Everybody knows Christmas. It is the most festive, jolly, sparkly holiday out there, right in the peak of December. The holiday’s fame is worldwide, as popular cities decorate with lights and huge trees. But in the shadows of Christmas lie the smaller, lesser-known holidays celebrated around the same time.

Holidays like Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are not celebrated nearly as much as Christmas or even New Year’s. While our memorable festivity is celebrated by many, Hanukkah is a tradition for only an estimated 5 percent of people in America, and Kwanzaa, 3 percent.

These low numbers mainly originate from differences in religion or culture. Most of the US celebrates Christmas because it has no exact religion you need to follow, while other holidays like Hanukkah and Bodhi Day are religious holidays for Judaism and Buddhism, which are not exactly common religions in the way that Christianity is. Because of these low percentages, these other holidays don’t receive as much care and aren’t promoted nearly as much.

With all these differences, we don’t hear about these holidays often, leaving them in the dust of Christmas or New Year’s Day.  The majority of the population simply doesn’t celebrate other holidays that much. Christmas became so popular that it took the spotlight all for itself.

Even though these holidays are forgotten, they still have beautiful practices, and it is a shame they aren’t well-known. Bodhi Day is celebrated through meditation, scripture reading, and acts of kindness. It is a wonderful holiday, but not well-known at all. America is considered a cultural melting pot, yet it seems that other cultures are practically erased in favor of more popular traditions. By recognizing these other holidays, we can see glimpses into the lives of others and how they celebrate. We gain insight into different religions and cultures that we might not have if we weren’t aware of them. That’s why it’s important to recognize other festivities; it helps us learn about the people we share this planet with.

Sometimes these holidays adapt to the modern eye, possibly due to racism or xenophobia. They can lose their original celebrations to become more commercialized, drawing away from the original meanings of the holiday. It provides more popularity, but it puts a label on holidays and paints them as an alternate Christmas, when it is not. Many traditions for smaller holidays even originate from American Christmas traditions. Christmas has taken over so much that it is affecting the holidays around it so deeply that it rewrites their traditions.

While many are familiar with the names of these other winter holidays, rarely do they know the story and life behind them. The true purpose of these holidays is altered to become more of an aesthetic akin to Christmas, rather than a holiday full of faith and tradition. Religion and culture are slowly being taken away from holidays, which makes more basic holidays celebrated worldwide. Kwanzaa is cultural, but New Year’s is not. It is a holiday many can celebrate worldwide, but Kwanzaa is not the same. While it doesn’t exactly have requirements, it is a mainly cultural holiday, making it less celebrated because people don’t know its meaning. Noncultural holidays are more often celebrated since they appeal to a wider audience. They 

Less representation isn’t necessarily harmful, but it does leave these smaller holidays less known.