{"id":14574,"date":"2020-12-03T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architect-us.com\/blog\/?p=14574"},"modified":"2020-12-03T17:04:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T16:04:36","slug":"american-vs-european-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architect-us.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/american-vs-european-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"AMERICAN vs EUROPEAN HOLIDAYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s already been more than 1 year since my adventure in the US started so it\u2019s a perfect time to summarize my experiences with all the American holidays throughout the year<\/strong>. I have always been wondering what are the traditions here like. Some of them are pretty much the same as in Europe, some have surprised me a lot how different they or there are some holidays that I\u2019ve heard about only from TV\/movies so I didn\u2019t know what to expect.<\/p>\n

I moved here last year in April so the first new holiday I\u2019ve had a chance to experience was the Memorial Day<\/strong>\u00a0at the end of May. The only fact I knew about its history was that it originated following the Civil War. Every year it occurs on Monday so it was really nice to have a longer weekend and a perfect opportunity to go on a weekend trip somewhere. Beside visiting cemeteries or having family gatherings I think that\u2019s what most people actually do and there\u2019s no special celebration of this holiday.<\/p>\n

A completely different experience was the Independence Day on the 4th<\/sup> of July<\/strong>. Based on its history, this day is very important for Americans so it\u2019s usually a big celebration, a lot of fireworks, festivities etc. This year it\u2019s going to be my forth Independence Day<\/strong> ( I\u2019ve already had a chance to celebrate it couple of years ago when I used to work at a summer camp on the East Coast ) so I pretty much knew what to expect. However, in Los Angeles<\/strong> my experience was a little bit different and watching the fireworks by the beach was really amazing.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, autumn has been full of surprises. It started with Halloween<\/strong> on October 31st<\/sup> that is in my opinion the biggest holiday in the United States<\/strong>. The Halloween decorations everywhere were really overwhelming, especially when I was coming home from work in the evening and all these giant spiders, zombies and skeletons were \u201cstarring\u201d at me from the dark. I got really scared when my landlords ( big fans of Halloween ) surprised me with a big creepy monster in the backyard. Even at work some of my colleagues dressed up and were having a Halloween<\/strong> lunch, it was very funny to work and see all the different costumes around me.<\/p>\n

My favorite holiday would probably be Thanksgiving<\/strong> which occurs on the third Thursday of November. This day is all about being thankful, gathering with family, friends and of course a good food. For Christmas<\/strong> I decided \u00a0to go back home to Europe<\/strong> because I couldn\u2019t imagine spending this beautiful holiday without my family and at least some snow or cold weather. It was a little bit weird for me to see palm trees with Christmas decorations, Santa Clauses and people wearing shorts or flip-flops in December.<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise for me was Easter<\/strong>. Since I\u2019m coming from a very religious background in Europe I\u2019m used to all these Easter traditions, decorations and chocolate candies. In the United States it\u2019s totally different. I didn\u2019t even realize that there was a holiday because there are no free days and I haven\u2019t seen any decorations or Easter candies at the grocery store.<\/p>\n

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