The Holidays in New York City are special. The City does everything big, so it is one of the world’s best places to celebrate the holidays.
New Yorkers Celebrate Many Holidays
Tourists call it Christmas Season, but New Yorkers call it “The Holidays,” because we celebrate many holy days.
- Diwali is the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh festival of lights. It is celebrated by South Asians and Caribbean West Indians. 🇮🇳 🇹🇹
- Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos, Fèt Gede, All Souls Day, is a Pan-Latin celebration of family members who have passed away. The Mexican tradition has gone global. 🇲🇽 🇭🇹
- Thanksgiving is a harvest festival that is the main family day of the year in the United States. It is supposed to celebrate the first European thanksgiving at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, but the first European thanksgiving was actually two generations before in Spanish St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. The Plymouth feast is part of American national identity, but the St. Augustine feast really was shared equally among both European and Indigenous peoples. 🇺🇸
- Native American Heritage Day is the U.S. national holiday after Thanksgiving Day, honors our First Nations who have given so much. 🇺🇸
- Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico and mixed-race peoples. Her festival on December 11-12 is very important to Mexican Americans. 🇲🇽
- Winter Solstice is the longest night and shortest day in the north. It is prehistoric source of festivals at this time of year. 🌅
- Huitzilopochtli is the Mixteca (Aztec) solstice festival that honors the birth of their patron and sun god. 🇲🇽
- Dongzhi is the Chinese and East Asian (with regional traditions) winter solstice festival. 🇨🇳
- Hannukah is the Jewish festival of lights that honors a miracle at the rededication of the Temple in 165 BC.
- Christmas is the traditional birthday of Jesus Christ. There is no historical record of when Christ was born. The date was chosen by an Italian pope, probably to take control of popular solstice celebrations.
- Kwanzaa is the African American year-end celebration based on seven enriching African principles. It was founded in New York City.
- Watch Night is the African American vigil of waiting for the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect on January 1, 1863.
- New Year’s Eve is the contemporary celebration of the start of the year based on a Roman calendar.
- Letter of the Year is the Cuban Yoruba forecast of the coming year. 🇨🇺
You don’t have to limit yourself to your own heritage traditions. You can celebrate them all. We do, and each tradition has enriched our lives in some way.
There isn’t a regular Islamic celebration at this time of year. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of family and community, is sort of all these traditions rolled into one month. We joyfully celebrate Ramadan too, when it comes. That’s the great beauty of New York City. Everyone is here, and we get along pretty well.
Holiday Season
Holiday season starts at the end of October with the opening of Winter Village Bryant Park. The fun continues until we wake up on New Year’s Day.
The new year is quickly followed by Jan Arts NYC, a series of dance, music, and theatre showcases for APAP, the booking agent conference in January.