mid-week Connect: 12/22/21 ~ Celebrating the SeasonS

Greetings and Happy Midweek!

Well, since yesterday was the solstice, and the official beginning of winter here in the northern hemisphere, I thought we would spend a few minutes together reflecting on seasons from our cross-cultural perspectives. This fits nicely into the HOST dimension of our Global SKILLs 3D dynamics model, because one great way to integrate into any host culture is to be aware of what seasons their region experiences, with related perspectives and practices.

In coastal West Africa, the going joke was we had two seasons: hot & humid, and hot & rainy. No winter for us! I got so used to being in high humidity year round that when I get into drier climes (anything under about 70% humidity!), my skin immediately gets all dried out! Culturally, the seasons were recognized by many different fun and fascinating festivals and practices, often tied with agricultural cycles especially for rural communities, but even in the urban areas - since people brought their celebrations and observances with them when they moved into the cities.

Some like having ‘all four seasons’, traditionally defined as spring, summer, fall and winter. However, I think it’s much more fun and much easier to learn about others ways and to integrate cross-culturally, if we try to fully experience whatever seasons occur where-ever we happen to find ourselves, short or long term…including entering into our host community’s seasonal activities and occasions.

On that note, I’ll wish you all a very Happy Season - whatever that means for you this coming week…and, I’ll ask (as always)

How about you ~ what is a cross-cultural seasonal moment you have experienced recently?

Share about that with a friend or note it here.

And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for a few seasonal moments from around the globe.

Thanks for being part of this Connect community.

Until next week,

Betsy

* Global SKILLs 3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: 1st dimension = HOME ; 2nd dimension = HOST (which we looked at today); 3rd dimension = HARBOR)

~ contact me for more information on this model and how you might use it in your current programming

Global SKILLs LINKs

~ Blending cultures and seasonal observations: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/21/how-we-blend-religious-cultural-traditions-make-holidays-special/

~ Specifically for winter…this was an article picked up by several news outlets around the world- I thought it was interesting to read it as posted (and presumably chosen as of interest) in an Indian media source:

https://www.pehalnews.in/winters-wisdom-in-the-heart-of-darkness-there-is-a-light/1426465/

~ and from Japan: https://www.japan-zone.com/culture/season.shtml

2021 ~ Celebrating 40 years of working in

intercultural communications and global community building

Connecting, Collaborating, Cultivating Community