Christian Holidays

Many Christians and a lot of other people celebrate Christian holidays without knowing their true meaning and origins of the traditions of the holidays. For example, many people give gifts but only a fraction of the people know why they are giving gifts and do not know where it started or the meaning of it. 

First, Christmas is usually celebrated on December 25. Named after Jesus Christ, it celebrates the birth of Jesus, over 90 percent of the US celebrates it. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, King Herod heard of the birth of Jesus and did not want him to take his throne so he sent three Wiseman to investigate. They followed the north star to Bethlehem. Instead of doing the King's bidding. They gave Jesus gifts. First, he was given gold, then frankincense(an incense made of sap produced by a tree), and myrrh, an oil. The giving of these gifts started the tradition of giving presents on Christmas morning   Decorating the Christmas tree was a tradition that started a long time ago. Nobody knows exactly when it was but the evergreen tree represents the everlasting love and power of God because the tree always stayed green. 

    Next, Good Friday is usually celebrated on April 2. It is celebrated because it was the day of Jesus's death. He was crucified(an ancient punishment of having your feet and hands nailed to a cross to die) on the cross by the Jews and the Romans. He sacrificed himself for the sins of humankind. His last breath was to ask God to forgive the people who crucified him. He was crucified with two other criminals, one asked for forgiveness and was a believer when the other was skeptical and did not. On that day, Jesus once again rose to heaven. 

  After Good Friday is Easter, celebrated on April 4, 3 days after Good Friday. Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. After his death by crucifixion, he was put in a cave and was covered by a large stone, but three days later, the stone was rolled back and the cave was empty. He had been resurrected and he had holes in his hands and feet to prove it. The tradition of hiding and finding eggs originated from Germany, the eggs represent new life or the resurrection of Jesus. The eggshell was the tomb that he was buried in, and the candy or toys inside represented Jesus. 

   An old holiday, All Saint’s day, or All Hallow’s Day originated from Rome. It was a day dedicated to all the saints and popes, however, not everybody celebrated it, mainly Roman Catholics celebrated it. The name All Hallow’s Day may sound familiar. Halloween was born from All Hallow’s Eve and a Celtic holiday, where people dressed up as ghosts and ghouls to scare away the goblins and demons. Celtic people also left food outside for the needy. Carved pumpkins were also left outside to scare away bad creatures. People began to combine the holidays to form Halloween, where people dress up in costumes and go door to door trick or treating. 

Jewish Food - Restrictions and Holidays

Jewdisim is a very important and largely practiced faith in America and world wide. Like many faiths, Jewdisim has food restrictions and holidays with deeply intgreated traditional recipes and meals. Many Jews, more spefically orthodox and traditional participate in a dietary restriction called kosher. Kosher is about reverence and adherence to religous traditon. A rough idea of what is permitted in this law is, ritually slaughtered beef, deer, sheeps and goats, chicken, turkey, quail and geese, no dairy with proper meat products (ex. cheeseburger) and only soft cheese and kosher hard cheese. For Jews who abide by these religious laws, there are commercial symbols on products that are kosher. There are also many holidays that have specific food traditions implemented into these holidays including, Hanukkah, Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, Shavuot, Torah and Yom Kippur food. This section will ust go over a few of the holidays and the types of food that are eaten during them. Hanukkah, celebrated for each of the 8 day and nights the candle stayed burning in the temple has a host of traditional foods. Latkes are a potato treat celebrating the miracle of the oil and are a staple in jewsish homes during this time. During all Jewish holidays besides Passover, Challah is a fluffy holy bread that represents the bread that God had them eat once they got to the Holy Land. It is oftenly braided and can come in 3, 6 or even round braided shapes or designs. In America schools it is very common for christanty's holidays, eating habits/guidlines and other religously important concepts to be integraded into schools. Keeping this in mind,I believe that the awarness of Jewish dietary restrictions and habits should be brought to the attenion of Quest Food Services inorder to ensure that all students who are reciving lunches can have a benefical meal in allowence with their dietary restrictions. To meet the religous dietary needs/ requirments of those who participate in the Kosher lifestyle it will be nessasary to purchase the already prepared food from a trustworthy butcher or preparer in this community. Then it will be given out to students apon request from parents during the student's lunch period. To ensure the proper storage and prep of this food, it may also be in the school's best intrest to hire someone who knows how to work with the religous traditon.

Christian Holidays

Good afternoon, 

I am writing this letter, to be able to get days off for Christian holidays. Many people, including myself, find it unfair, how people don't get enough or any days at all off from school when it's Christmas and Easter. It is a very important occasion for all Christians and other people as well, all over the world.

First off, I would like to begin with why Christians celebrate Christmas. At that time of the year, everyone appreciates the people and family members who are still with them, and they think of all the good things in life. However, Christmas is mainly about the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born in Bethlehem, and he is the son of God. The reason why we celebrate his birth is because he thought good things to everyone, and wanted to change bad people, furthermore, he died for us and our sins on the cross, by crucifixion. Moving on to Easter, this specific holiday is also related to Jesus Christ. Easter is the resurrection of Jesus after he died. It comes after Good Friday which is a holiday commemorating the crucifixion of him.

Now, I would like to talk about how Christians celebrate. For

Christmas, people usually put up an evergreen conifer usually in their living room (but it varies for everyone) and in the morning on the 25th, presents appear under it. During December, but also in November, people put up lots of decorations and lights all over places, while baking home goods and visiting family and friends. On November 29th, some people also put up four candles for Advent, which is the representation of the four weeks (four Sundays) until the birth of Jesus Christ, and each Sunday, they light another candle, until all four are lit.

Moving on, for Easter, people decorate churches with flowers, there are also church bells and music, and parents also hide painted and colorful eggs that the kids have to find. Talking about churches, on Easter Sunday morning, Christians go pray that justice will triumph over treason, light will overcome darkness, and love will conquer death. They also Jesus to change our lives, and change our hearts for the better.  

For a final note, I would like to suggest a way we can create a fair way for our school to provide days off for these two very special occasions. Christmas could have two weeks off, so people can enjoy the spirit and get prepared while being able to travel and do certain activities. It would start from Monday the 13th of December, until Sunday the 22nd. For Easter, we could let Friday, April 2nd be the start of the holiday because that is when Good Friday is, and the end of the holiday would be after a week, so school will be able to start again on Monday, April the 11th. 

Thank you for your understanding, and I hope we can make it happen.

Kind Regards,

Greta Dani

Holidays in Judaism

     Judaism is something most people don't think of during the school years, but for the people that do it might be nice for them to go out and worship and do activities that they would do in their religion. Schools should think about this because we are only celebrating Christmas and Easter. We should try other holidays for other religions for a change because I don't think that it is far that they are not able to celebrate their religion all day.

    For example, we should do research on the holiday days before, and then get the day off. Days like Yom Kippur, Passover, and Rosh Hashanah. For Passover, we could skip a day or two for the Jews to fast. Yom Kippur for them to pray and become close to God and his people. Rosh Hashanah should have a week break because they need 10 days to repent and pray. This is why I think we should have these days off.

Quest Food Should Meet Religious Guidelines

 

     Students of Hinsdale Central are complaining about the small varieties of food available in the cafeteria. Most of the foods do not meet the religious dietary guidelines. There are many religions that are strict about food, but Judaism is very strict. Pigs, Shellfish, Rabbits, and Reptiles are not to be eaten in this religion. This may not seem very strict, but these are just some of the rules. 

     The Torah is the most important part of the Jewish bible. In the Torah, there are requirements regarding food. One of the rules, is that a bird must be kosher in order to be consumed. Kosher is a Jewish law about food. Specific kosher bird species, that are allowed and not allowed to be eaten, are listed in the Torah. Generally speaking, birds of prey are not kosher. For example: chickens are not birds of prey, so you can eat chicken according to the Torah. To be kosher, a bird must also eat grass. Milk and Eggs also have to be checked to make sure they are from an animal who is kosher. Animals that are not birds, must have split hooves, as well as eat grass. For Example: Cows are animals who can both Graze and Browse. Grazing refers to the eating of grasses, and browsing usually refers to the eating of leaves, fruit, seeds, twigs, or bark from bushes or trees. The Torah also states, that the milk you drink must be from a cow who eats grass. Quest food should look for an 100%, Grass-fed company, for their milk and meat. Another rule the Torah says, is that meat and dairy cannot be consumed together. For example: In Judaism, you cannot eat cheeseburgers because there is both dairy and meat in that meal. People usually wait up to six hours after eating meat before they eat dairy. People who are Orthodox keep all the rules of the Torah. Some even have separate utensils and perhaps fridges for the preparation and storage of meat and dairy products. 

    Quest food should ensure that when their food is in schools, dairy and meat is separated. Quest food should also include a different selection of food that is important to all religions. In Judaism, Shakshuka is a staple cuisine with bread to mop up the tomato sauce. There are also Latkes. They are fried potato pancakes topped with anything from sour cream to applesauce. Both of these foods sound really enjoyable. Quest food should include these foods in their meals, so people of other religions can learn about theirs. 

 Sources:<a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/jewish-dietary-laws-2121753"></a>

How an African man beat all odds to make it bigg

 

This article shows us that no matter where you come from and even if all odds are against you can always make it big. I think it's even more of a big deal because in South Africa the affects of colonialism are still in place and a large amount of the population still suffers from it. This article shows us that even with rarely any background and experience,Sven Hugo only studied shoes and the market for them for 18 months and he did these studies by himself. He stated off with small deals and only wanted 100 pairs but he surpassed his initial expectations and it grew from 1,000 shoes to 2,000. The company continues to grow until this day. Sven Hugo has shown us no matter the odds anyone can make it big if they put in the handwork.

I feel that Sven Hugo is an inspiration to a lot of people bu because they feel like one of their own made it big and are inspired by him. He is most definitely a role model to the kids with big dreams in South Africa. He is proof that no matter the factors against you such as a system that is still being rebuilt from colonialism and built for you to not succeed. It's amazing that just in 5 years he went from making 100 pairs to now making 15,000 pairs a month and it's only going uphill from here. Not only did Sven build his own brand, he is also giving back to the community by building a reputation that all Africans can be proud of. What do you think is the best way to give back to the community and helping other kids follow their dreams?

Halal and Haram foods

 

The problem that I am addressing is students are complaining about how there are not enough food options available for people that have religious rules about food. This can be a problem because if the cafeteria is only serving food that some students can not eat, then the students would either have to bring their own food or not eat at all. Even if the cafeteria had foods that the students can eat, the students would have to eat those same exact foods everyday, unless they bring their own lunch. 

 For Islamic foods I would recommend Halal foods and not to pick Haram foods because Halal foods are types of foods that Islamic people get to eat, while Haram foods are not allowed to be eaten. According to a website, the types of Haram foods are pork, carnivorous animals, birds of prey, alcohol, blood, and etc. another thing you can’t eat are animals that are not killed properly. You also have to do a prayer before eating and you also have to give a lot of care to the animal before killing it. So I suggest the cafeteria to maybe expand and put sections so people can find it easily. Types of foods you can add to your menu or dishes are eggs, tofu, certified meat, and etc.