example the Lunar New year. I have read the text and I think it is a very good experience.
3 – The holidays in my country that allow people to not go to work are Christmas and Easter. In Spain, almost all the holidays are Catholic.
4- Always, in Holidays I enjoy going out of town. I like to visit a new city, new country and in summer always 2-3 weeks in the beach.

Holidays are just the best, aren’t they? Thank you for learning some of these holidays from this lesson.

Here is one very minor correction in your sentence:

I have read the text and I think it is a very good experience.
I have read the text and I think it would be a very good experience.

In Spain almost all the parties are Catholic, like Christmas or Easter, and I am an atheist. Anyway, I really enjoy the family celebration.
I want to go to Mexico on “the night of the dead” because I love this celebration and I remember our ancestors. It is a beautiful tribute.
I don’t like celebrate in the street this celebration but in Spain is easy ognore the celebration.

Kindly check out how this sentence can be written a bit better with more accurate word choice:

In Spain almost all the parties are Catholic, like Christmas or Easter, and I am an atheist.

In Spain, almost all the holidays are Catholic, like Christmas and Easter. However, I am an atheist.

Thanks for answering the questions for this lesson! Good job.

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