The excitement, preparation, and unique family traditions that accompany religious holidays are seen across every religious and spiritual tradition. I know firsthand how easy it is to become so excited and invested in my own religious traditions that I forget to think about how my friends and family from other faith traditions also may be celebrating. As an Orthodox Christian, Christmas is a significant holiday in my household. All my life, we have celebrated Christmas with family on December 25th and with my church on January 7th, which is Eastern Orthodox Christmas due to the following of the Gregorian calendar. Each year, I become wrapped up in the Christmas traditions of picking out a tree, decorating our house, and preparing for a twelve-dish dinner for our second Christmas Eve on January 6th.
I love all the feelings that accompany this time of year and the traditions that go along with them. Being able to share in the excitement surrounding Christmas in my predominantly Catholic community and then share in the traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church with my parish not long after has always been special to me. I was always eager to explain to my friends, teachers, and coworkers why January 7th is an important date to me and my religious traditions.
Going to college marked my introduction into interfaith work and, even though this may sound obvious, taught me about other religions and spiritual practices. Now as a senior, I can reflect on the interfaith education I have received while working as a student assistant at the Spiritual Life Center on my campus and through interfaith conferences. Through my work, I was encouraged to talk with friends and fellow students about their own faith traditions, and I realized how little I knew about other traditions and how excited others were to tell me about them. Even though I was eager to also share my traditions, I took the time to listen and ask questions. This was my introduction to seeing the commonality between religious traditions but also understanding how to celebrate the unique differences between them.
One of the most profound experiences I have had surrounding this topic occurred this past December as I was setting up holiday displays at my university’s Sacred Space. The first year of our display, we only had a Christmas tree from the Christian tradition, a Hanukkiah from the Jewish tradition, a Kinara for Kwanzaa, and candles for Advent. While it was a beautiful display, we realized that it was not representative of the religious diversity on campus and that there was no context for the different displays. This past December, we sought to change this. I was tasked with researching our different displays in-depth to create a small and easy-to-understand card to be showcased alongside each display.
While I researched, I remembered both my own experience of sharing my religious traditions as well as a topic that resonated me during the Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative. One of our guest speakers had discussed with us the importance of not only looking for the similarities between religions and their traditions but to celebrate their differences and what makes them unique. This simple message was something I did not realize that I myself had been trying to articulate during my own interfaith journey. I will always strive to celebrate difference and let others be authentic in how they articulate their religious and spiritual traditions, as opposed to trying to confine them to a topic that I am comfortable with because it is similar to my own practices.
I took this to heart as I created our new holiday displays. Not only were we able to add three new displays, but each came with a clear and accurate explanation that celebrated its purpose. Now, the display includes Diya lamps from Diwali, crescent moon and star lights from the tradition of Islam, and a Nativity Icon which was donated by my family from the Christian Orthodox tradition.
I am incredibly proud of how far our display has come over the past few years, and it has changed the way I go about discussing my own religious traditions. Even though I still get extremely excited for Christmas and want to share about my traditions, I also take the time to reach out to friends and family from other religious traditions to see how their holiday celebrations are proceeding. We can share in each other’s excitement while acknowledging the uniqueness of each tradition and religion. I am excited to see how the holiday displays will continue to grow in the future as well as for my own personal growth in interfaith work and in my appreciation and celebration of my religion and the religions and traditions that are present around the world.