International students share their holiday traditions

Written by Natasha Konstantinovskaya Monday, 08 December 2008 19:00

While many American students can’t wait to celebrate Christmas, for many international students it’s not such a big deal. These students are missing some of their favorite holidays that they left at home.

Marine Maureau, a freshman majoring in English, adores Christmas. However, the way she celebrates it might be rather unusual for an all-American. A favorite traditional dish in Maureau’s family during Christmas is a big bowl of snails.

“My friend’s mother is so good at cooking them,” Maureau said, “I become hungry even when I think about it.”

Better than snails, can be only foie gras, a traditional Christmas meal in France. It is an appetizer cooked from a liver of a goose or a duck, which was forced to eat before becoming a delicious dish. The fact that a bird was fattened makes it particularly tasty and expensive. French people think that foie gras and champaigne is the best Christmas combination.

“It may sound horrible for non French but once you try it, you will understand why French people are crazy about it,” Maureau explained.

Christmas is followed by la Fete des Rois. It lasts for the first couple of weeks of January. On these days French people cook a big cake and put a pretty statuette called “feve” inside it. The one who gets it in his or her piece of cake becomes the king. He or she has to cook another cake and invite people to eat it.

While Maureau misses the holidays that are not that far from now, Zahra Elhassani, a Moroccan student majoring in pharmacy, is anticipating spring with her favorite Ashura. It is celebrated for a two day period in spring. If guests come on one of the days of Ashura, they are treated with a special Moroccan tea and a fakya, a meal cooked of dried nuts and fruit.  On the first day Moroccan people play with fire. Kids from all neighborhoods make a huge fire, putting in it everything they could find. Older children, together with parents, make fireworks.

“The next day is the most fun day in the year,” Elhassani said. Everyone fills bottles or balloons with water and pours it at people in the streets, supermarkets, everywhere. There is no way for a Moroccan to stay dry other than staying at home all day.

“It is always hot, that you kind of want to be watered to feel refreshed,” Elhassani said, “It is probably not a good idea to do it in Fargo, because it is too cold.”

People prefer to wear old clothes this day because sometimes kids like to play jokes. Instead of water they can throw eggs, for instance. “But you can’t be mad at children,” said Elhassani with a smile, “We all are just having fun.”

Surprisingly, Armenia has a similar holiday called Vardavar, which is, by the way, considered to be the most enjoyable by Nicky Aghbalyan, an Armenian student at NDSU majoring in hospitality management. During this day teenagers can run up and pour pails of water over you. The only reaction expected is smile and laugh from the heart.

 “You just have to take advantage of water on a hot sunny day,” Agbalyan said cheerfully.

Now let’s travel to the other side of the world, mysterious Asia and see what holidays Korean and Japanese students miss the most.

Seungah Lee, a freshman from Korea studying microbiology at NDSU, prefers New Year to any other holiday. Astonishingly, Koreans celebrate it for three days and the dates change every year according to the lunar calendar. For example, this year Lee can’t wait Feb. 6-8 because these are the days of the 2009 New Year. All family gathers together and eats traditional rice cake soup, which Lee compared with a turkey on thanksgiving. They say that with one bowl of this soup, you become one year older.

“There is a joke in Korea: If a person is hungry and eats two bowls of soup at a time, we say that he or she became two years older,” Lee explained.

There is also a bowing tradition in Korea. Children in the family have to bow to the older members and congratulate them. As a present, parents and grandparents give money to kids. The oldest among the siblings gets the most money.

“If you have a big family, you can become really rich on New Year,” Lee said.

However, not all people like New Year. People in Japan prefer romantic holidays to big feasts. Chika Kawamura, a student at NDSU majoring in economics, in America most of all misses Tanabata which is celebrated on July 7.  Tanabata is known as a Star Festival and is based on a beautiful legend of sweet hearts.

A princess, who was master in weaving, fell in love with a herd boy. Generous father king allowed them to get married. However, the princess and the herd boy were so much in love that they spent all the time with each other forgetting about their work. The king became mad and put them on the opposite sides of the Milky Way. Now the shepherd, the star Altair, and the weaving girl, the Vega, meet only once a year on 7th day of the 7th month.

Japanese people write their wishes on a piece of paper and tie them to a bamboo. “If you really believe that it will make it true, your wish will realize,” Kawamura said, “I hope Americans will look at the sky on July 7 and see what we see in Japan.”

Now Maureau, Elhassani, Aghbalyan, Lee and Kawamura are looking forward to Christmas in America. Although it might not seem very romantic to the Japanese, and Maureau will not find any snails on the Christmas table, it will still be a new and unique experience for many international students.