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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2002)
December 4, 2002 The Clackamas Print Celebrating holidays in a different way ESL students write about their countries' customs All Saints' Day In Guinea-Bissau On November first, the people of Guinea-Bissau commemorate All Saints’ Day, and part of the celebration is similar to Halloween in America. During the 3 days of this commemoration, everyone goes out in groups with candles, Christmas in El Salvador In El Salvador we celebrate Christmas in a very special way. All the people begin to prepare in October until Christmas finally arrives. They buy turkeys and chickens. When December 23 arrives we kill the chickens to make tamales for Christmas. Christmas is the 24th of December, which is the day we cook turkey for dinner. That same day, we make rice, salad, and que sadilla. We also buy wine, beer and sodas to go along with the food. We invite family and friends over to enjoy each other’s company dur ing the holiday season. People begin to arrive at 6 p.m. all dressed up, and they help to set up the tables with food. At about 9 p.m. we have dinner and talk for a couple of hours. After everyone has eaten, it’s time to bum the calories off by dancing to salsa, merengue, and cumbia. Everyone dances until about twelve or one o’clock in the morn ing, when it is Anally time to set off fireworks; this sometimes takes two or three hours. No one really begins to leave until early morning. By then, the streets are dirty and lit tered with pieces of fireworks, beer bottles and food, until the next morning when the garbage men clean everything up. Now Christmas is over, but preparations begin for the next huge New Year’s block party. “musical instruments” made from kitchen utensils, and big bags in which to put offerings, such as food or money. On the first day, only children and teenagers go out from 5 to 7 p.m. singing “Ave” to different houses, and when they finish, peo ple have to give something. If you don’t give anything to the children, they will tell you something that will bring you bad luck, like “there is a black cat under your bed.” On the second day, adults go out from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. in groups with different musical instruments, candles, and a wood en cross. They go from house to house singing a Creole song, “Pelamor.” When they finish, you have to give them something, such as food, candy, or money. If you don’t give them anything, they might break your flowers or some thing. On the final day, they cook dif ferent foods. They put food on one big plate where they eat together with their hands. But the most important thing on that day is that people go to the cemetery to put some crowns or wreaths to deco rate tombs of their family or December 12 is very important for The Virgin of Guadalupe us in Mexico, because it is the day of the celebration of “Virgin de Guadalupe.” It is a religious celebration. All the people that are Catholics go to the church for one meeting 100 percent reli gious. * This city is very traditional and peo ple live with moments of a lot of pas sion. The ceremonies, prayers, songs and love are the principal parts of our cele bration. The celebration is about 24 hours during December 12. This cele MORNING AND EVENING CLASSES-40 HOUR COURSE American Bartending College 8101 SW Nyberg Rd. Tualatin, OR 97062 Yes! There is big $$$ in Bartending! Eam as much working part-time, as most people eam working full-time. Yes! It's fun! You can actually look forward to going to work. Yes! You can be a bartender in just 2 weeks with our full bartending training & job placement assistance. Yes! Classes are affordable! $595 + registration Financing Available CALL TODAY ! 503-885-8885 200 drink recipes-75% hands-on training Intro to “FLAIR” Bartending Celebrating the New Year in China Christmas in Chile I left China over 10 years ago, but in my memory I still reflect like yesterday on the Chinese New Year. I never can forget it. Usually women start to get ready many kinds of snacks and food for New Year Eve dinner. But the men usually help with shopping and talk to each other man to man. In the morning of New. Years Eve everybody needs to take a bath and wash their hair to close the old year. We need to set up some food for “Buddha” and the blessing. We hope “Buddha” will bring us luck, health, and peace. Then, we all sit down around the table to enjoy the delicious din ner. The room is happy, loud, and full. After the meal, the young people go out and celebrate with their friends. In the New Year on the first day, people don’t go to visit each other. Some stay at home and relax. Some go out shopping. On these days unmarried young peo ple receive a lot of luck money from married friends and rela December is synonymous with party. People get good feelings. It is time for sharing, prayers, food and say ing thanks. I am from Santiago, Chile and we celebrate Christmas almost the same as here with only a couple of big differ ences. The weather in Chile is warm in December. It is summer. The average temperature is about 80 degrees. The only person who is wearing really warm clothes is “Santa”. We call him “El nijito Pascuero” (little old Christmas man). The tradition is on Christmas Eve families meet together, have a big dinner, bless the family and all the nice things we have had. After dinner all the family waits until mid night Then it is time to celebrate baby Jesus’ birthday, and everybody is allowed to open presents. The next week is the same: a big dinner with family together and friends. After dinner or during dinner we wait until midnight again, but this big party is for the new year. Then there is champagne, hugs, big emo tions, and many happy feelings. Some sad feelings also because people think about the old year too. Sometimes it wasn’t too happy, but that is part of our lives too. If you go out in the street you will find many people and everybody is sharing hugs and best wishes for the new year. You can go anywhere, to any house and you will be welcome to eat, to drink, party and dance all night long. At midnight many fireworks announce the new year. It is beautiful to watch. New year in Laos Laos’ new year is the most important holiday in my country. Laos is a small country located in southeast Asia. Laos’ new year is usually on April 13, 14, and 15 every year, according to the Laotian calendar. During the new year celebration, you can pour water on everyone in the country. It washes the bad luck of the last year away. So, everyone celebrates this holiday by being wet. The first day, we call “Nao day”. On this day, no one in the house can take a nap or sleep while the sun is up. If someone does, he or she will have bad luck during the year. On Nao day, everyone also has to clean their houses. After cleaning their homes, they bring the Buddha down from where it is being displayed, because the Buddha should be put on the home’s altar for the holidays. Everyone in the house takes a glass of water to pour on the Buddha. On the second day, everyone can go to the temple to pour water on the Buddha, or you can go out of town to picnic. On this day, we have a beauty contest. On the third day, there is a floral parade. The beauty contest winner sits on a statue of an animal or bird on a float in the parade. Then every house and temple must put the Buddha back in its display place. The celebration ends that night. These three days are the most important days in my country. bration is sacred for us. The “Virgin de Guadalupe”, has a relationship with my country, because on September 15,1810 we were given inde pendence and the Virgin of Guadalupe was a very important symbol. Her image was plastered on the flag, then was used as a symbol of freedom while we fought for our country. For the Mexican people this tradition is very important because we are extremely religious. It is a symbol of light and hope in difficult moments for us. tives. On the second day, people go to visit their family, friends or relations. Chinese love their special New Year day. Chinese people are friendly too. They hope people from other countries have a chance to go and celebrate this day with us in China. I Ali B. Zaher United Arab Emirates/in the US 4 months/ First term at CCC Celebrating All Over the World In United Arab Emirates we cele brate in “Eid Alfeter.” It’s one of the most important days for every] Muslim. It comes after Ramadan in December. Eid Alfeter is three days. The first day, all Lameleis start] visiting each other at their houses] When they visit other families, the host gives the visitor some candy called “Al Eid cake.” This cake is hand made in every house, but if nobody in the family can make this] cake they can get the help of anothet family, or they can buy it from the store. In these three days all families (and some of them might be mai with other families) must visit ead other and every one has to forgivl the other one and forget his or he: fault. Kids love Alfeter Eid, becausl they get some money from every on! who came to visit their family. The kids also are waiting for the candy. Some families go out will another family to the park, and the; have the lunch there. It is really I very nice celebration for every <® who is living during those days i| any Arabian country, because ani one will see just people smiling an. trying to leave their problem behind. Photo« fcj LUKE MAHAN AND ELISABETH MEYr Clackamas Pril
