Community Counselor Cynthia Chan in Southern Maryland used her monthly meeting to highlight the Lunar New Year. A guest speaker taught the au pairs about Chinese culture and Lunar New Year. In addition to sampling some treats, they also learned how to write a greeting in Chinese characters and received Lucky Money (red) envelopes. There [...]
Did you know that Germany has more bakeries and Germany eat more varieties of bread than most other countries (probably even with France for number of bakeries though)? From CNN Travel's website, "According to the bread register of the German Institute for Bread (of course there is such a thing), there are now more than [...]
It's the 12th day of Christmas and we are going right here in the United States. Many of our au pairs may get to experience The Feast of the Seven Fishes. On Christmas Eve, according to the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, Italian-Americans eat [...]
China! You might be wondering why we are visiting a country where religion is outlawed to look at their Christmas traditions, Ironically, Christmas is booming in China. Not the way Christmas may be celebrated in the West, but it's commercialized and an excuse to get out with friends. Santa is shown playing a saxophone, and [...]
For day 10 we are headed to Austria for their scary Krampus tradition. Krampus traditionally appeared with St. Nicholas as his side-kick on December 5th. He is very scary, dressed in animal skins, and horns. The idea was if you had been naughty then he would hit you with sticks. In some regions Krampus has [...]
In Costa Rica, rice pudding or "Arroz con Leche" is a traditional dish for many holidays including Christmas time. Au pair Wendy, currently in Robin Leon's Austin, Texas cluster, shared this delicious traditional recipe. Photo credit: www.oliviascuisine.com Arroz con Leche Servings: 12 INGREDIENTS: * 1 cup of white rice * 2 cups of [...]
If you are in Great Britain or the Commonwealth you'll most likely have a Christmas Cracker at the dinner table. This tradition that started in the 1850's is a cardboard paper tube, wrapped in brightly colored paper and twisted at both ends. There is a banger inside the cracker, two strips of chemically impregnated paper [...]
Today we will visit Africa. Christmas is not an African festival but it was adopted into many cultures after colonialism by Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain who imposed the Christian religion. Below are 25 ways to say Merry Christmas in various African languages. Afrikaans (South Africa, Namibia) – Geseënde Kersfees Akan (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin) [...]
