Holidays!

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND CULTURAL APPRECIATION WEEK- February15-21
International travel  and cultural appreciation week celebrates travelling and exploring the world one step at a time. It also celebrates all the different cultures in the world. It is basically a international sized Folkarama with travelling. This holiday is meant for anyone who hasn't experienced travelling or for anyone who likes to travel. The meaning of the holiday is to let yourself take a break from whatever you are doing and hop on a plane and go where ever you desire and learn something new about a place. Everyone deserves a vacation and a chance to experience something new.
For International Travel Week all modes of transportation (planes, trains, buses) are absolutely free and you are allowed to travel to as many places as you can in 7 days. However you do have to pay for food and hotels of the locations you go to. It is in mid-February which for most people, is not the best time of the year. Christmas is over and it is a time year that drags a lot. This is the perfect opportunity to get away and relax. During this week, all school and work absences are excused. However if for some particular reason you want to not travel and you still go to work or school, it counts as extra hours so you could finish work or school quicker. But hardly anyone does that.

In airports, there are many decorations to represent travelling/places as well as sample food to experience different cultures and places before you travel to them. Also in the capital city of each country around the world, there is a festival downtown with a parade, games and delicious food. In the parade there is a float for each country of the world and food from all over the world is served too. No matter where you are, you can still experience what it is like in other parts of the world. So if you aren't able to travel far, or go to all the places you want to visit in a week, just head on over to the capital of your country for more festivities. To make it easier, there are twice as many flights directed towards the capital city so more people can head over there.
This week is meant to be a fun week of travelling, relaxing and being adventurous.




My Favourite Holiday
My favourite holiday is Christmas. Christmas happens on December 25th and it is my favourite holiday because I love what it celebrates and I enjoy the festivities and food that come with it. I love eating hot turkey and  mouth watering stuffing with cranberry sauce. I also how it's in winter and it is the bright spot of what is usually a sometimes dreary time of year.  Christmas originally was to celebrate the birth of Christ and how he was born to save us all from sin. But as time progressed people just celebrate it as a time of giving and thanksgiving.
I think that Christmas has definitely lost some of it's original meaning since today people who aren't even Christians celebrate Christmas. They just do it for the gifts, dinners and relaxation. There are much more songs that don't talk about Jesus' birth and we also have Santa flying his reindeer giving presents to all children. It is very commercialized now. I feel like if we don't remember the true meaning of Christmas, then it is almost pointless to celebrate it. It's called 'Christ'mas for a reason and if the majority of the people who celebrate it are ignoring the fact that God came into this world because he loved us so much, then it just becomes an ordinary day of giving gifts, eating turkey and receiving gifts from Santa. Not that giving/receiving gifts and spending quality time with your family is bad, it just shouldn't be our true focus. At Christmas time, my family first goes to church at Grant Memorial on Christmas eve for the candle light service, then we head home and the next morning we get up and open our stockings. After that we have breakfast, then we open presents underneath our fake Christmas tree and for the rest of the day we relax in the house before having a turkey dinner. I always look forward to Christmas and I think it triumphs all other holidays that we have.