The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner, the holiday known as Christmas. It’s that time of year where people can go around and spread the cheer and love that the holiday has to offer. Seeing all the decorations around town and on campus and the efforts that some people go through to celebrate is quite impressive. The decorations on the Florida Southern campus have already started with the tree on the green and the events that are upcoming in the next few weeks. To most people, Christmas is festive, but other people have different feelings - people like me.
To me, Christmas is a time of year where people gather and celebrate the birth of Christ, this holiday is not something my family has celebrated as it is unknown in the religion of Judaism. Being on campus during this holiday I feel like there is a void in me that is missing, this void could be the feeling of homesickness, being home and celebrating Chanukah. Being home and celebrating with my family and friends, while sharing the same exact cheer as people do on Christmas is a feeling I have very deeply when I see the decorations on campus. I feel like I’m not alone, with some African Americans wanting to celebrate Kwanzaa and having no way of celebrating it with not much emphasis on other holidays.
A majority of people on the Florida Southern Campus celebrate this holiday. The events that the campus host for Christmas are a great opportunity for people to gather and share joy. When people of the Christian faith attend these events they feel like they are one big family. They are all celebrating a holiday that they love and people of my faith and other faiths are very limited on campus so I feel like my family is so far away and I can’t celebrate the same way as others do at this time of the year. However, I do have some visions on how to tie multiple religions together on campus in the future.
One of the biggest events on campus relating to Christmas, is the event known as Winter Wonderland. Instead of the theme being mostly Christmas related, one idea I have is to turn it into a multicultural holiday party. Where people of different faiths can come and spread their personal cheer and celebrate their holiday season with others of the same faith and they can start to connect with other people to celebrate in the future. We can have this party in the future in the Jenkins field house with the Christmas tree and a Menorah and the candle holder for Kwanzaa and each group can bring some of their festive food and songs they sing and the different religions can blend together as one.
In December, there are holidays of different religions that people gather and celebrate with their loved ones. Whether it is Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanzaa people are preparing to celebrate. Being on a campus that is mostly Christmas themed during this time I do get a feeling of homesickness and feel like I cant celebrate Chanukah like I do at home. However, I believe that the Florida Southern campus does a great job of spreading the love and cheer that the holidays have to offer and in the near future I truly believe all holidays in the spirit of the season will blend together as one big family.
