Year-Round Holiday Traditions From Around the World

People from around the world have their own different cultures and traditions. However, one thing that everyone in the world has in common is special occasions in which families and loved ones come together to celebrate and catch up with one another. There are many different holidays celebrated at different times of the year by people around the world. Some of the customs may seem humorous or strange or fascinating to outsiders, but each is meaningful to those who participate.

1. St. Lucia Day

In many cultures, people light candles on a menorah or plug in an electric candolier as part of winter celebrations as the nights get darker and colder. In Sweden, girls take the tradition one step further, wearing a wreath of burning candles on their heads as they wake up their families in the morning by singing songs and bringing breakfast in bed. The holiday honors a saint from the third century.

2. Arapaho Sun Dance

Despite the name, members of several tribes, including Shoshone and Cheyenne, participate in the religious festival known as the Arapaho Sun Dance. It involves wishing for good fortune in the upcoming year by dancing around a pole topped with a buffalo skull. The festival takes place in Wyoming every summer.

3. Day of the Dead

Known in Spanish as Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead takes place on the first of November every year in Mexico. People can buy candy and other foods decorated with designs of skeletons and bones, and families take picnics to the graveyards to visit deceased loved ones.

4. Basanth

Boys in Pakistan hold kite fights to celebrate the first day of spring. They try to cut the strings of other kites and cause them to fall to the ground by coating their own kite strings with glue and powdered glass.

Even a holiday that is observed widely throughout the world is celebrated differently in various places. In Venezuela, people roller skate to church on Christmas Day while in Japan, where it is often not a religious observance, people order fried chicken to eat for a special family meal.