Category Social Sciences

Throughout the world, people have different traditions for marking the passing of years.

In Europe and the U.S.A., one tradition is to blow out candles on a birthday cake and make a wish.

In China, everyone adds a year to their age at the same time on the Chinese New Year, which is between the end of January and the end of February.

In the Philippines, birthdays are celebrated when a child is 1, 7, 14, and 21 years old. In some Native American tribes, a special ceremony is held when children are given their tribal name at around 4 years of age.

Many people have traditions to mark the end of childhood. A Tamil girl of Sri Lanka is allowed to wear a sari, the beautiful dress of a woman, when she is about 13.

When a Jewish boy is 13, he has his bar mitzvah. A Jewish girl has her bat mitzvah at age 12. Both boys and girls read from holy books and answer religious questions.

In Brazil, Mexico, and other Hispanic countries, a girl’s 15th birthday is very special. The family holds a big coming-of-age party. This is called a quinceañera.

The idea of putting candles on birthday cakes goes back to ancient Greece. The Greeks worshipped many gods and goddesses. Among them was one called Artemis. Artemis was the goddess of the moon. The Greeks celebrated her birthday once each month by bringing special cakes to her temple. The cakes were round, like a full moon. And, because the moon glows with light, the cakes were decorated with lighted candles.

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People use traditions to mark important days. On special days for your family, there will be certain ceremonies, special foods, and maybe even presents. These are your traditions.

Family traditions mark big life changes and smaller ones, too. Some families have traditions for the first or last day of each school year, including eating special meals or wearing special outfits. School and college graduations are big days for many families. People celebrate them with photographs and parties.

Traditions welcome new babies to the world. Some Christian families take their babies to church to be baptized. The ceremony marks their entry into the Christian faith. In Japan’s Shinto religion, a mother takes her baby to a shrine to “show” it to the gods and give thanks for its life.

In Swaziland, Africa, parents burn animal hair and animal skins. Then they hold a new baby in the smoke to give it lifelong protection from wild animals. Among the Lao of Southeast Asia, it is a tradition to rub a baby’s body with salt to protect it from evil.

Weddings are also filled with traditions. An Arab bride arrives at her wedding hidden in a tent on top of a camel. The groom pretends to run away, and his friends catch him. Then the wedding ceremony begins.

At a Shinto wedding in Japan, the bride wears a kimono and covers her face with white powder. The bride and groom must take nine sips of rice wine together.

In many Western countries, some brides wear “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. In many Western countries, brides traditionally wear a long white dress and veil. In India, brides wear red and cover themselves with gold jewellery.

Traditions also help us say good-bye and show respect when someone dies. In Western countries, a dead person’s body may be placed in a coffin and buried. Sometimes the body is burned rather than buried. The person’s ashes may be placed in a vase, or urn.

In the Hindu religion, tradition calls for a body to be burned. In India, the ashes are thrown into the holy River Ganges.

At a funeral in Western countries, people often wear black to show respect and sadness. In China, people wear white for mourning.

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Families work, learn, grow, and have fun together-each in its own way. Everywhere in the world, family members love and help one another.

Many children help cook for their family. Children in many families care for their younger brothers and sisters. 

Many families worship together. Families play and explore together in all kinds of ways. Some may visit faraway places. Many families work together. They grow crops and take care of their homes. In families, people teach and learn from each other.

Cleaning the house can easily be made into fun family activity. Put on some nice music, put the baby in the baby carrier and clean the house together. Making this a weekly routine, rewarded with coffee and cake or popcorn and a movie. When your children get older they will learn to participate in the household chores and they will learn to work in a team. Making cleaning and tidying into a fun activity and a weekly tradition, will create positive memories.

Early on you should start playing age appropriate board games and do puzzles together. This will help your child’s development and practice solving tasks and train the brain. Board games and Puzzling develops hand and eye coordination and fine motor skills. It also develops attention, concentration and thinking skills such as recognizing, remembering, matching and sorting.  

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Are you Alex? Sophie? David? Maria? Naomi? Abi?

The English name John is Ivan in Russian, Juan in Spanish, lahaja in Turkish, Johann in German, and Sean in Irish.

The name Mary is Marie, Moira, Miriam, and Maria in different languages.

You’ve worn your name since you were born. How does it fit you? Almost every name has a meaning behind it. What about yours? The name Alfreda means “wise adviser”. Helen means “light”.

The name Thang means “triumph”. Thuy is “gracious”. Abdu is “Servant of Allah Allah is the Muslim name for “God”. Kossi means boy born on Sunday

Henry is “master of a house”. Richard means “harsh king”. Eric means “royal”.

Hannah means “grace”. Wendy is a “wanderer”. George is a “farmer”. Louis is a “great warrior Barbara means “stranger”. Ellen means “bright”.

Look up your name in a book of baby names. You’ll find one at the library. Look up the names of your family and friends. Some meanings may fit, some may seem funny!

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Your first name is the name people call you. Your family chose it for you when you were born. Your last name is called your family name. Where did that name come from?

The earliest people had only first names. Their family and friends knew them by those first names.

About 800 years ago, kings and other royal people in Europe began to use last names to show that they were special. Soon, everyone in Europe took a last name.

How did people choose a family name? Sometimes people’s names described where they lived. Castle, Castillo, Castello, Zamecki, Burke, Borg, and Burris are names in several languages that meant a person lived near a castle. Names like Wood, Woods, Atwood, Smallwood, Boyce, DuBois, Holt, Shaw, and Silva meant a person lived near a forest.

Can you guess what the names Streeter, Lane, Strass, and Estrada meant? They meant someone who lived by a road.

Sometimes people’s names described what they looked like. If people had light-coloured hair, they might be named White, Wise, Weiss, Whitehead, Whitlock, Whitman, Blanchard, or Bannon. And if they had red hair, their name might be Reed, Reid, Roth, Russell, or Flynn.

Bliss, Blythe, Froh, Merriman, Blaha, or Allegretti are names that mean “happy”.

A person who’s as smart as a fox might be called Fox, Fuchs, Todd, or Volpe. A brave person might be called Lion, Lyon, Lyons, Loewe, or Leon.

Some names described what people did or where they were from. A baker might take the name Baker, Baxter, Fournier, Piekarz, or Boulanger. A blacksmith who makes horseshoes might be called Smith, Schmidt, Lefevre, Ferraro, Kowalski, Kovacs, or MacGowan.

Robert’s child might take the name Roberts. John’s son becomes Johnson, Nels’ son is Nelson. Davey’s, Harry’s, and Will’s children take the names Davis, Harris, and Wilson.

Some “son” names end in -sohn, -wicz, -vich, or -ak. Mac-, Mc-, or Fitz- means “the son of”.

Some children were known by their father’s name. So, people called the son of Will, Will’s son. Later, this name became Wilson,

A new person in town might be Newman, Newcomb, Doyle, Doran, or Dowell. They all mean “new man”.

A person new to town might take the name Doyle, which means “new man”.

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Look around you. Who are the people who care for you? They are your family. Families are people who love and help each other, whether they live together or in different places.

Families can include mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. A family can be any size—just two people, or twenty, or more.

Some children live with two parents, some live with one parent. Some children live with grandparents or with a foster family. Other children live with a parent and a stepparent and other children.

Do you have brothers or sisters? Do you live with your aunt or your cousins? There are all kinds of families, and no two are exactly alike.

Some Inuit families in northern Canada spend most of their time together. In the summer, families hunt and fish together.

On kibbutzim in Israel, all the parents once lived together in one house while all the children lived together in another. Today, children live with their parents and go to school with other children. But they still sometimes help their parents work on the community farm.

An Ashanti boy in Ghana, Africa, lives with many mothers. He lives in a house with his mother, his grandmother, and his mother’s sisters and their children. All the children are like brothers and sisters to him. The boy’s father comes to visit, but he lives in his own mother’s house.

In Japan, grandparents often live with their oldest son and his family. The grandmother helps care for the children. In Norway, many farms have two houses. One house is for the grandparents, and one is for their son or daughter and their grandchildren.

On the tropical island of Borneo, all the people in a Dayak village live together in one long house. Each family is also part of the village family.

Families come in all sizes and styles. Wherever they live, families are people who care for and help one another.

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