NOWCAP Torrington, Wyoming Family Literacy

ELA Department Magazine

A World of Diversity

December 2015

Contents

Did you Know That…………………………………………………………...pages 1-2

Our Christmas Stories………………………………………………………….pages 3-9

We Wish You a Merry Christmas………………………………………………page 10

Christmas is a time of sharing and joy. That is why most of the ELA students within the Adult

Education Program at EWC and the NOWCAP Wyoming Family Literacy Center in

Torrington came together and shared their Christmas stories in this special Christmas edition of

the ELA Magazine. I joined them and shared my Christmas story in this edition as well.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Gabriela Banville – ELA Instructor and ELA Magazine Editor

1

Did You Know That?

DECEMBER INTERNATIONAL

HOLIDAYS

1 December

World AIDS Day

2 December

International Day for the Abolition of

Slavery

3 December

International Day of Persons with

Disabilities

5 December

International Volunteer Day for Economic

and Social Development

5 December

World Soil Day

7 December

International Civil Aviation Day

9 December

International Day of Commemoration and

Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of

Genocide and of the Prevention of this

Crime

9 December

International Anti-Corruption Day

10 December

Human Rights Day

11 December

International Mountain Day

18 December

International Migrants Day

20 December

International Human Solidarity Day

25 December

Christmas

31 December

New Year

2

These are the December holidays in the U.S.

Dec 6 Sunday St Nicholas' Day

Observance

Dec 7 Monday Chanukah/Hanukkah

(first day) Jewish holiday

Dec 7 Monday Pearl Harbor

Remembrance Day Observance

Dec 8 Tuesday Feast of the

Immaculate Conception Christian

Dec 12 Saturday Feast of Our Lady of

Guadalupe Observance

Dec 13 Sunday U.S. National Guard

Birthday Observance

Dec 14 Monday Last Day of

Chanukah Jewish holiday

Dec 17 Thursday Pan American

Aviation Day Observance

Dec 17 Thursday Wright Brothers Day

Observance

Dec 22 Tuesday December Solstice

Season

Dec 24 Thursday The Prophet's

Birthday Muslim

Dec 24 Thursday Christmas Eve

Observance, Christian

Dec 24 Thursday Christmas Eve State

holiday KS, LA, MI, NC, ND, OK, SC, TX,

VA, WI

Dec 24 Thursday Washington's

Birthday State holiday Georgia,

Indiana

Dec 25 Friday Christmas Day National

holiday, Christian

Dec 26 Saturday Kwanzaa (until Jan 1)

Observance

Dec 26 Saturday Day After Christmas

Day Observance

Dec 26 Saturday Day After Christmas

Day State holiday KS, KY, NC, NH,

SC, TX

Dec 31 Thursday New Year's Eve

State holiday LA, MI, WI

Dec 31 Thursday New Year's Eve

Observance

3

Our Christmas Stories

The next pages reflect Christmas memories of most of our ELA students at the Adult Education

Program, EWC and the ones studying ELA at the Wyoming Family Literacy Center in

Torrington, Wyoming. I, the ELA instructor, also engaged and shared my Christmas story with

everybody.

Here are our students’ Christmas stories:

“This is a Christmas story of my childhood in my home country, Guatemala. I remember that

there were many drinks, much food, new clothes we were wearing. My brother put up a real

pine tree and the house had a pleasant pine tree smell.

On December 24th we would fire some fireworks. The next day, my family and I travelled to the

beach, 25 minutes away, and had a good time there. We thought only of the vacation because

soon we were going back to school. It was a very nice time lived without any pressures or stress.

The change for me happened when I came to the U.S. It was exactly the reverse, and the sad

thing is that my and my husband’s families are far away, but we always celebrate with good

food, drinks, Christmas presents, and decorate our house. We also send gifts for the holiday’s

season to our families.” (Eva, ELA student at the Wyoming Family Literacy, Torrington)

“Christmas in Mexico was way different than here, in the USA for me.

I remember when I was a child in Mexico we lived in a small community; we knew most of the

people there. When we celebrated Christmas my mother invited a lot of people to come over and

celebrate with us. We all sang Christian songs and prayed for baby Jesus. After we were done

with all that, we were given a small paper sack which had some candy, peanuts, and one orange.

Then we all sat down and had something to eat. My mom usually made a big pot of tamales and

a lot of Buñuelos and a big pot of coffee; when we were done eating we would go to a big

Christian church and do the same thing: we were standing in line for a long time because there

were a lot of people from different towns and cities.

I remember building the Nativity Scene. We also used to help my mom mix mud and cut some

trees which were called guayacan. They were really nice trees and they made a nice Nativity

Scene. We also used to decorate it with spirals, stars, blinking lights and figures of Santa.

For me, moving to the USA was really different. Christmas is different from Mexico to here in

the U.S. because in Mexico we don't exchange gifts like we do here in America. But it's really

nice to exchange presents with our family & friends .Otherwise, Christmas is the same here as it

is in Mexico; we do get together with our families & friends to eat on the 24th & 25th.”

(Eduardo, ELA student at the Adult Education Program at EWC, Torrington).

4

Our ELA Instructor joined us and her Christmas story is reflected below:

Christmas in Romania is a major annual holiday, celebrated on the 25th of December, as in most

countries of the Christian world. The Christmas holiday was introduced once with the

Christianization of Romania but it was then interrupted during the Communist period (1948—

1989), as concepts such as religion, Jesus Christ or the Church were banned. In the post-

communist Romania, Christmas started being celebrated again more festively. (source:

en.wikipedia.org).

I personally love Christmas; it is my favorite time of the year. It is a time of sharing, reuniting,

and joy, the joy of Jesus Christ’s birth.

One of the dearest childhood memories related to Christmas is the decoration of the Christmas

tree which was usually a real one; I love the pine-tree smell, and I also like Christmas

decorations. I remember getting so excited about Santa’s coming on the night between Christmas

Eve and the first Christmas Day, as well.

Why did I mention the first Christmas Day? One of the Christmas traditions in Romania is

having three days of Christmas celebrations. It is almost like in the English Christmas Carol

entitled The Twelve Days of Christmas, but Romanians reduced that timeframe to three days

only. ♫

Another aspect of the traditional Romanian ways of celebrating Christmas that I miss here in

America is the Christmas Eve caroling: Romanians go from house to house, and sing Christmas

carols. There’s a wide repertoire of Romanian Christmas songs that people choose from when

caroling. Romanian communities in America keep this tradition as well, but the state of

Wyoming doesn’t have a Romanian community. In a way, this aspect is balanced by the fact that

there are a lot of Christmas concerts and Christmas Tree Fairs, even a Christmas parade, here, in

Torrington, and I like all these celebrations of the Christmas spirit.

The Romanian cities (as seen in the photos below) are beautifully decorated for the winter

holidays; it’s the same Christmas scenery that you would see in American rural or urban areas.

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The traditional food that Romanians eat at Christmas time is based on dishes made of pork; my

mother is an expert at cooking delicious traditional Romanian Christmas food, but I remember

switching to dishes based on chicken mostly and less on pork during the past 15 years because of

health reasons.

I also love the American Christmas tradition of families gathering around the Christmas tree to

see and unwrap their Christmas presents. This tradition is currently seen more and more in

Romania as well.

I can’t wait for this winter holiday season! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A part of my parents’ house in Romania in winter time

“I love Christmas and my family does too.

When I was young, on Christmas Eve at night, all my family including uncles, aunts, cousins,

and grandparents came together to celebrate Christmas. We all enjoyed homemade food, and

then we used to break a piñata. We usually stayed up until midnight so that we could welcome

the Christmas Day with a Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas in Spanish) greeting.

All the years my mom, one of my sisters and I put a real Christmas tree up. Many times Santa

brought very good candy.

When I moved to the U.S. it was different from Mexico, my native country, because families

here buy presents for Christmas.

Sometimes my family and I keep our Mexican tradition and we cook tamales for Christmas. My

kids always get excited about Christmas: they want to see the Christmas tree up and help to

decorate it and can’t wait for Santa (they even write letters to Santa Claus).

Look forward to this Christmas.” (Maria, ELA student at the Wyoming Family Literacy Center,

Torrington)

6

“I think the Xmas celebration is my favorite time. I remember when I was younger, how we were

waiting for the month of December to celebrate with our family. I don’t forget when my parents

said to us all the time: “If you are not a good kid, Santa Claus will not be coming this year,” so

we tried to obey. It is funny to remember all this today.

We grew up in the north of Mexico (Chihuahua State) where there is the border with the United

States (Texas), so we celebrate more in the style of the U.S. people. I hear my friends who live in

other cities, central or south of Mexico, and they celebrate differently from us, the people who

live in the north states of Mexico.

I remember these beautiful moments with love. For Xmas my grandmas, cousins, aunts,

grandpas, uncles and friends came together. We enjoy the food (turkey, tamales, rice, pork legs,

apple pies, pumpkin pies, peach pies, the desserts etc.), the Xmas songs, the dance and presents.

My parents tried every Xmas to bring presents for us, their kids. We were seven kids; can you

imagine the effort that they did for us? I’m glad and I say all the time thanks to my parents for

the time that they took for educating all of their children with love!

I wish I was back in Mexico to enjoy a Xmas with my family. The last time we had a bigger

Xmas party was in December 2006. That was the last Xmas with all the family together

including my dad because unfortunately he was very sick {cancer) and he passed away three

weeks later.

I came with my husband and my two boys here to the U.S. in August 2001. We moved to

Colorado and believe me, the first Xmas was sad because we were alone, so far from our

families. I remember I tried to celebrate it in the same way: with food. We bought a small turkey

and cooked mashed potatoes, salad, but I didn’t cook the pie, I bought it (ja-ja-ja). We also

bought presents and celebrated together. We bought the toys for our kids: Daniel and Abraham.

Daniel & Abraham enjoying the Christmas tree

in Colorado

7

I remember they wrote a long letter for Santa, but you know it was impossible to bring all they

wanted, so we bought some but not all.

I try to continue with the same tradition and we always teach our kids to not forget their roots.

They need to always remember their mom is from Mexico and their dad is from Texas. They

need to always keep in mind our Mexican culture because Mexico is a beautiful country. We call

my family all the time and try to visit them once a year.

God bless our families, I am proud of our family!!!” (Emma, ELA student at the Adult

Education Program at EWC, Torrington)

8

“I have good memories of Christmas when I was living in Guatemala, my native country.

We celebrated Christmas on December 24th. We enjoyed good food, family, and the birth of

Jesus Christ. It is a family tradition to make tamales to share with family and friends. I learned

how to make tamales by helping my mother in the kitchen. Everybody launched small fireworks

at the church; we sang and prayed about Jesus Christ’s birth.

On December 25th, after praying, we went to Christmas fairs.

In America, my family and I started celebrating Christmas according to the American traditions,

but I still keep some aspects of the way I celebrated Christmas with my family in Guatemala.

We make and eat tamales, mashed potatoes, ham and drink punch and champagne. For dessert,

we have apple pie and cake.

Here, we decorate our home and artificial Christmas trees, but in Guatemala my family and I

used to display the Nativity Scene as the symbol of this holiday.

This is my story about how I used to celebrate Christmas in my native country and my family’s

Christmas celebrations in America.” (Carmen, ELA student at the Adult Education Program at

EWC, Torrington)

9

“In China most people do not celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Chinese New Year. The New

Year’s Eve always falls on the last day of December according to the Chinese traditional

calendar. The Chinese New Year will be on the 8th of February 2016.

The New Year’s Eve is the biggest day of the New Year. On that day we need to clean and

decorate our house and cook many dishes. Also, on that day people go back home to reunite with

their families. Before dinner, parents need to pray and the men are the ones who lead the praying

part. Everybody needs to wear new clothes and shoes, then sit around the table and start to eat

delicious foods such as: zhong zi, kou rou, chicken, duck, and fish. After that, parents and

grandparents give out the red envelopes. That’s my favorite part of the New Year’s celebrations.

On the first, second, and last day of the New Year’s celebrations, which will be 16th of February

2016, we fast and pray before noon time. Also, on the first and last day of the Chinese New

Year’s celebrations, family and relatives send each other wishes of wealth and good health.

Since I moved to America, my sister’s family who also live in the U.S. celebrate Chinese New

Year, but in my own family we don’t often celebrate.” (Hua Mei and Ya Sheng, ELA students

at the Adult Education Program at EWC, Torrington)

Hua Jiao, another ELA student from China, added that usually the Chinese people have a week

off around the Chinese New Year’s celebrations and that her parents-in-law celebrate New Year

here in America, as well, keeping Chinese New Year’s traditions alive. (Hua Jiao & Lan Bao,

ELA students at the Adult Education Program at EWC, Torrington)

10

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,

Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding,

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding,

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer.

We won't go until we get some,

We won't go until we get some,

We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here!

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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