Holiday Traditions

Objective

Explain the origin of winter holiday traditions around the world and how seasons come about with the tilting of the Earth on its axis. Discuss Earth’s movement around the sun and the winter solstice. Look at day length and sunrise/sunset times in newspaper. Make “Grittibanz”, a Swiss specialty bread traditionally served around St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6).

CA Standards--Second Grade

  • 2.1 History--How things happened long ago, past and now

  • Family History

CA Standards--Third Grade

Materials

Use frozen bread dough to shape the man. Some kids tried while others’ decided to do their own thing. Use pencil to mark names on parchment paper lining cookie sheets next to each child’s figure.

      • Bridgford frozen bread

      • Egg yolk to brush on top of the dough

      • Pastry brush

      • Cinnamon sugar mixture

      • Parchment Paper

      • Dried cranberries

      • Pencil

      • PAM cooking spray to spray on hands to prevent dough from sticking

      • Plastic knife, fork

      • Current newspaper with weather report for sunrise and sunset times.

Procedures

  • Winter holidays (holy/day) all over the world are linked to the Winter solstice. There are many traditions that surround this time of year. (Kids in our class had a project that celebrated their individual family traditions and they were asked to share them with the class). The daytime hours are shortest in the extreme Northern climes around the winter solstice and the sun may only rise for a few hours and be a little bit above the horizon (Solar Physics). The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night.

  • Some examples of holidays in December/January. Mark the transition to longer days and shorter nights. Winter was a time of hardship. Larger animals were slaughtered for food so they didn’t have to be fed during the winter. Idea of rebirth is common.

    1. Diwali (start of winter) Festival of Lights India

    2. St. Lucia’s Day (Dec 13) Sweden--patron of light

    3. Hanukkah (Jewish Festival of Lights) mid-December

    4. Soyal (Dec 21) Zuni/Hopi

    5. Yalda (Dec 21) Iranian festival

    6. Christmas (Dec 25)

    7. Kwanzaa (Dec 26-Jan 1) African Americans

    8. Festival of Lights Diwali (start of winter) India

    9. Japanese New Year and Chinese New Year

  • What causes night and day? seasons? How does the Earth move around the sun? You can think of the earth as a giant top and it tends to slop to the side as it spins in place (ie. a 24 hr day) and also circles the sun in a 365 day orbit. When angled toward the sun, the Northern Hemisphere has spring and summer; when tilted away, winter (What Causes the Seasons).

  • Show weather page from newspaper. Should have column with current sunrise and sunset times. Day length gets shorter closer to the winter solstice. Interestingly, sunrise times change but sunset times are relatively the same and the sun goes down at an earlier time in early December than later in the month in the San Francisco area (Times Sunrise/Sundown).