Continuing our exploration of respect in relation to end-of-year celebrations and inspired by Marjorie’s beautiful post on The Christmas Menorahs, today I highlight Maya Angelou‘s Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem (Schwartz & Wade, 2008).

Although written in a Christmas spirit, the poem’s resonance is far more broad, as it encourages one and all to “Come away from rancor. Come the way of friendship.” A sound piece of advice to humanity in this day and age when wars and conflicts still happen in the name of religion.

As seen in the excerpted verses below, her poem is a call for peace and unity:

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

These words go straight into the heart, don’t they?

Do you know of other books for children that speak of people from different faiths coming together during the holidays? Would you recommend them? Please do share so we can all learn about how others have “come the way of friendship.”

The new issue of PaperTigers, focusing on Religious Diversity in relation to End-of-Year Celebrations, is now live.

The end of the year, when so many holy and secular days are observed and celebrated, reminds us of the importance of understanding and being respectful of how others in our communities engage with and
express their beliefs. Books play an essential role in helping children learn about differences (for instance, why some people celebrate different holidays, or the same holidays in different ways, while others don’t celebrate anything): but more than anything, books can help them realize that, while our individualities do matter, our common humanity matters even more.

We hope you will enjoy our new features, which focus on celebrating diversity while striving for a more encompassing and tolerant world for all our children, families and communities.

We will also be talking about religious diversity and end-of-year celebrations here on the blog this month, so we hope you will share your favorite books and experiences with us!

There’s often a ritual involved in getting families into the holiday spirit: tree trimming and baking treats for some; candle lighting and telling family stories by the fireplace for others… A family I know, for instance, gathers around the tree on Christmas to hear the Christmas Eve chapter of Wind in the Willows, “Dulce Domum.”

For many families storytelling plays an important role in adding extra meaning and warmth to the holidays, whether they read books together; have a tradition of book giving; or listen to the stories of older relatives and how they celebrated the holidays as a child, way back when. In addition to helping kids understand the real meaning of the holidays, stories from books and/or from family members and friends provide a way for children to learn that different people celebrate different holidays, and that one same holiday can be celebrated differently in different families and cultures (did you know that Ecuadorians’ tradition of welcoming the new year involves making a scarecrow?…I, for one, didn’t, until recently.)

A meaningful glimpse of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa traditions can be gleaned from the following children’s books: in The Legend of the Ponsettia, Tomie de Paola retells the Mexican legend of how the ponsettia flower came to be, through the story of a little girl who fears she won’t have a gift for baby Jesus in time for the Christmas parade; in Angela Shelf Medearis’ Seven Spools of Thread seven brothers highlight the seven principles of Kwanzaa in the process of making gold out of spools of thread; in Linda Glaser’s The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes, a young girl devises a clever way to make her old, lonely neighbor join in her family’s Hanukkah’s celebrations, in spite of his numerous refusals. And for those of us enjoying cold, dark nights under the covers, Anna Grossnickle Hines’ Winter Lights: A Season in Poems and Quilts helps us warm up by bringing the brightness and meaning of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa’s lights to life.

About.com offers good tips on how to wade our way through all the 2007 holiday titles on display in libraries and bookstores everywhere. The Brown Bookshelf has a great list called “Booked for The Holidays.” And for a snapshot of a few children’s book authors and illustrators’ memories of holidays past, follow me… And let the merriment begin!