Lithuania's Modern Culture

"Father Christmas goes back in any event to the extent the seventeenth century in Britain, and pictures of him make due from that time, depicting him as an all-around fed whiskery man wearing a long, green, hide lined robe. He embodied the soul of optimism at Christmas" (Wikipedia-Santa). Additionally Christmas is the occasion to unite families for "Christmas traditions include: present giving and fun from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and philanthropy from the Roman New Year; and Yule logs and different sustenance from Germanic dining experiences." Christmas really is the occasion of giving and family

This past Christmas Eve, my Polish grandmother joined us to make our traditional Polish dinner, and she insisted that we make pierogies, a Polish dumpling, from scratch. The process was long and messy, but worth it. During the nine hour cooking period I began to think that I have always loved Polish food, but I don’t know much about it. This experience points out my limited knowledge of my own culture. With better understanding of Polish traditions and culture, I can be more helpful next time Christmas rolls around. To prepare Polish dishes, an individual needs to learn about food customs and cultures, know about the cuisine's history, and know how to prepare the meal. These are all necessary so that I can become a better cook and share my

The central focus and purpose of teaching this learning segment is to educate students about other holidays and cultures, but specifically focusing on Christmas in Italy. While this unit is essentially literacy based, it is also linked to Social Studies when students use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of themes, traditions, and stories in different countries. This unit supports diversity within the classroom and it will expose students to the different ways of celebrating holidays among various cultures. The essential literacy strategy used throughout this unit is to analyze, explain, and describe the similarities and differences between Christmas in Italy and Christmas in their own home in the United States. The students are required to examine the way Christmas is celebrated in Italy in a variety of different ways, through both teacher directed guidance and student centered learning.]

There is no doubt that Christmas is a religious event but nowadays Christmas becomes more commercialized, as it has been defined as a high consumption season because the gifts giving culture becomes the most important part of Christmas and the consumers want to please their children

Holidays are an important part of every culture in the world. They are times of festivity where friends and family gather together to celebrate special events at different points of the year. Oftentimes these affairs aren’t limited to a single day and each country has their own set of specific rituals that they perform to commemorate the occasion. Many holidays also have religious origins that are a mix of Christian and pagan beliefs.

This paper explores a discussion about the Psychological Benefits of Our Thanksgiving Rituals. Four experts in the field of psychology, who specialized in family traditions, convened in a roundtable discussion about what ritual means in the subject of Thanksgiving. The four psychologists who were involved in this discussion are: First is Anne Fishel, an associate clinical professor of psychology and author of the book “Home for dinner”, Second is Janine Roberts, a family therapist, a professor emerita of family therapy at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of (Family Routines and Rituals), Third is Barbara Flese, psychologist and author of (Family Routines and Rituals), and Lastly Bill Doherty, professor of family social science from The University of Minnesota. This article was written originally for The Conversation, which is a newsletter online that provides informed news analysis and commentary that can be read and republished. Published on November 24, 2015. This particular articles was republished in U.S. News World Report. In this paper, I examine the discussion between the four psychologists and critique the different views of thanksgiving rituals and how it benefits psychologically.

To begin, the history of Christmas is peculiar and filled with factors that make it well-known all throughout the world. It’s history goes all the way back to 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Jesus was born in Bethlehem from a virgin whose name was Mary. In a stable, where shepherds visited, along with everyone who heard, a miracle happened and the holiday came to be. As time continued, Christians have been swept away from the celebration’s natural meaning, background, and origins.

The first tradition that I want to talk about is the Christmas tree. Every year, Iand my family go into the bush to get a tree. We find one that looks good and chop it down and use the top. It’is a lovely tradition. The history of the Christmas tree is really vast and substantial. A look at the history of the tree only shows how extensive this history actually is. According to History.com Christmas trees used to

According to Rosa” We tell the whole family to sit together in mass. We sit to together to expanded our hands in prayer and also to give each other the sign of the peace”. This family uses prayer on Christmas Eve mass to be united. The prayers that are learned in religion school are used on Christmas Eve mass when the family joins together with everyone else in prayer. According to Oscar “ On Christmas eve the priest talks about the importance of unity in family”. After mass is over they put gifts in a box this is located inside the church, the gifts are given to children in-group

A traditions that began to go out of style, was caroling, it was seen as medieval and was nearly forgotten about entirely. Concerns that Christmas’ past traditions were on the verge of disappearing altogether, people began to panic. It changed from lavish festivals, to private dinner gatherings. This was not the end of Christmas though, it was just the turning point for its re-evolution. New advocated were Queen Victoria and her husband, they supported and embraced Christmas.

The most popular rituals of Easter and Christmas are probably the most changed. Originally, Easter celebrated the resurrection of Christ, with Good Friday being a day of solemn reflection (Q1c). However, in today’s society, Easter has become more about the chocolate – Easter eggs and Easter bunnies have seemingly become common place in every household in contemporary Australia. Hot Cross Buns are big as well, with them being sold in every grocery store as soon as Christmas ends. In today’s society, Easter is celebrated by seemingly everyone, instead of just Christians, as it was in the past. Like Easter, Christmas has also become more secular, with the majority of Australians celebrating Christmas, even if they are from another faith group, or have no religion (Q1b). Social researcher Mark McCrindle writes that Christmas is unique in the Australian Calendar as it ‘simultaneouslygathers familiesandthebroadercommunityin celebration’ (Q1b). Often, religious citizens will celebrate Christmas by attending mass and praying, with 1 in 5 Australians ‘definitely’ attended a service (Q1b). Although, secular celebrations of Christmas have become more popular everywhere – these include Christmas trees and giving gifts. However, in more recent times, debate has occurred over whether Christmas should be celebrated in public places, for example,

According to Kevin Hendricks 91% of American’s celebrate Christmas but only 47% of American’s attend Christmas Eve mass. This statistic shows that even during special holidays people don’t choice to practice their religion. Some families’ most important tradition is religion but as years pass there is less and less people practicing their religion. Despite that the Morocho family from generation to generation has always kept their faith in religion especially on Christmas Eve. Every generation of the Morocho family grows up catholic and with that in mind they go to Christmas Eve mass to practice their religion. The most essential tradition in the Morocho family is celebrating Christmas Eve by gathering with the family to practice their

In many ways, food forms the very foundation for many Christmas traditions, and shapes our understanding of the holiday as a whole. Because Christianity is a religion that spans significant portions of the old and new worlds, many Christmas traditions are extensions of pre-existing regional beliefs. This is also true of Christmas food; in many places, it stems directly from the regional cuisines. As such, while there is no codified Christmas food, Christmas food traditions in the Old World date back thousands of

Dreams of a White Christmas Without a doubt, Santa Claus is one of America’s, if not the world’s, most iconic figures. A symbol of the secular West’s religion of consumerism, Santa Claus and his twelve reindeer have hijacked the holiday dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ, and replaced it with the gospel of spending. As both a cultural icon and the patron saint of capitalism, the depiction of Santa Claus in recent years has been seriously debated. While today he is near universally depicted as a portly old man, in a red and white suit and with a long, white beard, some argue that Santa’s image should reflect the changing demographics of the American public. Last year, a national debate ensued after author Aisha Harris wrote for Slate

Latvia as a Baltic country, has interesting economic story. It has moved from one union to another in just over 20 years. Surely, it assumes good level of economic decisions to be done. Previously, USSR member still had some consequences from command economy. Therefore, decided to join European Union (EU) in order to move to market economy and stop being dependent on Russia. EU helped Latvia to create more trade, raise domestic market and bring specialisation by comparative advantage, which led to rise in welfare and output. This year from January to June, Latvia is holding presidency of the council of the EU.