This week, as many people around the world are celebrating holidays, Epoch Times reporters from Italy to Taiwan wanted to find out, “What is the most important holiday in your community and how is it celebrated?”
Timisoara, Romania
Porutiu Elisabeta, 64, Pharmacist
I could say that Christmas, 25–26 December, is the most important holiday in Romania, at least this is how I feel. On Christmas Eve people prepare traditional Romanian food, the Christmas tree is dressed up and people go from door-to-door to sing traditional Christmas songs called “Colinde.” On Christmas day people go to church, then come back home to eat dinner with the family. Christmas is also a big family event, when the family comes together.
Timisoara, Romania
Porutiu Elisabeta, 64, Pharmacist
I could say that Christmas, 25–26 December, is the most important holiday in Romania, at least this is how I feel. On Christmas Eve people prepare traditional Romanian food, the Christmas tree is dressed up and people go from door-to-door to sing traditional Christmas songs called “Colinde.” On Christmas day people go to church, then come back home to eat dinner with the family. Christmas is also a big family event, when the family comes together.
Tonga
Soni Palu, 40, Office Worker
Easter—Most people in Tonga are religious. Everything shuts in Tonga—stores and markets. We do dramas showing how Jesus died on the cross. Someone carries a cross down the road from one church to another church and all traffic stops. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we mourn. Monday is a big celebration. We have a feast and a family reunion. We go to the beach on Monday to celebrate the resurrection as if it were happening for real.
San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy
Monica Barghini, 42, Fair Trader
It’s Christmas and people go to the church, but not me, because I’m not Catholic. This day for me is important to be with my family to celebrate together.
Ottawa, Canada
Gary Barlow, 47, Apartment Building Superintendent
Halloween is a big part of my life. It’s so much fun to see the joy in kids and adults all around. We dress up [in costumes], we set up lots of different little activities, things for the kids to come down, a lot of the adults in our building volunteer adding more decorations and candies for the kids, so it’s a big attraction for them. We hang skeletons, we’ve got crypts, flying bats, motorized rats that turn around on the ground—the dogs and the kids chase after them, witches, hanging spiders, giant spider webs, all kinds of different things. Even the people at our head office drive by just to see our decorations and what’s new from year to year.
Ramat-Gan, Israel
Lea Rodity, Proof Editor
The most important holiday in my community is “Yom Kippur” (Day of Atonment) in which Jewish people think about their deeds in the past year, if there are things they regret and what they would like to change in their lives. In my community, non-religious people still keep this holiday. I see very deep meaning in this holiday even though I don’t always [keep the] fast. It’s a day when we take a break from daily life, which I think is a very positive thing to do.
Lahore, Pakistan
Habiba Ejaz, 68, Housewife
Eid is the most important holiday in my community. After the month of fasting [for Ramadan], we celebrate Eid by cooking lots of good food and inviting over relatives and friends. We have people over and then go out to other people’s houses. We also give food to the poor and remember what is most important, to be humble and giving.
Taipai, Taiwan
Kao Chünhao, 27, Ph.D in Information Technology
It’s the Chinese Lunar New Year. Before dinner on New Year’s eve, we first go to offer sacrifices to our ancestors, then we all have a big family dinner, and stay awake till dawn. Later, we visit our friends and relatives, and two days later, the married women return to their parents’ home.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Sheila Semrou, Interior Designer
The Christmas season is the most recognized holiday in my community with a lot of decorating, a lot of advertising... maybe too much! It seems to start earlier and earlier with the promotions even in September, which in this part of the country is too early to think of snow as it is cold here most of the year. Christmas brings families and friends together for meals, traditions, and celebration and that is special.
La Gomera Island, Canary Islands (Spain)
Shuhad Cheikho Sanz, 26
The most important holiday on La Gomera Island is the Lustral Festivity of Our Virgin of Guadalupe. It consists of a maritime procession, taking the Virgin image from Puntallana Beach to San Sebastián de la Gomera Port. People in dress traditional costumes in white, blue and yellow, and perform local music and dance. The festivities run for a week of food, concerts, religious celebrations, music, dance, and the election of the Queen of the Fest.
Athens, Greece
Sofiana Cochila, 21, university student
For Greeks, 25th of March is a very important day. It is the day the Greeks started the revolution against 400 years of Turkish domination. Greeks said: “Freedom or Death.” On March 24th, schools celebrate with poems and music and the next day everything is closed, private and public, and there are big parades in big cities.
Auckland, New Zealand
Jenny Maxwell, 58, Fire Consultant
Christmas Day because families get together irrespective of their ethnic background. We gather and have food, talk, and relax. It feels good. It is also the completion of the year.
Look for the Global Q&A column every week, when Epoch Times correspondents interview people around the world to learn about their lives and perspective on local and global realities.
Next week’s global question: If you could chose any other country (besides your own) to have been born in, where would it be and why?
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