A Holiday Memory

By Carmel

When I was growing up back home in Eritrea, Christmas was not celebrated as it is in the rest of the world.

It is a different timeline and a different way of doing things. We don’t have Christmas trees, Christmas lights or snowflakes.

The way we celebrate Christmas is by sacrificing a sheep for the bloodshed. The bloodshed is the most important thing to do, for the blessing of the year or if you are giving thanks for anything, you need to do that.

For the children, we get to wear a new outfit that day. For the adults, they get to give food, love and care all day.

The food that you have at the house is for everybody in the neighbourhood and everybody that happens to be there or around.

The Christmas that I grew up celebrating is the real birth of Christ and the celebration of the beginning of life and salvation from all your sins.

A Winter Memory

By Yolanda

Once in a cold winter we went to skate on cold ice at city hall. It was the first time of my English language Program. We went outside and it started to snow hard. I could hardly see the road. I saw many people holding umbrellas. I was walking to the bus stop, and it snowed all the way. The roads were full of snow. It was horrible weather. A woman from the street was walking. She started falling on the wet snow. I thought she wasn’t serious, maybe she was just pretending. But it was very slippery and I started falling, too.

That is a winter memory I could never forget.