Celebrating Immigration:
The Dynamics of Holidays
and Festivals in NYC
Welcome to Professor Rosenberg’s Spring 2011-Peopling of New York City @ Baruch College. Peopling of New York City is the second Interdisciplinary Course of the four Macaulay seminars. In this class, we investigate the population, demographics, cultures and integration of immigrants in New York City. This semester, students explored neighborhoods in the five boroughs and studied immigration patterns from the early 20th century to today. This project is our final work as we conclude the course.
For this project, our class decided to research the dynamics of how immigrants celebrate holidays in NYC. Our team of 17 students, with the help of our Instructional Technology Fellow Jill Belli and Professor Rosenberg, discovered that immigrants adapt the celebration of holidays in endless ways upon reaching New York City. Here you will be able to read about 15 different types of holidays. They range from Swedish Midsummer, which is in celebration of summer solstice, to Qing Ming Festival, which is a traditional Chinese holiday to honor family ancestors. Throughout our website you will see that many holidays have become Americanized and diluted as they are celebrated in the immigrants’ new home.
