Diverse holiday traditions at RHS

12/8/25

By Clara de Oliveira, Staff Writer

ROCKLAND- End-of-year holidays are a joyous time to celebrate the year that passed with loved ones. However, diverse cultures celebrate these holidays in different ways, based on their upbringing and location. 

Nigeria is a country located on the West African continent with a coastline. Known primarily for its cuisine that is often spicy, the arts that influenced the contemporary art movement, and for its numerous ethnic groups. 

Nigerian student Favour Ndukwe, a freshman at Rockland High School, shared how she experiences holidays in her culture. 

“Every other year, we travel to Nigeria. We all do it, and while we are there, everyone goes to one house. The day after Christmas, we go to our relatives' house and visit them, and then, on New Year’s, we have a big party,” Ndukwe said. 

Diverse cultures share the common practice of combining large numbers of family members and friends for the holiday celebrations. 

Ndukwe shared that Nigerian people love parties, festive events, and community gatherings.

“There are a lot of big family reunions and a lot of street festivals, especially in Nigeria, anywhere you go, any street there would be a party happening,” Ndukwe said.

Holidays in West Africa are celebrated in a family-centered way, with feasts, and with the local community through street festivals that reflect the festive culture of Nigeria. 

The tropical country of Brazil, located in the South American continent, is known for its stunning landscape, traditional music, and delicious food. 

Brazilian Rockland High School Freshman, Rafaela Silva, shared the nostalgia of the holidays in Brazil.

“Every Christmas I would go either to my aunts house or to my grandma’s house, or it would be in my house, then all my cousins would come from both sides of the family, and then since it was very hot we would go outside and play hide and seek, we played a game outside, we did a feast from the 24th to the 25th, we did a prayer,” Silva said.

End-of-year holidays happen during the summer, making Brazilians celebrate Christmas outside with family, with many traveling to coastal cities to watch the New Year's fireworks on the beach. 

Another big part of the holidays for Brazilians is the food, 

 “We had Pantone, which is a sweet, dense bread with chocolate chips, or with red fruits; we had rice, beans, baked potatoes; we had chicken pie, we had a lot of things, and what we called Christmas chicken,” Silva said. 

For Rockland High School history teacher Mr. Randal Grimmett, food was also a big part of his holiday celebrations, coming from West Virginia and having a mom from Kentucky. 

Mr. Grimmett shared that his favorite food was “a candy [his] mom used to make. She used to make this candy with sugar and peanut butter, and she mixed the sugar into a dough, put the peanut butter on, molded it, and sliced it. Really, really sweet peanut butter candy.”

The South of the United States of America is known for its warmer temperatures, welcoming culture, and country rhythms.

Coming from the South, Mr. Grimmett shared the simplicity of his holiday celebration and the nostalgia involving his family Christmas gatherings and holiday decorations. 

 “West Virginia is a very poor state, so a lot of our decoration was homemade back then, we would take pieces of paper and make them into rings and connect the ring to make a chain and hang around the house, on the tree instead of the sparkly thing we would actually, my mom would grab popcorn and she would tread and hang it up,” Mr. Grimmett said. 

Coming from his Southern origins, Mr.Grimmett showed the importance of family communion for the Southern community and the lifestyle of gratitude, even for simple things.

Rockland High School senior Masoumah Alkhateeb is a student from the Middle East and a Muslim. Masoumah shared her holiday experiences based on her ethnicity and religion.

“The most important holiday in my culture is something called Ramadan, which is when we fast for 30 days, and then after Ramadan we have something called Eid, which is when we break our fast, we get a lot of gifts and all that, these are the most important holidays as Muslims,” Alkhateeb said. 

Ramadan is a religious event for Muslims where they fast from sunrise to sunset. After sunset, they eat light foods like dates and milk, then they go to the mosque to pray, and later eat a big dinner with the family. 

As for New Year's, certain Middle Easterners enjoy the year's transition based on their goals and plans.

“New Year’s, we stay home, because my mom believes that if you stay home, that year you are going to stay in that house. Let's say I wanna move houses, then you go out of the house, that means that I am out of the house during New Year's Eve,” Alkhateeb said.  

Therefore, regardless of upbringing, culture, food, or the country a person was born in, holidays are times of reflection, celebration, and communion.