Socio-cultural awareness 
(festivals and traditions)

Holidays, festivals, celebrations and traditions are part of each country's history and culture. Teachers tend to transfer this kind of information to their students so that they can better understand the people who speak the language they are learning. The Internet, with its different services, makes this task much easier. Visiting certain web sites or exchanging information with other students, our kids can learn a lot from festivals and traditions celebrated in Britain or in the States, which we do not celebrate. Some times, these holidays are also celebrated in our country. In this case, students can compare how they are celebrated. The third and, to me the most important option which the web and email offer, is that we can explain our own festivities and traditions to the others, and so make our country more popular. 
 

U.S. Holidays

Consult these sites to know how these holidays are celebrated in the states.    To know more about celebrations and festivities in any country visit the following:  
  • Go for example to some of the links listed in travelling on the net: City Net or Road Maps where cultural information about each country and cities is supplied.

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  • KIDLINK Calendar, a calendar made by students and KIDleaders where you can find the unique ways KIDLINK kids are celebrating their country's holidays and festivals. The entries might contain recipes for special dishes, historical background, significance of the holidays and the special ways in which these days are observed. This calendar entries are rich in local customs that perhaps cannot be found in books. The calendar is always growing and more local festival entries are welcomed. In addition, you can also find some information on connecting the calendar with your curriculum .

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  • Christmas in Cyberspace, The oldest Christmas site on the Net, with Christmas values, traditions and other information.

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  • More information about Valentine's Day, The History of Valentine's day, Romantic Gift Ideas, The Language of Flowers, and so on.

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  • More information about Halloween. Have a look at the following sites, some of them with material to be used in class: Halloween97,  Fun for kids, Ghost club and Halloween quiz.

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  • Make students consult and participate in Ex*Change, a site where students and individuals can share specific aspects of their culture, ceremonies, rituals, holidays and traditions . 
We can also use non-web resources to widen students knowledge about other cultures and their traditions, like email exchange and projects. Go to communicating with others and read about the different resources we can find in Internet to encourage students from different sites in the world to share their customs, festivals and traditions.   
 


Go back to links for teachers  
  
 please, report dead links to  dpermany@pie.xtec.es