Holidays are a time for celebration among cultures

Vickie Perez

The holiday season is here. People of different cultures get together every year to celebrate their traditions among friends and family.
While traditions may be different, all cultures seem to have great food, family gatherings and special celebrations during the holidays.
Jose Carlos Aquino, an MCC student who is originally from San Luis, Mexico, still carries on his childhood holiday traditions.
“During the holidays I’m surrounded by friends and lots of traditional holiday foods such as turkey and tamales,” Aquino said.
Aquino said he gets together with his family on Christmas Eve. He celebrates by opening gifts after dinner and lighting fireworks at night.
“I don’t think it would be Christmas without the fireworks. This is a Hotmail login tradition that symbolizes happiness and a new beginning for the year to come,” Aquino said.
Juanita Tarango, a program adviser of Multicultural Services at MCC, is a Mexican-American who was born and raised in Arizona.
Although she was born in the United States, she said that her Mexican holiday traditions have been carried on through many generations.
“We do a lot of cooking and have a tamale assembly line.we go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve with our entire family and do a gift exchange,” Tarango said.
When asked what her favorite part of the holiday season was, she said that she enjoys spending time with her family.
“We never get to all be at the same place (at) the same time,” Tarango said.
Other cultures celebrate different holidays during this season such as Wendera Phung, another program adviser for Multicultural Services at MCC who is Chinese-Indonesian, and grew up here in the United States.
Phung said that he celebrates Christmas and the Chinese New Year, which is in February.
“For Chinese New Year we have duck, chicken, rice and vegetables, and must have noodles. They symbolize longevity,” Phung said.
Another tradition in his culture is for married people in the family to give money to those who are not married in a red envelope for good luck.
“We usually celebrate at night here, but when you’re in Indonesia it’s a whole day event,” Phung said.

 

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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