
Holiday Mashup
The holidays during Covid were genuinely one of the hardest experiences of my college years. I was stuck in a shoebox apartment with my two roommates and due to the lock down none of us could travel home to be with our families. We also did not have any decorations for our apartment. Even though we would miss our families that did not mean that we had to miss the other things we loved about the season. We knew we each had diverse backgrounds and traditions and since we were all stuck, we had decided early on to make the holidays as inclusive as possible and so The Great Holiday Mashup went underway.
We started by going through what holiday we celebrated and what traditions were held and what we would miss the most. Shira and her family were Jewish and celebrated the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah. That year it would be from December 10th through the 18th. Her family always lit a Hanukkiyah (a modern-day menorah) which had 8 candles along with 9th center candle, known as a helper candle and that it was to be each night to represent the oil lasting eight nights instead of one and made Latkes and Sufganiyot, which we found out were fried potato pancakes and like jelly donuts and both sounded delicious. Since she had never made either before she incorporated her mom into sending us an ingredient list and skyping with us so we could teach us all how to make them. She told us about playing the Dreidel game and how the Dreidel was important to her culture. She told us that at one point learning the Torah was forbidden and that the dreidel game was created as a way for Jewish children to learn the Torah without being arrested. The other tradition Shira loved each year was watching The Rugrats Chanukah.
Amara and her family celebrated Christmas but they also celebrated Kwanzaa (Power of Honoring the Past) which always fell between December 26th to January 1st each year. Shira and I learned that a display was set up and what went in it represented seven principles of their culture. A mat (Meka) was to be laid on a table. A Kinara (candleholder) which held seven candles but with specific colors to represent the Pan-African Flag. One black, Three Red, and Three Green. They had to be lit in order starting with the black candle which represented unity, followed by a red one to represent struggle and past bloodshed, then a green one which represented earth and abundance of opportunities. Then it was to alternate each night until all were lit. With the lighting of the Kinara, we were to reflect inward about what each day meant to us. The display also held a Unity Cup, to be filled to honor their ancestors, Crops such as fruits and vegetables. Ears of Corn, one for each child in the house as tribute to fertility, and handmade gifts. On the sixth day of Kwanza Creativity (Kuumba) is celebrated and each of us would show an artistic talent we had. Her family also always made Gumbo as part of their feasting. She also incorporated her mom to send us an ingredient list and to skype with us to teach us how to make it.
It was my turn, I told Amara and Shira that in my family we always decorated with a Christmas Tree, tons of lights and ornaments, we also hung stockings with our names on them, drank hot chocolate or eggnog. We watched holiday movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Miracle on 34th Street. We also donated food and clothes to homeless shelters, read the Nativity Story from the Bible. I also told them that we usually made a big turkey dinner with all the fixings and lots of different pies and cookies for Santa. Since I grew up helping my mom cook our holiday dinners and I knew the ingredients, I did not need to incorporate her for that, so instead I found another way to incorporate her into our Holiday Mashup and that was to skype with us and watch movies.
We hopped on Amazon and used it and Fresh to order the things we would need to decorate and the food we needed to cook. We also ordered canned goods and other things for the homeless shelter a few blocks away from our apartment. To add to the donations, we all went through our things and made one big donation box full of clothes. Each of our families sent us care packages that contained snacks, household supplies, and gifts to bring a little bit of home to us since we could not go home. We got to meet each other’s family while cooking and watching movies and our families had decided to pick a day for all of us to skype and get to know each other more. Our apartment had equal amounts of things we all loved about the holidays. When I think back about the things the pandemic took away from us, I cannot help but think about all the things it brought to us too. Being in the same apartment and going to the same university had made us friends but learning about each other’s culture and families had not only started a new tradition for us, but it also made us family.

Written By: Tamecka Nave

Designed By: Laura Yoder