Hi My Kenzie! What a great question. I love your family tradition of making gingerbread houses... MMMM-Yummy... the smell and taste of fresh out of the oven gingerbread!
The traditions here are fun to know about too. You'd like their Children's Day in June! It is a day when children receive small gifts. The children here do not usually celebrate their Birthdays. One young man told me it is because they do not have money to buy a Birthday cake...so I think that Childrens' Day is when everyone celebrates together instead.
Carnival is in February and the children dress up for a parade. Every island does it a bit different. They don't have Halloween or Thanksgiving here like we do there. Memorial Day is November 1st and it is called 'All Saints Day'. The last whole week of April they have lots of contests and fun...like horse races, contests of checkers, chess, who can grow the biggest vegetables etc.(kind of like a county fair I think). We were on another island when they had that...so I will try to pay better attention next April.
It will be fun to see what Christmas is like here. It's coming very fast and I will let you know what we discover!
- This is a list of holidays in Cape Verde.
| Date | English Name |
| January 1 | New Year's Day |
| January 13 | Democracy Day |
| January 20 | Heroes' Day |
| February | Carnival |
| May 1 | Labour Day |
| June 1 | Children's Day |
| July 5 | Independence Day |
| August 15 | Assumption (Day of Our Lady of Grace) |
| September 12 | National Day |
| November 1 | All Saints' Day |
| December 25 | Christmas Day |
There are also many Catholic 'Saints Days' (about 12 more) which means...they have alot of days where they celebrate people from long ago that were special. The sad part is...instead of doing good things, those parties usually turn into drinking alcohol and then forgetting the people that they are celebrating.
The good part about the regular Holidays is that families and friends get together (just like in America) ...and the Cabo Verdianos love to sing and share their food and visit... and often clear into the night we can hear their music and happy voices.
What are some of your favorite Holidays?
What family traditions do you like most?
1 comment:
Dear Grandma,
My favorite holiday is Christmas. At Christmas, my favorite tradition is the gingerbread houses. I also love to watch movies all night on Christmas Eve, and I like to sleep in the family room with my brothers. I also like to give presents to my family. This year, I am making a blanket for Ivy (shhhhhhhhh! don't tell her!). My second favorite holiday is probably Valentines Day. Some of the traditions I like are that we get to make Valentines for everyone in our class and we end up with a ton of valentines. I also like to make valentines for my family. I think that in cape verde the holidays are really cool. At first I thought Children's day was "no fair!" but once I heard that they don't get birthdays, I thought it was o.k. But I kind of wish that some of the holidays were the same here. p.s. tell my mom that I want can Children's Day AND birthdays. And tell her that my brothers do too. Thank for answering my question.
Love, McKenzie!!!
Post a Comment