Kiyoko

Recently, I’ve been on a quest to learn about how other countries celebrate holidays that I have come to take for granted. I’m so accustomed to the traditions and celebrations that I grew up with that it was a bit of an eye opener to learn that other countries might do things a little differently. With Christmas quickly approaching, I decided to reach out to some of my fellow travel bloggers and ask how they celebrated Christmas in their home country.

As an American, I grew up hearing stories and watching movies about the Indians and English settlers celebrating the harvest together in a time of struggle, which became the first Thanksgiving. For that reason, I just assumed that Thanksgiving was another holiday relatively unique to the United States. I can’t think of too many other countries that had issues with colonists and Indians. However, it turns out that celebrating the season’s harvest is a rather common thing to do! So what is Thanksgiving around the world like?

Sometimes we get so caught up in the traditions of a holiday that it’s easy to forget where it all began or why we are even celebrating. After spending four months in Japan, I was reminded that not all countries and religions celebrate all holidays. I was shocked to find that Japan only started celebrating Halloween in the past few years (mostly as a result of American pop culture being brought to Japan). So, how does the rest of the world celebrate Halloween?