WSG Newsletter: Holiday Season on the Net

Issue: December 18, 2001

Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah (Chanukah), and the Winter Solstice are some of the many festivals that occur through the months of November to January. There are many websites devoted to these celebrations. This newsletter looks at websites that have information about these festivals. In our tour, we pick out crafts and activities, music and other fun things to do or read about.

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is an African-American cultural holiday first celebrated in 1966. The name is from kwanza, which in the East African language, Kishwahili, means “first fruits of the harvest”. Observed from December 26 to January 1, each day is devoted to one of seven principles. The founder, Maulana Karenga, describes these as seven principles of sharing – power, space, knowledge, wealth, power, interests and responsibility.

(Kwanzaa and the Ethics of Sharing by Maulana Karenga in the Michigan Citizen, December 2000. Quoted in a posting to Labor-L@Yorku.ca )

The Kwanzaa Information Center at MelaNet.com (http://melanet.com/kwanzaa/) has information about the festival, books about Kwanzaa, and a discussion forum. Melanet.com describes itself as “the platform for intellectual, economic and spiritual expression of peoples throughout the African Diaspora.”

“Kwanzaa Time” at Kid’s Domain offers information about Kwanzaa, links to kid friendly activities such as colouring pages and crafts, e-cards which can be sent to family and friends via email, and links to music and video clips.
(http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/kwanzaa)

If you are interested in trying some Kwanzaa recipes, Dmoz.org (The Open Directory Project) has several links for you to follow in their category for Home: Cooking: Holidays: Kwanzaa. (If you would like someone as a tester for sweet potato pie, I’m willing!)

At TheHolidaySpot, Kwanzaa drums beat with African rhythms. This site tells the history, describes the feast and the celebration. More music is available as a zip file (click on Free Kwanzaa Music). Make sure you scan the zip file with your anti-virus software before opening it.
(http://www.theholidayspot.com/kwanzaa/ )

Ramadan

Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic tradition, occurring during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Moslems around the world mark the month by fasting during the daylight hours. In 2001 Ramadan was observed between November 16 and December 14.

Submission.org is an American website devoted to Islam. It translates Islam as “submission” and Muslim as “submitters”. Information about Ramadan, the dates Ramadan occurs in the years 2001 to 2005, kids’ activities, and many other links to information about Islam and Ramadan is available at http://www.submission.org/ramadan.html

Sending a Ramadan greeting card electronically (belatedly or in the future) may be done by visiting Greetz.com’s website at http://greetz.com/ramadan.

The All Recipes website has cooking basics for Ramadan. The article about Spotlight on the Skies: Ramadan Meal Ideas explains Ramadan briefly, gives the start date for 2001, and describes the morning and evening meals and Eid Ul-Fitr, the feast finale of Ramadan. Recipes include fig and date bread, Moroccan lentil soup, fig and lemon chicken and more.

The excellent Web Guide for teachers and parents, Educationplanet.com, has a ‘curriculum corner” about Ramadan. This page has numerous “educator approved” links to general information, lesson plans, activities, stories, recipes, and music.

To listen to the music, you need to have RealPlayer. This comes pre-installed with Netscape and can be obtained from Real.com (look for the Free RealOne Player rather than the download for $9.95 US). For more information on downloading software please see TIG’s section about Software | Getting Software.

Diwali

Diwali, also Deepaawali, means an array of lamps. It is a five day Hindu festival traditionally known as the Festival of Lights and signals the Hindu new year.

Diwalimela.com describes the five days of the festival and the significance of each day, includes some recipes, Diwali wallpaper for your computer, and links to other websites.

You can try making some Diwali savories and sweets by following the recipes at Bawarchi: Your Indian Cook . Recipes include intriguing items like Mitha Khaja, Motichoor Ladoo, Carrot Halwa and more.

Ruchi's Kitchen resents the legend of Diwali, describes the five days of celebration, includes a host of Diwali recipes, and information about how to prepare for the festival.

Subhamoy Das, the guide at About.com for Hinduism has a selection of top sites about the Festival of Lights (http://hinduism.about.com/cs/diwali/). Several of these are for sending e-greetings

Christmas

There are hundreds of websites dedicated to Christmas. Dmoz.org lists 567 under Society > Holidays > Christmas and another 226 for shopping (Shopping > Holidays > Christmas). A search at Google shows over 10 million pages that have Christmas in the title. The following is a small sampling of sites we liked.

Christmas.comcould easily be the Internet’s largest Christmas portal. From here you can participate in Christmas discussion forums, shop online, learn out about Christmas traditions in other countries, find recipes, crafts and songs, or create a Christmas wish list to send to family and friends.

Christmas Time at Kids Domain lets kids send a letter to Santa, make Christmas crafts, listen to music, send ecards and more. You can read the Nutcracker to your children, listen to music from the ballet, and see a Quicktime movie of the Washington Ballet perform part of the sweets dance.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/

A quieter view of Christmas and its traditions is provided by the Virtual Museum of Canada in its exhibition on Christmas Traditions in France and in Canada. It traces the history of Christmas and examines the French and English traditions in Canada.
(http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/
Exhibitions/Noel/angl/noel.htm)

An Online Christmas Songbook is a labour of love created by Christopher R. Baker. If you are planning on a caroling Christmas party, here’s where you can freely obtain and print music to well-known carols like Deck the Halls, God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Silent Night.
(http://www.rememberjosie.org/carols/)

If you are a little tired of the hustle and bustle of Christmas, you may want to visit A Religious Christmas from the St. John's Lutheran Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin. You can begin “with the Biblical account of Christmas, of course, and then experience the joy of the Nativity through art, music, drama, sermons and essays, and more.”
(http://www.execpc.com/~tmuth/st_john/xmas/main.htm)

Hanukkah (Chanukah)

Hanukkah is an eight-day festival celebrated by the Jewish people in December. It commemorates the victory in 165 BC of Judea over Syria and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. It too is called The Festival of Lights.

The Jewish Outreach Institute has a well-designed informative site about Hanukkah, its traditions, blessings, and history. There are also recipes for potato latkes, dough balls, marshmallow dreidels, and Sufganiyot. If you are feeling lucky, you can play a virtual game of Spin the Dreidel.
(http://www.joi.org/celebrate/hanuk/history.shtml)

Epicurious.com has recipes ranging from potato to yam latkes and menus for a Sephardic or Italian Hanukkah.
(http://www.epicurious.com/e_eating
/e04_hanukkah/hanmenus.html)

Sympatico says Happy Hanukkah with songs, customs, recipes, and guides to other web resources. (http://www1.sympatico.ca/Features/Hanukkah/)

Billy Bear's Hanukkah at BillyBear4Kids.com has a web page full of activities for kids to do. Colouring, crafts, clipart, and links to more websites about Hanukkah especially for kids.
(http://www.billybear4kids.com/
holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah.htm)

The HistoryChannel has dedicated a portion of its website to Hanukkah. You will find information about the history and traditions of the celebration. For those of you who are aficionados of Guinness Book of World Records, you will be interested in such “Amazing Hanukkah Feats” as the world’s largest menorahs.
(http://www.historychannel.com/
exhibits/holidays/hanukkah)

Winter Solstice

There are almost as many websites for Winter festival as there are for Christmas. Depending on which website you visit, there seems to be some confusion about the relation of other festivals such as Saturnalia, the Twelve Days of Christmas or Epiphany, or Yuletide to the Winter Solstice. Some state that they are one of the same; others make a clear distinction. Sites about Winter Solstice are often about either the myths and traditions or the celebrations by groups who see this particular convergence of the sun and earth as significant.

Technically, of course, winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Eric Weinstein explains the Winter Solstice in the Treasure Trove of Astronomy with a Quicktime movie to show the tilt of the earth in relation to the sun, and charts to mark the dates. Just for the record - in the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice for 2001 will begin on December 21, at 19.12 hours Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time).
(http://www.treasure-troves.com/astro/WinterSolstice.html)

Infoplease.com has information on the winter and the summer solstice along with Christmas holiday traditions and other major celebrations. Search for winter solstice.

Teresa Ruano’s Candlegrove.com is an interesting website for its thoughtful reflections on the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and Yuletide. Her website is one that makes a clear distinction between Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and Yuletide.

Winter Solstice celebrations by many faiths are described at religioustolerance.org. Four volunteers based in Kingston Ontario began Religioustolerance.org in 1995. They cover religious faiths, spiritual topics, and ethical issues.
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm)

Solstice cards can be sent from Wral.com at http://ecard.wral.com/ral/sh/ecard/ecard.cfm?event=94

Conclusion

To find more information about these festivals or others, use the festival name as a keyword in your favourite search engine, or trying drilling down through the categories in search directories like Yahoo. You can also combine the name of the festival with other search words such as “recipes”, “activities”, or “music”.

Newsletter by Kirsten McKnight.

Gwen Harris, Kirsten McKnight and the staff at Continuing Education at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto wish all readers a happy holiday.