Do We Need More Holidays?

By Renee Sylvestre-Williams

Canada has nine federal public holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas and Boxing Day. Ontario has two additional holidays: Family Day on the first Monday of February and the Civic holiday on the first Monday of August.

Most of them are secular holidays but the two religious holidays, Good Friday and Christmas, are Judeo-Christian. That makes sense when you look at the history of Canada, a country colonized by the French (Christian) and the English (also Christian despite the tendency to fight among themselves about religion).

With the changing demographic of Canadian citizens, does it make sense to have new, non-Judeo Christian holidays? Should they be official, day-off type holidays?

I say yes. I come from Trinidad, a country where Eid and Divali are national holidays and quite a few non-Hindu and non-Muslim people celebrated or acknowledged them. I’ve stood in assemblies about Eid and Divali (and African emancipation and Indian Arrival Day, but I digress)  in my Catholic school. Trust me, most of us were just happy to have another public holiday. I think most Canadians wouldn’t mind more public holidays. Public holidays are awesome.

Besides, people are celebrating their holidays and some institutions are happily (and some not so peacefully) accommodating them. Brampton allows fireworks for Divali but in Hamilton, they’re looking at upholding a bylaw that limits fireworks to Victoria Day and Canada Day despite calls from cultural groups.

Institutions who have tried to accommodate other religions in an attempt to be inclusive have found themselves ruled exclusionary. York University used to cancel classes during Jewish holidays. The Human Rights Commission found that this policy was discriminatory considering at the time, 5.8 per cent of York’s students were Jewish while 4.8 per cent were Muslim. York University repealed the holidays, claiming that the commission’s decision wasn’t part of the decision.

Maybe the next step is for the governments at all levels to declare secular public holidays for various religions. In other words, Eid, Divali and other days will be holidays and you can do what you please. Christmas seems to be the best example of your-mileage-may-vary celebrations. Some treat it like a religious holiday, while some people, like me (an anemic Catholic at best), think of it as a week-long holiday culminating with New Year’s celebrations and weight gain.

The question then becomes who gets a public holiday?

Ethnic Christmas Food: Pastelles

By Renee Sylvestre-Williams

So I’m not torn about celebrating Christmas. I just don’t get religious about it. I’m more about the goodwill to all men/do I have to go to midnight mass because I really don’t want to/I hate the mall/after working retail for five years Boxing Day is evil state of mind.

The food, on the other hand, makes me happy.

Every year we make pastelles for Christmas. It’s an essential food item in the Christmas food repertoire along with sorrel and black cake.

What is a pastelle? The best way to describe it is a tamale. It’s made with corn meal and stuffed with a mixture of meat, olives, raisins and capers. It’s wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. I like them because they’re delicious, obviously and I like unwrapping them. They’re like little food presents.

Making pastelles is a tedious process. This year my mother and I made almost 120 pastelles. It took us five hours, six if you include cleaning up.

Below are two videos that show you how to make pastelles, courtesy of my parents. I’m not going to put a recipe here because while the basic recipe is the same, every Trinidadian does it differently.

The race box

Kelli Korducki muses on what race means. Is it about culture or colour? And why are the racial choices on forms so limited?

Those teachable moments

Allyssia Alleyne ruminates on the extra jobs that come with being in an interracial relationship. Jobs like interpreter, ambassador and teacher, and the moments when it’s just easier not to explain.

Interracial relationships: The mid-week round-up

You guys, it’s only Wednesday and we’ve already got amazing articles that look at interracial and intercultural dating.

This is stuff you should read.

Start with the chat that started it all: Ethnichat: DNA Free Flow

Move on to Renée Sylvestre-Williams’ experience of dating interracially – her family isn’t concerned about race, just that any potential boyfriends have the same level of education, share the same values and treat her right. (It’s a long list.)

Denise Balkissoon learns, thanks to an ex-boyfriend, that people get racially confused, which can get tiresome after a while.

Jef Catapang interviews Anupa Mistry who reveals her weakness for white boys.

Being mixed-race and dating is more than just “oh, you’re gorgeous!” and “mixed babies are so cute!” Adebe DeRango-Adem takes a moment to unpack the baggage of dating and fetishization when dating interracially.

We’re not the only ones thinking about this topic:

Britain is as well. The BBC just ran a series on mixed-race Britons.

The New York Times looks at mixed-race relationships and the lingering tensions in the United States.

The Economist features author Richard Banks and his work, “Is Marriage for White People? How the African-American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone.“

Guess Who’s Coming to Brunch?

“When mixed-race gets talked about in the media, it’s often automatically celebrated as a marker of socio-political progress, completely disconnected from the racial trauma of being deemed inauthentic by others, the wounds of self-questioning, and the reality of racialized violence and fetishization.”

Being mixed-race and dating is more than just “oh, you’re gorgeous!” and “mixed babies are so cute!” Adebe DeRango-Adem takes a moment to unpack the baggage of dating and fetishization when dating interracially.