Romanticize 10: Outside the Holiday Bubble
Start a new tradition by looking elsewhere.
During the winter holidays, we tend to get caught up in our own to-do lists—decorations to arrange, presents to buy, parties to plan and attend—and we rarely veer outside our own bubbles to start new traditions or just get curious about how others spend the season. It’s so important to understand that what we were raised doing and believing isn’t the standard—that this world is full of wondrously diverse traditions and observances. So for today’s Romanticize, let’s pause and honor another country or culture to usher in some fresh holiday spirit.
The Romanticize
Respectfully observe a winter holiday tradition from another country or culture.
The Advice
What I mean by respectfully is: do your due diligence about the roots of a tradition by researching it, and once you choose to practice it, do so with the full knowledge of where it hails from and why it’s done. Take a moment to thank the ancestors of that culture or country for their beautiful ritual, and for allowing you to participate in it to enrich your own holiday season. Appropriation happens when we take another culture’s traditions (unknowingly or otherwise) and adopt them as our own without acknowledgment.
Start out with a broad sweep internet search, such as: “holiday traditions across the globe” or “holiday traditions from other cultures.” Once you land on something you’re drawn to, research that one specifically. Always pay attention to your sources—well-known publications tend to be more trustworthy, and if you can find plentiful information about something (that’s not just the same item regurgitated), it’s more likely to be based on fact.
If you’re stuck, consider a part of your heritage that you haven’t fully investigated—this could be an excellent time to look up holiday traditions connected with that side. For example, I’m Irish and Italian and up until this very moment I haven’t given a second thought to how either culture celebrates the holidays!
The Inspiration
This is surely a surprise to absolutely no one, but I was particularly drawn to how various cultures celebrate Christmas in cemeteries. In Finland, families head to graveyards on Christmas Eve to place lit candles, flowers, and wreaths by their loved ones’ headstones and say prayers. This is thought to be a crossover with their day of the dead (called Kekri), which falls on November 2. Closer to my own roots, the Irish visit cemeteries on Christmas Day to pay their respects, leave ivy and notes on graves, and socialize with their neighbors. For them, it’s a way of bringing together their connections both earth and spirit-side.
Because my dad is buried 185 miles away in Upstate New York, I won’t be able to honor either of these traditions in person, but today (December 14th, as I write) happens to be his birthday, which is quite serendipitous. He would’ve been 73 (he died at 54 and I truly can’t imagine him getting older, but I bet he would’ve been equal parts cute and crotchety). To mark both his birthday and the Finnish tradition, I’ve placed a candle by his photo near my Christmas tree, and in keeping with my Irish ancestors, I just arranged a post-Christmas gathering with my closest girlfriends to celebrate my earth-side blessings!
I’d love to know the results of your romanticize—feel free to share your experience in the comments, or tag me on Instagram. Until next Wednesday, fellow romantics!