Hello dear listeners and welcome to show 307 of our podcast “Absolutely Intercultural”.
Do you feel that the New Year celebration is too “boring” for you? Have you ever asked yourself if there’s a more vibrant holiday to celebrate instead of Halloween? Do you feel that something like Woman’s Day is “too political”? Then today’s episode is for you! Imagine spending a holiday in a foreign country and realizing that they celebrate it in a completely different way, and suddenly a familiar celebration is not so familiar anymore. It can be surprising discovering different celebrations in the world, and while some people like the alternative, that’s not always the case. People can also find the new festivals to be boring. In today’s episode, we explore how the same holidays and celebrations can be experienced in very different ways depending on the cultural context. What makes these shared events feel so unique from one country to another? Why do some people find a particular celebration meaningful and festive, while others might find it uneventful or even strange? Our interviewees will share personal stories and perspectives on how they celebrate their holidays in unfamiliar ways here in Germany.
absolutely misunderstood
In our first story, we will listen to Alvaro, who talks about “Dia de los Muertos”, a Southern-American celebration where people commemorate the dead around the same time as Halloween. He used to celebrate Halloween in Germany when he was a child, and he thinks that people who say that “Dia de los Muertos” is sad or morbid are just wrong.
absolutely disappointing
In our second story, we will listen to Nahidur, who talks about “Bengali New Year”, a new year celebration based on the Bengali calendar, a solar calendar used in the Indian subcontinent. Bengali New Year is celebrated in April, and he mentions how the western new year is boring compared to the Bengali one.
absolutely changing
In our last story, we will listen to Rozana, talking about Albanian Woman’s Day. In Albania, Woman’s Day is actually celebrated with parties, where women get their day to shine. Only recently it started to become more dedicated to gender parity and to promote women’s rights, due to global influence, and Rozana herself was surprised when she first discovered how different it was outside of her home country.
What about you? Do you also celebrate the same occasions differently? Do you think you do it better? We’d love to hear your stories! Feel free to share your opinion with us here on the podcast. You can leave a comment, send us an email, or even reach out for a follow-up interview in one of our next shows.
Write a comment or mail us, we could do a follow-up interview with you in one of our next shows. On our web page, absolutely-intercultural.com, you can get more information about this show and previous episodes, and you can leave comments. And if you enjoyed the show, please like us on Facebook too.
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Our next show will be coming to you from Anne Fox in Denmark on 4th July.
Until then – Bleiben Sie absolut interkulturell!
The host of this show is: Michele Varvara (Italian)
Assistant Editor: Era Meço (Albanian)
