Santa Lucia

I've never felt more lucky to be where I am. Part of working at an international school is celebrating holidays from all over the world. Last week we celebrated Saint Nicolaas which is traditionally a Dutch and Belgian holiday to honor the man after whom the holiday is named. We all got to visit St. Nicolaas himself, sang a French song to him, and ate loads of chocolate, mandarin oranges, and pepernoten, which are kind of like gingerbread balls.

Today we celebrated Santa Lucia, which is normally celebrated in Sweden. We gathered into the lobby to listen to the Swedish children from all grades sing traditional Swedish Christmas music. During their performance, I suddenly got this immense feeling of gratitude. I found myself with a lump in my throat, thinking about how lucky I was to be seeing such a performance, and wondering how on Earth I got here. Some days I struggle to have the energy to work with dozens of 6 year olds, and other days there is no where else I would rather be. Will I ever find this much cultural diversity ever again? I worry about how I will handle going back to the states where schools are becoming homogenized and any celebrations are completely generic, without regard for religion or culture. Instead of worrying about that, I think perhaps it would be best to look around at my Swedish students who are still glowing in their Santa Lucia glory, my Israeli students who are getting excited for Hannukah which starts Friday, finish eating my pepernoten from my Dutch and Belgian students, and not be afraid to wish many of my other students a Merry Christmas (while I am still in a school where we are allowed to give such wishes).