At CAA Travel, we are passionate about helping you to explore the world. At this time of year, many of us are in the midst of celebrating holiday traditions. Travel grants us the beautiful gift of exploring how different cultures experience the holidays, as well as learning about the other types of holidays being celebrated! To get into the spirit of the season, we want to dive into just a few of the holidays we’ve seen both at home and around the world. We also asked a few of our employees to share about the traditions they look forward to year after year! Let’s take a look together.
Halloween
According to The Canada Guide, Halloween is the second-biggest holiday in Canada based on consumer spending and public participation. So, it’s a big one! It got its roots from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a pagan religious celebration that marked the end of summer harvest. People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts—you can see how it evolved into what we celebrate today! Here are some of the traditions people might use to enjoy this spooky day:
- Trick or treating
- Pumpkin carving
- Haunted houses
- Wearing costumes
- Decorating your house and yard
- Scary movies
- Hosting parties
- Eating lots of candy
Diwali
Though it’s primarily a Hindu celebration, Diwali has been adopted into some other cultures and is considered the biggest and most important holiday of the year in India! It was named for “the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness.” It’s also called the Festival of Lights, and it focuses on the theme of the victory of good over evil! So, how is it celebrated? Here are just a few of the traditions:
- Lighting diyas, or clay lamps, and other festive lights
- Lighting up buildings with colourful lighting outside
- Firework displays
- Cleaning and re-decorating the home
- Dressing in traditional clothing
- Eating sweets, or mithai, like chakli, peda, barfi, and ladoo
- Decorating with rangoli, beautiful and colourful artwork made of rice powder
Thanksgiving
Though it’s not as big in Canada as it is in the United States, this holiday is still special to a lot of people here! It was originally started as a time to celebrate the bountiful harvest season and was also a time to thank God for keeping the early explorers of Canada safe as they ventured into the country. Now, it’s just seen as a day to celebrate with loved ones and eat a good meal! What are the traditions you might see?
- Family dinner, usually turkey or ham with all the fixings
- Watching football
- Travelling to visit loved ones
- Autumn activities
Día de los Muertos
This Mexican holiday, meaning “Day of the Dead”, is a time when families will welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives and have a reunion that includes food, drink, and celebration! This holiday is observed annually from October 31-November 2. Here are some of the traditions that accompany it:
- Building ofrendas, or altars to remember loved ones
- Decorating with marigolds
- Calaveras, or sugar skulls
- Big family meals
Hanukkah
This 8-day Jewish celebration commemorates the time from second century B.C. when the Jewish Temple was rededicated after the Jewish people rose against their oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. The dates are not the same every year, and this year it starts on the same day as Christmas! This is another holiday referred to as the Festival of Lights, and it has some bright traditions that accompany it:
- Lighting the menorah, with one candle lit each night
- Playing dreidel
- Giving Hanukkah gelt, something that teaches children about wealth and charity
- Eating traditional foods like latkes, brisket, and kugel
- Singing songs
- Reading scripture
Kwanzaa
This is an African American and Pan-African holiday, and it was created to allow an alternative to Christmas so African people could have the opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history! It draws on the South African first-fruits celebrations. It focuses on seven key principles and is seven days long! So, how is it celebrated?
- Assemble a Kwanzaa display
- Lighting the kinara, which is seven candles in black, red, and green
- Preparing and sharing food
- Honoring ancestors
- Displaying creativity and talents
- Giving gifts to the children
Christmas
Finally, we come to Christmas—this is the number one most celebrated holiday in Canada and is often the one that comes to mind when people refer to the holiday season at this time of year! It marks the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but it also marks the start of the winter solstice. It is considered by many today to simply be a family celebration, and there are many traditions that go with the day!
- Exchanging gifts
- Decorating your home, including setting up a tree
- Big family dinners
- Watching Christmas movies
- Going to church with family
- Baking Christmas treats
- Christmas music
CAA Traditions
Now that we’ve talked about some of the holidays that are celebrated at this time of year, let’s look at what some of our team members do to mark their favourite occasions!
Michelle Hunt
Michelle is a Travel Advisor from our Regina South office, and she shared about her favourite Christmas tradition! Every Christmas Eve, her family will go to Mass together and then gather at home for hot chocolate, pajamas, and a Christmas movie. She said it’s special for her because it was something she would do with her mom before she passed, so it allows her to still feel close to her mom during the holidays. Sounds like a truly special and cozy way to celebrate the day!
Ambre Maurer
Weyburn Travel Consultant Ambre comes from a large, blended family, so she said her favourite Christmas tradition is chaotic but special! Her paternal grandparents have 16 grandchildren, and every year, her grandma would give each of them a cozy pair of socks. While this wasn’t thrilling as children, Ambre says they all grew to love the tradition so at age 20 when her grandma had passed, she was disappointed those cozy socks wouldn’t be under the tree. However, her mom kept the tradition alive, and the socks were there once more! Now that she’s older, she and her sisters have helped their mom to keep it going so her nieces and nephews get to enjoy the tradition as well. What a heartwarming story from a beautiful family!
Erica Boyle
Erica shared another beloved Christmas tradition with us—drinking hot chocolate while setting up the decorations! For this Regina North Member Representative, it sounds like the perfect way to kick off the season and feel the spirit of the season.
Amanda Uhryn
Regina North Senior Travel Consultant Amanda shared with us about her family’s Ukrainian Christmas traditions! Specifically, she told us about the delicious Christmas Eve supper they share—it always includes the 12 dishes of Christmas and is meatless and served after Christmas mass. The dishes are as follows:
- Kutia – wheat (straight from the field, poppyseed, and honey
- Borscht – beet vegetable soup
- Kolach – traditional Christmas bread
- Varenyky (pierogi) - potato, sauerkraut, raison, date, and cherry
- Holubtsi (cabbage rolls) - always meatless, rice, dill, and onion wrapped in blanched sweet cabbage or sour cabbage. Some also fill them with buckwheat!
- Nachynka – cornmeal dish traditional to Amanda’s family
- Nalysnyky – savoury crepes also traditionl to Amanda’s family
- White fish – sometimes with salmon as well
- White beans – mashed with garlic
- Mushroom gravy made with Pidpenky – gravy with mushrooms and dill
- Pampushky – a sweet bread roll, kind of like a donut
- Compote – cooked dried fuits, usually in honey or syrup
Amanda shared that Ukrainian traditions were very important to her dad, so they have tried to honour and respect them over the years! Sounds like a pretty tasty tradition!
Rachel Souster
Finally, we have Rachel, a Senior Travel Consultant from Regina East, who shared with us about her favourite Halloween tradition! She said she loves to put up her Lemax Spooky Town Village every year with her daughter, and they love to add a new piece or two to it every year. Looks like we will have to keep an eye out for this while trick-or-treating next year!
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons to celebrate during this time of year, and we love to see what everyone does to make the most of the season! Let us know on social media what your favourite traditions are and visit our website if you’d like to work with our travel team to explore holidays in new places next year!