Articles

The Christmas Holidays
Morag McQueen

In honour of this being the holiday season, I've decided to learn more about the various ways HOLers spend their holidays. Maybe you celebrate Christmas, or something entirely different? In order to find out more about the holiday traditions of HOLers, I questioned individuals of all ages, from all Houses and of different ranks (professors, students, prefects).

Annie Chandran, Ravenclaw first-year, explained that her family celebrates Christmas in a fairly traditional way. "We go to Church for the special Christmas service. Every year we get down a big box full of decorations from the attic (we add a new decoration each year) and decorate the christmas tree. It's only my Mom, Dad, brother and I though, as my other family lives in other parts of the world. On Christmas night we have a Family-traditional Christmas dinner of 'biriyani,' (a rice dish with meat) and our own home-made figgy pudding."

Tsugumi Winters, another first-year Ravenclaw, explained that she celebrates the holidays as do most people in the Philippines. Their celebrations start on December 16th with the Misa de Gallo and lasts until the Three Kings in January.

Lalaith Lomion, Slytherin Head Girl, was delighted to share some of her Italian traditions. She explained that it is traditional there to have a plastic, although very realistic looking, Christmas tree, and that real trees are often only found in the main square of a town or city. After attending Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, she says that they "wish Merry Christmas to all the friends met there", and that this process can take over an hour before they can finish exchanging gifts. Finally, they cheer with Spumante (a type of wine in Italy, the Italian Champagne), and eat Pandoro and Panettone (two typical sweets of Christmas).

Julia Weflynn, fourth-year Hufflepuff, states that Christmas is a big deal in her family. Since her uncle owns a Christmas tree farm, Christmas is pretty much their business. They decorate their tree with ornaments they've collected over the years and on Christmas eve, her grandmother cooks enough food to feed an army. After opening presents, they usually attend a late mass at church. "Christmas day is usually more relaxed, we have a smaller meal and open presents from our parents. It's nice to just spend the day with family", she says.

Seventh-year Slytherin, Claudia Broom, explains that as a child living in Mexico her holiday celebrations were rather large with many aunts, uncles and cousins. "The first thing my family would do is make tamales from scratch. My aunts and my cousins would gather in the kitchen and each would have a job. The younger ones, like me, would wash the corn leaves to get them ready to spread the dough. Then my aunts would make the chicken, beef and cheese and pepper fillings. Then, they would produce two kinds of dough, the normal one and the sweet kind. It would take us all day to make them, but it was worth it", she says. They also decorated her grandmother's garage with balloons and in the evening they would light the house with candles while they sang Christmas carols. In the end, they would exchange gifts and spend quality time with family members.

Elavial Mirkwood, second-year Ravenclaw, says that in Puerto Rico, Christmas is more about family and religion, than Jolly Ol' Saint Nick. "We do get presents, but it's more about hanging out with our relatives and just having fun. We usually play dominoes, put 'paranda' music (like salsa, merengue, etc.) Or if we suddenly get bored, get take out our guitars, maracas, guirros, cuatros", she says. They also sing Christmas songs and have fireworks.

And there you have it, folks. A brief overview of some of the different customs and holiday traditions from HOLers all over the world. This is only a -BRIEF- overview, as I could also have regaled you with India Jolly's Christmas on the beach scenario or Buffy Potter's Sinterklaas.