By Lea Kahn
Sarah Perez-Klausner was aware of Hanukkah and Christmas, and she also knew that there was another holiday called Kwanzaa but she said she never really understand that holiday until Rider University’s annual Celebration of Lights festival.
”I never really understood Kwanzaa,” the Rider University student said. “I learned more about it. I didn’t realize that the Indian culture had a holiday in this season. It is called Diwali.”
Ms. Perez-Klausner learned about those holidays and more at the annual Celebration of Lights festival Dec. 9 at the Cavalla Room at the Bart Luedeke Student Center. She was joined by about 100 students, some of whom shared their holidays with their classmates.
Samantha Gallo, a senior who served as the master of ceremonies, told the group that the Celebration of Lights is her favorite event. It is when the students come together to celebrate their respective traditions with one another, she said.
”I feel this is a great way for us to unify our campus and experience many different traditions,” Ms. Gallo said, before gathering the students in a posada, or procession, from one station to another.
A posada is a Latin American tradition, she said. For nine days after Christmas, people form a procession that goes from door to door. They ask for shelter, just as Joseph and Mary did when they traveled to Bethlehem. Each night, the revelers are allowed inside one home to take part in a feast.
”We are going to ‘knock’ (at each station) and ask to enter into the celebration of a different culture, hoping to gain a greater understanding of people who are different than ourselves and to understand their rich traditions of celebrating during this time of year,” Ms. Gallo said.
For the students, it was an eye-opening experience. They were aware of their own holidays, but not of other holidays such as Diwali the first station of the five on the list, which included Kwanzaa, Christmas, Three Kings Day and Hanukkh.
The Asian Students at Rider group explained Diwali to the group. Diwali celebrates the harvest and the changing of the seasons by welcoming the exiled Lord Ram an incarnation of the Indian preserver god Vishnu back to his rightful kingdom. It also celebrates the return of Lord Krishna, also an incarnation of Vishnu.
At the second station, they learned about Kwanzaa. The holiday, which begins Dec. 26 and lasts for seven days, celebrates African-American heritage. A candle is lighted each night, and each one symbolizes one of seven principles unity, self-determination, responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
”Kwanzaa combines African traditions with American customs,” said Rider University student Mike Crosdale. “It was first celebrated in 1966 in Los Angeles. The core principles of Kwanzaa, or the Nguzo Saba expressed in Swahili, are based upon six criteria of a people history, mythology, creativity, social structure, political organization and economics.”
Moving on to the third station, which celebrated Christmas, the students learned about the origin of the Christmas tree from student Joanna Grillo. She told them that the first “real Christian Christmas tree” dates to 8th-century Germany.
Boniface, an English missionary, introduced a decorated fir tree in homage to the Christ Child, she said. It was a replacement for the customary pagan sacrifices to Odin’s sacred oak. A legend grew up later that Boniface came upon a group of pagans who were cutting down a fir tree to use as a stake for a human sacrifice to placate the winter gods.
To stop the sacrifice of a child, he smashed the fir tree. A smaller fir tree sprang up in its place, which Boniface told the pagans was the tree of life and represented the eternal life that comes with Christianity.
The tradition evolved, and decorated evergreen trees were used to symbolize the Garden of Eden in medieval plays that told stories of Christ’s life, Ms. Grillo said. The trees were brought indoors and decorated with fruit to represent the tree of good and evil.
By the early 1800s, the tradition of a Christmas tree had spread to other northern European countries, she said. Prince Albert, who was Queen Victoria’s German husband, began the English tradition of having a decorated tree at Christmas.
At the fourth station, the students learned about the Hispanic tradition of Three Kings Day from student Eric Malave. The holiday, which is celebrated on Jan. 6, celebrates the coming of the three wise men who followed a star to the baby Jesus Christ.
The night before Three Kings Day, children prepare a box for the baby Jesus to lie in and they put it under their beds, Mr. Malave said. When they wake up in the morning, they find three gifts, which are symbolic of the gifts that the three magi brought to Jesus, he said.
Finally, the posada made its way to the table that celebrated Hanukkh. The holiday can fall in November or December and celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greeks, who had forbidden the Jews from practicing their religion.
After the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, they returned to the Holy Temple. They wanted to light the menorah, but found enough oil for one day. But that single jar lasted eight days, which was enough time to make more oil, said twins Lauryn and Halley Goldstein.
Hanukkh is celebrated for eight days by lighting a candle every night. Each candle represents a characteristic displayed by the Maccabees freedom, tolerance, peace, courage, knowledge, righteousness and responsibility. The eighth candle is for Jewish continuity.
