With the arrival of December comes a whirlwind of festivities in celebration of the holidays.
Throughout the world, people are running rampant through stores to grab last-minute gifts for relatives or stirring up slight holiday chaos as they scramble to decorate their homes. Regardless, the excitement can be felt in the air, the scent of peppermint and hot chocolate lingering.
As the opening song in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” goes, “Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer.”
But some of the other holiday traditions are overshadowed by Christmas and its carols.
Cal High students and faculty celebrate different winter holidays with their own festive flair.
Diwali
Diwali is one of India’s biggest and most celebrated holidays. Its name stems from the Sanskrit word “Deepawali”, which means “rows of lights.”
Diwali is a celebration of the victory of good over evil. It is celebrated during the Hindu month of Kartik, which typically falls between the middle of October and November. But it’s still considered a winter holiday.
Sophomore Aahaan Nath said his family celebrates this holiday through prayer and food.
“We set up a bunch of lights around the house and make sure every room is lit because of a demon,” Nath said.
He said the tradition of lighting lamps originates from a famous Hindu legend called the Ramayana.
The story centers around an exiled prince who fought against a demon to save his wife, who was kidnapped by the demon.
After fighting off the demon, the prince was welcomed back home by his city with thousands of lit clay lamps.
Nath has many memories from celebrating Diwali in the past.
“My neighbor had this giant firecracker and he shot it,” Nath said. “It hit a tree, nothing bad happened, but it was so loud and bright that we all went home in case someone saw.”
Hanukkah
Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday, is a time of prayer and celebration.
Social studies teacher Alex Geller celebrates this holiday with the tradition of prayer and lighting one candle on the menorah for eight nights.
The holiday is celebrated alongside delicious foods like Matzo ball soup and kaidah fish with horseradish.“[Kaidah fish] is not good, but it’s eaten once a year so you have your fill,” Geller said.
Geller said Hanukkah celebrates the triumph of the Maccabees, who are Jewish rebels, over the Seleucid Empire. It also celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of the menorah remaining lit for eight nights.
Geller’s fondest memory of this holiday is just being with his parents and helping them.
Christmas
Students all share their love and joy for Christmas, but everyone has some slight differences with how they celebrate it with their families.
Sophomore Alex Cordeiro has unique experiences with the holiday.
“In the morning on Christmas, there’s no such thing as breakfast time,” Cordeiro said. “You have to open your presents.”
She and her siblings will intentionally wake up on Christmas morning while it’s still dark outside, just to look at the tree and admire its glory.
Cordeiro said her favorite holiday dessert is champorado, which is a sweet chocolate rice porridge from the Philippines.
“I know it sounds bad but you put condensed milk on it and it tastes really good,” she said. “It’s like a really nice warm filling meal.”
Cordeiro mentioned how leading up to Christmas, her family constantly sings Christmas songs, with their all-time favorite being Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
“Last year while me and [my sister] Kailey were setting up the Christmas tree, we just kept singing,” Cordeiro said.
Cordeiro said that she is a firm believer in Carey’s hit being the top song played during the season, and she has continued to sing this song for some time.
She also said her favorite Christmas gift she had ever received was a VR headset.
“I remember playing Temple Run on it and I actually almost cried when I turned around and saw the monster,” Cordeiro said.
She also recalled her and her siblings getting pillow pets for Christmas one year. She said hers was a blue penguin that glowed in the dark.
New Year’s Eve
There are many ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Some students like to eat grapes at the stroke of midnight, while others celebrate with some sort of meal and a party.
But for sophomore Kate Shu, New Year’s Eve holds a different meaning. To Shu, it’s not just a holiday, but also her birthday.
“First, I would celebrate my birthday and then watch the ball drop at midnight with my family,” she said.
Celebrating her birthday on a holiday makes it extra special for Shu. It is something she said she’d never change even if she were given the chance.
Shu celebrated her birthday at City Center last year and even though there weren’t a lot of shops open on New Year’s Eve, she was able to enjoy the Sandbox VR.
She was able to play “Squid Game”, which she said was a very memorable way to celebrate her birthday and the New Year.
With the arrival of winter, there comes a wonderful season filled with diverse traditions, each with its own special way of bringing loved ones together.
Whether it’s through Diwali’s many lights, Christmas’s carols, the holidays celebrated are numerous and create a beautiful array of festivities enjoyed by many Cal students.
With that said, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, and all other winter holidays.
