Olivia Medical Anthropology

Though it’s been a few weeks since the holiday season, I decided to look further into the social and cultural aspects of holidays. Claiming a religion for holidays tends to be a commonality that is identified among society, especially around the holiday season, where an individual celebrates a holiday solely due to its cultural dominance. In other words, many individuals celebrate a certain religion’s holidays and don’t continuously participate in its religious practices. And despite America’s plethora of diverse cultures and ethnicities that have blended together as one, individuals rarely acknowledge the variety of beliefs that encompass the religions Americans recognize. Nonetheless, the majority of Americans celebrate the holiday of Christmas, due to Christianity’s religious dominance in the nation. Because many cultures have fused to form one cohesive society, numerous customs that originate from different locations have been utilized in celebrating holidays in America. Christmas is a holiday that is essentially an amalgamation of various traditions. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe, for example, originated in Ancient Greece. Altogether, cultures evolve and adapt as time proceeds, and the Christmas celebrations in the modern melting pot of American society is just one example of that.