Our staff come from countries near and far and have brought a range of holiday traditions with them. Shirley Manchester (MSE), Millie Wan (ME) and Siri Melkote (ECE) offered to share their traditions from home and talk about how they celebrate their cultural holidays while living in the United States. Read more to find out about Boxing Day in Canada, New Year in China, and a range of festivals and holidays in India.
Shirley Manchester- Canada
Academic Advisor II
Materials Science and Engineering
Where did you live in Canada and when did you move here?
I lived in Toronto, Ontario and moved to Georgia in March of 2002.
How do holiday celebrations differ in Canada from in Georgia?
Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, which is Columbus Day in the United States. There’s no Black Friday tradition in Canada. People generally celebrate it the same way though- by getting together with family and having a large dinner which usually includes turkey. At Christmas time the biggest difference is that Canadians celebrate Boxing Day, which is December 26. It’s a statutory holiday, so it’s nice to not have to work the day after Christmas. Some of the other holidays throughout the year are different as well. Victoria Day (celebrating the Queen’s birthday) is in late May, usually the week before Memorial Day (which is not a Canadian holiday). Canada Day, celebrating Canada’s founding in 1867, is on July 1. Also, Good Friday is a holiday in most of Canada.
What exactly is Boxing Day?
It’s the day following Christmas Day. There are different theories about how is started but it comes from England and is observed in a lot of the British Commonwealth nations. One of the most popular theories is that it derived from the day employers would give their staff Christmas presents, or boxes, to celebrate the season, especially house staff who had to work for their employers on Christmas Day. Now the practice, in my experience, is that a lot of people give boxes to themselves or others. Boxing Day sales are the closest thing Canada has to Black Friday so a lot of people end up shopping for the things they didn’t get for Christmas.
Do you observe Canadian Thanksgiving while living in Georgia?
Our family usually observes both Thanksgivings. We do this by combining cultural dishes and customs from both countries. We incorporate the Canadian-Jamaican style meals we grew up with such as ackee and saltfish with fried bananas and callaloo for breakfast or French toast, maple syrup and Canadian bacon. For dinner, it’s usually the spicy Jamaican Oxtail with rice and peas or Turkey/Duck with macaroni pie and a host of sides. We also play and dance to music that is prominent within the Caribbean culture.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions from Canada?
A favorite Canadian holiday tradition for our family was Christmas baking. A staple in my culture is the Jamaican black rum cake. We also made our beloved Jamaican Christmas Sorrel Punch to serve with holiday meals. Another tradition is doing for others. It was a custom to give family members, especially those still living in the Caribbean, money, clothing, food, or just out time.
Millie Wan- China
Sponsored Research Consultant/Finance Manager I
Mechanical Engineering
When did you move to Georgia and where did you move from?
I moved here in 2006 and I am from Shenzhen, China.
How do holiday celebrations differ in China and in Georgia?
We celebrate the new year on January 1 like here, but that's not a big deal in China. People there get one day off. It's not the biggest holiday of the year- that's the Chinese Lunar New Year. It's a very big holiday and the date changes depending on the calendar and the moon. Every year is different. It's usually the end of January or early February. In 2015 it will be February 19. People usually celebrate for about 15 days. People get at least one week off from work, and a lot of people take more days off. The national holiday lasts for one week.
We have another holiday that is called the Mid-Autumn Festival and is in October. It's kind of like Thanksgiving, and we eat mooncake together. It is a special treat.
What do people do to celebrate Chinese New Year?
People do all kinds of different things to celebrate but the main things are the food and getting together. It's like American Thanksgiving like that. People get together and celebrate for many days. People go back to their hometowns and maybe see friends they don't see very often, maybe not even more often than every year at New Year. People go out on the streets and say hello to their neighbors and walk around saying "Happy New Year".
Do you celebrate it here?
We do. We have a Chinese New Year celebration at our church. Normally we have a party there, and of course food. There is usually a performance with singing and dancing as well. A lot of people make dumplings. We also give small gifts to the children. Maybe some money or small things.
Living here we don't get the days off at Chinese New Year, but we enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is becoming more of a holiday in China. We used to not have it, but the country is becoming more international. The government has become much more open and Christianity is growing very quickly in China.
What are some of your favorite foods for the holidays in the US and from China?
I love the turkey at Thanksgiving. My sister does a very good job with it but I haven't tried it yet. She lives in Baltimore but we try to get together for holidays. For Chinese food it's all about the dumpling. That's the tradition. China is a big country, so dumplings are different in different places. In the southern area where I am from we like to cook them with the hot pot. We sit around a table with the hot pot in the middle and cook our dumplings in it. It's a lot of fun. If you want to try it there are many places on Buford Highway with hot pots. Some are Korean and Japanese- they all have it.
Siri Melkote - India
Assistant Director, Financial Operations
Electrical and Computer Engineering
What part of India are you from and when did you move here?
I was actually born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. I lived in Bangkok for 12 years before my family moved back to India. I lived in New Delhi (North India) for a year and then in Bangalore (South India) for seven years. I got married in 1989 and moved to Pullman, WA, in the US. I have also lived in Houghton, MI and Champaign, IL before making Atlanta my home for the last 20 years. An interesting fact is that I have always lived in a university town ever since I came to the US.
When is the Indian new year and how is it celebrated?
Similar to the US, Indians celebrate New Year’s on December 31 of each year. In addition, many Indians celebrate the traditional Indian New Year, which falls on a different date in different parts of the country. For instance, in my home state of Karnataka, whose capital is Bangalore, the traditional Indian New Year is called Ugadi and is celebrated in March or April of each year depending on the Indian Lunar Calendar. During Ugadi, everyone would thoroughly clean their house to welcome family and friends, decorate the house with fresh jasmine and seasonal flowers, draw intricate rangoli designs at the entrance of the house (with chalk and/or colored powder), dress up in new clothes, eat “bella-bevu” (a bitter-sweet dish) and pray for our family’s health and happiness. We prepare delicious festive food (all vegetarian in our house) and exchange gifts with family members. Each family has different traditions that they follow. I remember my mother would buy silk sarees (a traditional Indian dress worn by women) and colorful glass bangles for her sister and sisters-in-law as well as for our household help. Men in our family would also receive new clothes. Children often received a cash gift or new clothes from relatives. Many husbands purchase gold jewelry for their wives.
What do you do in Atlanta to observe Indian holidays?
In Atlanta, I mark the Ugadi festival by lighting candles and incense sticks in the morning with my husband and kids. Then we all go about our daily routine – the kids go to school and we go to work. However, when my kids were younger, we would celebrate Ugadi formally with other Indian families from our home state living in the Atlanta area. The community would organize a function where kids and adults would present traditional dances, songs, and skits from our home state. These performances would be followed by a sumptuous traditional dinner. Often, this function would be organized at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions from India or the United States?
I have been very fortunate to have lived in 3 different countries at different stages of my life. As a young child living in Bangkok, I enjoyed the Songkran festival where we would throw water balloons or buckets of water on everyone we met. As a teenager living in North India, I enjoyed the Holi festival (or the festival of colors), which is celebrated in the Spring time and coincides with the harvest season. In this festival, we applied colored powder on friends and family and doused them with water cannons. When I lived in South India, I really enjoyed Deepavali, commonly known as Diwali (or the festival of lights), which is celebrated in October or November each year depending on the Indian lunar calendar. During Diwali, we would distribute sweets to friends and neighbors and light fire crackers. This festival is widely celebrated in most parts of India and children enjoy it the most, especially the sight of fireworks bursting in the night sky around the city. For many people in North India, Diwali marks the start of their New Year.
In the US, I really enjoy the Christmas holiday season. I love the shopping and the festive spirit leading up to Christmas Day. I enjoy the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree and gift giving. This allows our children to feel that they are part of the celebration that is all around us and they get to share their Christmas vacation stories with their friends when they return to school from the holidays.
