For many students, the holiday season is a familiar mix of lights, gifts, and long-awaited breaks from school. But for others, the end of the year becomes a bridge between countries, cultures, and generations. The ways people celebrate are as diverse as the cultures themselves. For students, this diversity is especially visible, as our classmates from different backgrounds bring their own traditions, foods, and rituals into our community.
Two students, Matías Antkowiak ’27 and Audrey Trinen’26, share how their multicultural backgrounds shape celebrations that look a little different—full of meaning, memory, and traditions that connect them to family across the globe.
“The biggest thing that all of the parts of my culture emphasize during the holidays is spending time with family,” Matías explains. For Matías, the holidays are never just one thing, they’re a blend of Polish and Argentinian traditions that weave together into a celebration centered around family. No matter where he celebrates, that remains constant.
“Whenever I spend Christmas in Argentina, this is a tradition that I find to be very different from the culture in the U.S. and very exciting,” he says. One of his most vivid childhood traditions comes from Argentina: opening Christmas presents not on Christmas morning, but at midnight.
Another Argentinian custom he carries with him anywhere is celebrating the Epiphany on January 6. His family gathers in the morning, opens gifts, and attends church. As a child, he even left water and food out for the camels of the Three Kings—a beloved detail in many Latin American households.
“My polish traditions are also very important to me during the holiday season, and my Polish side is mostly celebrated through food” he adds. His Polish heritage enters the season through food and faith. On Christmas, his family prepares kielbasa along with other traditional dishes. But perhaps the most meaningful moment happens before the meal, when he and his Polish grandmother share opłatek, the thin, communion-like “Christmas wafer.”
“Recently I have been spending New Year’s in Japan,” she says. “I don’t get to see my grandma very often, so it means a lot to me to get to do New Year’s traditions with her” Audrey mentions. While many Americans stay up late watching the ball drop in Times Square, Audrey’s New Year looks completely different—because she spends it in Japan with her mother’s side of the family.
“I watch with my mom, my brother, and my grandma in the living room while we wait for the time to get closer to midnight,” Audrey adds. These traditions start on New Year’s Eve with Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a massive, televised music competition where male and female artists face off in performances watched by families across the country.
At midnight, they head out for hatsumōde, Japan’s traditional first temple visit of the year. “We go to a temple in my neighborhood to pray for a good year,” she says. Afterwards, they drink amazake, a sweet, fermented rice drink associated with celebration and good fortune.
Food plays an essential role in Japan’s New Year traditions, and Audrey’s family follows many of them.
From New Year’s Eve into January 1, they eat osechi ryōri, a selection of symbolic dishes packed into decorative tiered boxes. Each item represents different symbols of good luck for the coming year.
“Toshi Koshi means leaving the year behind, so it is meant to symbolize leaving behind any troubles that you had from the year before and moving forward to welcome a new year” she says, explaining the dish they share called “toshikoshi soba”, buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, they share ozoni, a mochi soup whose preparation varies across regions. The dish is meant to bring luck, health, and prosperity—though, Audrey notes, “one not-so-fun fact is that a lot of elderly people die each year from eating it because they choke on the mochi.”
Whether it’s opening gifts at midnight, sharing a Christmas wafer, visiting a temple at midnight, or savoring foods rich with symbolism, both students prove that holiday celebrations are far more than cultural curiosities—they’re threads that tie families together across continents. As students like Matias and Audrey bring their heritage into their holiday seasons, they remind us that these traditions are not just old customs, they’re living stories, carried forward every year with joy and pride.
