Rosh Hashanah is a holiday that celebrates the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Observant Jewish families will spend Sunday evening in synagogue, as well as much of the day Monday, and again on Tuesday for those who observe two days.  New Trier will be closed on Rosh Hashanah, Monday, September 26. Classes will resume Tuesday, September 27 and no major assignments/assessments should be due.

fast for 25 hours. Observant Jewish families will spend Tuesday evening in synagogue, as well as most of the day Wednesday.  This holiday is observed for one day only.  New Trier will be closed on Yom Kippur, Wednesday, October 5. Classes will resume Thursday, October 6 and no major assignments/assessments should be due.

Diwali is an Indian holiday known as the Festival of Lights. Diwali takes place each year after the conclusion of harvest and to coincide with the new moon between mid-October and mid-November. Diwali’s date changes each year, and it is marked by religions across the Indian subcontinent and the rest of the world.  It is also celebrated as an official holiday in numerous countries, and people of all

religions participate in the festival in these countries. It signifies the victory of good over evil and is often celebrated with lights shining outside of houses, temples and buildings. The festival and rituals last five days.  This year Diwali starts on Sunday, October 23 and ends Thursday, October 27. Additionally, some students may take Monday, October 24 and Tuesday, October 25 off.  Tuesday, October 25 is the Hindu New Year for some, but not all, Hindu families. Please recognize that some of our Hindu families will be celebrating this holiday during this time.

Every year Jewish people around the world celebrate the holiday of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, for eight nights.  Chanukah begins on the 25^th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, but the starting date on the western calendar varies from year to year.  This year the first Chanukah candle is lit the evening of Sunday, December 18 and ends at nightfall on Monday, December 26.

The holiday celebrates events that took place over 2,300 years ago in the land of Judea, which is now Israel.  It marks the miraculous victory of the Jews, led by the Maccabees, against the Seleucid Empire and religious oppression.

In addition to being victorious in war, another miracle occurred.  When the Maccabees came to rededicate the Temple, they found a flask of oil with which to light the Menorah.  The Menorah, one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish faith, is the seven-branched candelabrum used in the Temple.  Traditionally the menorah was lit in the Temple Sanctuary every evening and cleaned out every morning, replacing the wicks and putting fresh olive oil into the cups.  The flask that was found was small and contained little oil.  However, the oil lasted for eight days.  In order to commemorate this miracle, the Jewish people light a Menorah for the eight days of Chanukah.

The only religious observance related to the holiday is the lighting of candles.  Many traditions have developed around Chanukah, such as the giving of gifts to children, eating “latkes” (potato pancakes) because they are cooked in oil, and the playing of games.

Families are busy putting up decorations.  Boughs of holly and evergreen are assembled and placed about the house.  Trees are chosen and decorated with sparkling trinkets, lights, and ornaments.  It is a season of giving and receiving presents, sending greetings; a time to sing songs, eat sumptuous meals

and celebrate. Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.  No one knows 

the exact date of Christ’s birth, but most Christians observe Christmas on December 25.  On Christmas Eve, December 24, many go to church where they take part in special religious services.

The story of Christmas comes chiefly from the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament.  According to Luke, an angel appeared to shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem and told them of Jesus’ birth.  Matthew tells how the wise men, called Magi, followed a bright star that led them to Jesus.

The first mention of the celebration of Christmas occurred in A.D. 336 in an early Roman calendar, which indicates December 25 as the day of observance.  This celebration was probably influenced by pagan festivals held at that time.  The ancient Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god, and Mithras, the god of light.  Various peoples in northern Europe held festivals in mid-December to celebrate the end of the harvest season.  As part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving.  These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration.

Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community and culture.  Celebrated from December 26 to January 1, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. Kwanzaa is:

• a time of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them;

• a time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation;

• a time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence;

• a time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; 

• a time for celebration of the Good, the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine, natural and social.

Kwanzaa has seven core principles, or Nguzo Saba:

1. Umoja: Unity - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

2. Kujichagulia: Self-Determination - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

3. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility - To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together.

4. Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics - To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

5. Nia: Purpose - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

6. Kuumba: Creativity - To always do as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.  

7. Imani: Faith - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa draws from the cultures of various African peoples, and is celebrated by millions of Africans throughout the world African community.  These various African peoples celebrate Kwanzaa, because it speaks not only to African Americans in a special way, but also to Africans as a whole, in its stress on history, values, family, community, and culture.  Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious one, thus available to and practiced by Africans of all religious faiths who come together based on the rich, ancient and varied common ground of their African heritage.

Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year or Chunjie, Vietnamese Tet, Korean Solnal, Tibetan Losar, also called Spring Festival, is typically celebrated in China and other Asian countries that begins with the first new moon of the lunar calendar and ends on the first full moon of the lunar calendar, 15 days later. The lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, so the dates of the holiday vary slightly from year to year.

This is the Year of the Rabbit. The New Year falls on Sunday, January 22, and the main celebration runs through the Lantern Festival on Sunday, February 5. Approximately 10 days before the beginning of the new lunar year, houses are thoroughly cleaned to remove any bad luck that might be lingering inside, a custom called “sweeping of the grounds.” Students may take Monday, January 23rd off from school.

Traditionally, New Year’s eve and New Year’s day are reserved for family celebrations, including religious ceremonies honoring ancestors. Also on New Year’s day, family members receive red envelopes (Hongbao) containing small amounts of money. Dances and fireworks are prevalent throughout the holidays, culminating in the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated on the last day of the New Year’s celebrations. On this night colorful lanterns light up the houses, and traditional foods such as yuanxiao (sticky rice balls that symbolize family unity), fagao (prosperity cake), and yusheng (raw fish and vegetable salad) are served.

Holi is a Hindu festival known as the “Festival of Colors” or “Festival of Spring”.  Holi is a joyous and colorful holiday. On the day of Holi people show love and respect to their close ones by throwing brightly colored powder in the air.  It is a day people get together and the vibrancy of colors brings in positivity.  Holi takes place over two days and is the celebration of the triumph of good over evil as well as a day to celebrate love, happiness, good harvest and the changing of the seasons from winter to spring.  It is celebrated throughout the world, but especially in India. Please recognize that some of our Hindu families will be celebrating this holiday during that time.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and the holiest month of the year for Muslims. The month commemorates the divine revelation of Muslims' sacred scripture, the Qur’an. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. For 30 consecutive days, observant Muslim students and faculty will be abstaining from food and water any between 12 and-18 hours (dawn to dusk), getting significantly less sleep, and partaking in lengthy evening prayer services.  The time of fasting is also a time of reflection, self-improvement, increased religious devotion, and charitable actions. 

Muslim students and faculty may find it challenging to partake in strenuous activities or events involving food. Absences may occur, congregational prayers during the last ten days of Ramadan, which includes Layl-at-ul Qadr, also known as the “Night of Power". 

The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al-Fitr, a three-day celebration,observed between Friday, April 21 to Saturday, April 22 this year. Eid al-Fitr is an important Islamic holiday that involves waking up early and praying either at an outdoor prayer ground or a mosque. Many Muslims dress in their finest clothes and decorate their houses with lights and ornaments. Old wrongs are forgiven, and money is given to the poor. Special foods are prepared, and friends or relatives are invited to share the feast. Gifts and greeting cards are exchanged and children receive presents. Some students may take Friday, April 21 off for Eid al-Fitr. 

Students who observe Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr will have limited time and energy to study and do homework and may require accommodations in KW class and athletics.

Jewish people all over the world celebrate Passover in commemoration of their liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt, and the 'passing over' of the forces of destruction over their homes as the Angel of Death spared the first born of the Israelites on the eve of the Exodus.

Passover begins on the 15^th and ends on the 23^rd day of the Jewish month of Nisan (March or April). On the first (and in many homes, the second) night of Passover, a special family meal called the Seder is held. During the week of Passover, all leavened products (anything containing yeast) are forbidden. Many families will only eat unleavened bread - matzah - during this period. Matzo symbolizes both the suffering of the Hebrews in slavery in Egypt, as well as the haste with which they left Egypt during the Exodus. Passover is observed for seven or eight days.

Good Friday is also called Holy Friday and is the Friday preceding Easter Sunday.  It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death.

Easter is an important annual religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.  In Christian belief, Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion.  Many Christian denominations celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday, two days after Good Friday.  The chronology of his death and resurrection is variously interpreted to be between 26 and 36 AD.  The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week which also marks the end of Lent, a season of prayer and penance.

Easter is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar.  It falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the Moon.  Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14^th day is on or after March 21. Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism, but also for its position in the calendar.

An estimated 300 million Christians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, which traces its development to the earliest church established by St. Paul and the Apostles. Its followers practice the original ancient traditions of the most Holy Day of the year, Pascha (Easter).

In this tradition, the Resurrection of the Lord is related to the Passover of the Jews, which during the Old Testament was observed after the vernal equinox. Orthodox and Western Christians celebrate at different times because the Orthodox Church still follows the old Julian calendar (a reformed Roman calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC). Protestants and Roman Catholics use the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII and adopted by the Catholic countries of Europe.

On January 1,1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states to be free (this did not apply to border states that remained loyal to the Union). Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and gave word to enslaved African Americans that they were free — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Also known as "Emancipation Day" or "Freedom Day," Juneteenth traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and reading works by prominent African-American writers. There are also celebratory events such as rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family gatherings, street parties, historical reenactments and Miss Juneteenth contests.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Eid-al-Adha is a major Muslim holiday marking the end of the annual five-day Hajj, or pilgrimage, of more than 2 million Muslims from around the world to the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Practicing Muslims also fast from dawn to dusk the day before Eid-al-Adha, which is a day of atonement and one of the holiest days of the Islamic year.