Christmas or Winter Festival: what should public schools celebrate?

BarcelonaWhen the management team at the Ítaca School in Manresa began developing the school's educational project, they didn't know exactly how the celebrations should be, but they were very clear about what they didn't want. For example, they wanted to avoid at all costs a Castañada celebration that was the same every year of a child's nine years in primary school. They set themselves the challenge, therefore, of rethinking the holidays as a learning objective and adapted them to the needs and possibilities of each educational stage.

By organizing the school into communities, the content for each special day is approached differently for the younger, middle, and older students. Christmas is one of the celebrations that, within the same school, is approached from a traditional, multicultural, or seasonal perspective. They believe that the youngest children in the school, with their diverse cultures, religions, and traditions, might find it difficult to understand why each child celebrates differently, and so they have chosen to focus on the season, in this case, winter. One of the two co-directors, Olga Pich, explains that they do it in a sensory way, with outdoor excursions to observe the changing landscape and other activities such as learning a poem about the season, which, in families who have the tradition, can also be recited on Christmas Day. The middle school students, on the other hand, discover Catalan culture and the cultures of other countries from which the children's families may come. During the Castañada (Chestnut Festival), they explore All Saints' Day and panellets (small almond cakes), as well as the traditions surrounding the dead, and at Christmas, families from diverse backgrounds are invited to share their experiences and customs. The older students, meanwhile, take advantage of the opportunities offered by the city of Manresa to experience Christmas, such as visiting a nativity scene exhibition held in the city. A similar situation has been observed at the Balandrau School in Girona. When it was founded fifteen years ago, there was some debate about the inclusion of Christmas and other holidays, due to their religious origins, and they opted to relate them to natural elements, such as earth, water, or winter. The headmistress, Cristina Turbau, explains that it was a time when they were very attentive to families, but the faculty has evolved and now they feel that experience has allowed them to do more of what they believe in.

That's why they choose to transmit Catalan tradition, which, Turbau specifies, is also what the curriculum indicates. "We need to be able to know what we celebrate at Christmas without having to do catechism," says the headmistress. She starts from the premise that all cultures, values, and languages are welcome in the school, but they feel a duty to pass on and transmit Catalan traditions, as the curriculum states, "without promoting the Christian aspect, but being aware that it is our origin." At the same school, the youngest children make the Tió de Nadal (a traditional Catalan Christmas log) "poop" (a reference to the Tió de Nadal's Christmas log), and when they return from the festivities, the Three Kings have already passed through. She compares this experience to celebrating Sant Jordi (Saint George's Day). They also participate in activities organized by the City Council, which shares the same objective of transmitting popular Catalan tradition.

A constant rethinking

For Mar Hurtado, president of the Rosa Sensat Teachers' Association, it is crucial that schools not lose sight of the core of transmitting the country's popular culture—without the religious component, as a secular school—and she points out the risk of failing to do so. "If we end up only celebrating the winter solstice, we're left with a partial understanding, and children grow up without comprehending, understanding, or taking root in the country where they were born or that welcomes them," says Hurtado. Therefore, the association recommends that teachers work on what aspects of popular culture they want to transmit through festivals, whether Christmas or other celebrations, and bring them to life. "It's not about teaching, in this case, but about experiencing them," Hurtado emphasizes, adding that the fact that some schools have reintroduced Christmas celebrations after a period of focusing solely on the winter solstice reflects a rethinking of how to transmit the country's own culture. "The school needs to sit down, study it, and figure out what they want children to know about the popular culture of each specific festival," adds the president of the Rosa Sensat Association.

As an early childhood education teacher, now working in a rural Special Education Zone (ZER), David Altimir, drawing on his classroom experience, holds a very similar view. "I don't have any magic solutions because I believe that teams need to discuss these issues to avoid doing things out of habit," he explains. He has seen schools that have stopped holding these celebrations to avoid disrupting the cultural diversity of the classrooms, but he advocates for reflecting on how these traditions are experienced before eliminating them. "There are some stereotypes that we've carried over time," says Altimir, "but there are many more options." He cites as an example a school that asked families to collaborate in compiling Christmas themes from various cultures, including Catalan. "Schools belong to a specific place, and we must have our traditions, know them, celebrate them, and, if necessary, reinterpret them," Altimir argues. "We can't celebrate Christmas today the same way we did in the 1980s."

Space for other cultures

The Rosa Sensat Teachers' Association is clear that holidays, like Christmas, must be reorganized and rethought to adapt to the current reality, and therefore believes it is necessary to set aside time to listen to the cultures that coexist with our own. For Hurtado, this doesn't mean celebrating, but rather allowing families to explain the traditions of their countries of origin, their cuisine, customs, gifts, and any other details. "The family feels welcomed and listened to, and is more open to learning what we want to share with them," says Hurtado. Furthermore, this exchange also benefits all the children in the school, who have the opportunity to learn that in other parts of the world "interesting things happen with different colors, flavors, and temperatures." For Hurtado, this is the key to achieving a society that respects other cultures. "And we desperately need that," she adds. That's why she regrets that this task is assumed solely by primary schools and that holidays have such a limited presence in secondary schools. She believes secondary schools should rethink their approach: "They should have the time and space to consider how to address this diversity, and parties could be a wonderful opportunity to interact in a pleasant way that allows students to get to know each other."