Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year!

Felice Nuovo Anno!
Prosit Neujahr!
Nakutakaia Heri Ya Mwaka Mpya!

However you say it, New Years is a great time to celebrate.

Happy New Year Everywhere by Arlene Erlbach is a wonderful book that teaches kids about New Years celebrations around the world. The section on each country or region includes some background about the tradition, when the New Year is celebrated, how to pronounce the greetings, and what the cultural traditions are for that particular celebration. Each section also includes an activity for kids to do. There are crafts, recipes, songs and games.

While you are organizing your calendar you can use the Kindersley's book Celebrations to plan some celebrations of your own for the coming year. The authors of Children Just Like Me have featured 22 different cultural celebrations and traditions. Children from around the world are pictured celebrating everything from N'cwala (Zambia's Harvest Festival) to Egemenlik Bayrami (Turkey's Independence Holiday) in traditional clothing with notes about the food, music, dances and activities for each celebration.

Other great sources of information are the Multicultural Diversity Calendar and the Earth Calendar.

Sal -e- no mobarak!

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