The Metro Memo

VOLUME 23-26 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE COLUMBIA METRO ROTARY CLUB DECEMBER 23, 2015

Happy Holidays from Metro Rotary!

Many are familiar with the celebrations of Christmas , Hanukkah and Kwanzaa , but there are numerous holidays celebrated around the world. As Rotary is an international organization that has successfully assisted people around the globe, please note a few other celebrations that will be occurring with some of our fellow Rotarians.

Las Posadas – December 16-25 It’s believed that the holiday was first Hogmanay – December 31 Las Posadas (Spanish for "The Inns") started as a way for people to donate Before celebrating New Year’s Eve, is a nine-day Mexican tradition to and help the less fortunate by Scottish people observe Hogmanay, commemorating the part of the "boxing up" leftover food or old pre-New Year traditions that include Christmas story in which Mary and clothes, a tradition that continues cleaning and paying Joseph must ask for a place to stay at strongly in South Africa, where the off debts to truly every inn in Bethlehem before finding day is officially known as the "Day of start the new year shelter in a barn when Jesus was Goodwill." The other main countries with a "clean slate"! born. that observe Boxing Day today include Hogmanay also Canada, Australia, and parts of includes the Starting on December 16, Las Posadas Europe. tradition of the "first-1. celebrants go to a friend’s house to footers," which says sing a traditional song, asking for Junkanoo – the first person to cross a family's shelter like Mary and Joseph did. The December 26 & January 1 doorstep after midnight will determine homeowners Junkanoo is a Bahamian celebration that home’s luck for the rest of the (acting as the that was started as a way for people to year! Legend says a tall, dark-haired innkeepers) then remember and celebrate traditions of man will bring the most luck, but sing a traditional their ancestors through costumes, whoever is chosen is expected to bring song back, music, and dance! cakes and gifts for all who are saying they have no room and to move celebrating! on. The celebrants go to another house and repeat the song, until they Three Kings Day – January 6 arrive at the third house, where a Three Kings Day, also called "The different song is sung by the Epiphany" in some cultures, is a very "innkeepers," saying to come in! important holiday in the Christian church that commemorates the After taking a moment to pray, a moment when Jesus was recognized piñata is brought out for the children as God in human form. In the Western and everybody gets to eat, drink, and sects, it remembers the day the three have fun. Sometimes a doll is used to wise men came to pay their respects to The holiday originally began as a way symbolize the baby Jesus and the the baby Jesus, while in the East it’s for slaves in the Bahamas to celebrate "innkeepers" keep the doll until the supposed to commemorate his their origins during some of the only next night, when the whole celebration baptism. days of the year when they didn’t have is repeated again and again until to work. But after slavery ended, Christmas Eve! Junkanoo continued as an excuse to

party! Today it includes parades that Boxing Day – December 26 begin in the middle of the night and Boxing Day is a holiday last until late the next morning, as associated with acts of well as singing and dancing in the charity and giving gifts street, good food, fireworks, and prizes to workers. for the most elaborate costumes!