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09/05/2007
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| Dr. Jerry R.
aschermann | EED 308 Mail
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Holidays:
the World and the US
| Rationale
Holidays.
National, cultural, folk and religious holidays can tell us much about people and the importance of various aspects of life to them. Holidays can bring back traditions, folk costumes, food and family fellowship. So, a good way to learn about people is to better understand important days or holidays. On the other hand, some teachers feel if they "do" the holiday a month or whatever they have incorporated ethnicity into the classroom and can go about their business with other "important topics". This is an "add on" topic that is not really integrated into the common studies for the students. Some teachers [and parents] are very content with the traditional holiday study in American schools: Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, Easter and May Day. [Some would be quite surprised to learn that many of the acceptable Christian holidays of the Western culture have their birth in pagan Europe or are celebrated at the same time as a pagan holiday.] Your task will be to become more familiar with "holidays" for the people who make-up the mosaic of America and the world. The assumption is that because the dominant culture in the US is Christian, you have a familiarity with customs related to this group. Procedures: How to begin? Where do I start? Insert "holiday" into your favorite Search Engine like Google or you might consider some of the following. The first listing from the Kid Project is a good place to start. It has holidays by the months. Notice that in most cases the entries will be written by elementary students.
Most of the holidays or celebrations will be given to you. The above sources may be useful. For example, the September holidays/celebrations you will write about are
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