Students share their special holiday traditions

From the Feast of the Seven Fishes to an annual game of Just Dance, many students enjoy traditions that are more specific to their families rather than an overarching holiday. With only two weeks left before the start of winter break, students shared the yearly holiday traditions they’re looking forward to. 

Sofia Garrigo, a first-year pre-pharmacy student, celebrates Día de Los Reyes, or Three Kings’ Day. Her family celebrates the 12 days of Christmas leading up to the arrival of the three wise men on Three Kings’ Day, which is Jan. 6.

“On the ‘partridge in a pear tree’ [day] we’ll each get one little pear, and we’ll have it as a snack during the day,” Garrigo said. “It’s really cute and as the days go along, we’ll have for five golden rings, we’ll have five onion rings. So the food slowly gets bigger and bigger.”

Garrigo also celebrates Christmas with some of her friends over dinner each year. She began a tradition of dancing with a ribbon for her friend’s family in the seventh grade and plans on continuing it this year.

“Her mom was like, ‘Oh, if you want seconds, you have to work for it.’ We’re like, ‘You know what, we will.’” Garrigo said. “We made a whole little dance. And she was like, ‘Wait, that was really good.’ And we’re like, ‘That was so fun, let’s do it every year.’”

On Christmas Eve, Nikki Rindone, a first-year pre-athletic training student, goes to her grandparents’ house and they celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

“We’re Italian, so we all do the Feast of the Seven Fishes,” Rindone said. “It’s a really big affair, and we open gifts, and Santa Claus comes for the little kids.” 

The tradition is what it sounds like — they make seven different fishes, though the menu differs from year to year, according to Rindone.

“Half the time we don’t actually get all seven on the menu, but … we like salmon,” Rindone said. “You can differ your fish a little bit. We do shrimp and salmon pretty consistently.”

First-year engineering student Maraki Yared is traveling to Ethiopia to celebrate Christmas with her family. She described the festivities there as “more cultural than anything.”

“We gather with family and friends and keep that Ethiopian traditional food, and then traditional Ethiopian dances and songs,” Yared said.

Ericka Suber, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, looks forward to decorating for Christmas. Her family hangs lights around the house, imitating the appearance of icicles. One year, they put the lights on a tree as well. 

While the rest of the family seemed to like it, her grandma did not and took them down. In another instance, Suber’s uncle set up a big inflatable decoration in the middle of the lawn.

“Everyone loved it, [but] my grandma hated it and took it down too,” Suber said.

Other features of their festive display include mechanical reindeer and “little mini Christmas trees” decorated in lights.

“We love it, but my grandma likes to keep it simplistic,” Suber said.

Isha Vyas, a senior biology major, recounted a tradition of listening to her dad’s old CD of Frosty the Snowman as a family.

“He insists on playing [it] every single Christmas, so he likes to play it, and then we’ll sit there and listen to it,” Vyas said. “It makes him happy, so we all oblige. It can be hard getting us all in the same room … but it’s really nice.”

Nikhil Madaka, senior bioengineering major, and her sister always play Just Dance 2018 over winter break. Some of their favorite songs to dance to include “24K Magic” and “Fight Song.”

“That’s our thing that we do because we’re both free then,” Madaka said. “Thanksgiving break isn’t really a time where we’re all like, ‘Oh let’s do stuff.’ We’re both really busy. But winter’s the break when we can do things we want to do.”