Orthodox Christian Holidays -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Charlotte Riggle sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you know anyone who is Orthodox Christian? I have good friends who are Greek Orthodox so I have some idea of the Orthodox traditions, but of course they are also different for different cultures and areas. However today I am sharing some amazing books to share some Orthodox traditions around two holidays--St. Nicholas Day and Easter. These books are by Charlotte Riggle and illustrated by R.J. Hughes. Both books have the same characters in it: Catherine and her best friend Elizabeth and Catherine's family. Since St. Nicholas Day was last week (Wednesday), I will start with Saint Nicholas Day Snow. (By the way today is St. Lucia Day, but as I am running late on my December holiday posts that one will be late as well.)

In this beautiful book, Elizabeth comes to spend the night at Catherine's house while her parents go to be with her grandmother while she is having surgery. It happens to be December 5th and Elizabeth is very concerned that St. Nicholas will not know where to find her. Even though the two families celebrate St. Nicholas Day differently, they try to understand each other's celebrations and why there are different ways to celebrate. The book answers things like December 5 versus 24 and shoes versus stockings. It is a wonderful tale and introduction to St. Nicholas as well as the celebration of his day. The characters are multicultural. Elizabeth is in a wheel chair although there is no mention of it. She is pictured in one. Plus one learns a bit about the Orthodox Christians. 

At the back of the book there is information about St. Nicholas as well as his feast day. There is also a recipe to make the snowball cookies the girls made to leave out for St. Nicholas in the story. I made them. We found them delicious but a bit dry and I more than doubled the milk in the recipe. 

Throughout the book there are pictures of beautiful churches from around the world named for St. Nicholas. We have one more to add, but I cannot find a picture of its outside. This is the St. Nicholas Chapel at Santa's Village in New Hampshire. 

We have visited the past two summers.Right next to it is a life size nativity. We have used pictures from it the past two years. There is history in the small chapel saying it was the first building built for Santa's Village. We love it!!

Charlotte's first book takes us to another big Christian holiday--Easter!! This was written before St. Nicholas Day Snow, and it has the same characters in it. The book is Catherine's Pascha. 

This beautiful book tells the tale of Catherine and her family going to church for the long service that ends on Easter morning (midnight). Her mother has the baskets of food ready to bring up to be blessed. Catherine sees her friend Elizabeth there and Catherine's little brother falls asleep. Catherine is old enough to stay awake through the mass and celebrations but falls asleep in the car on the way home. In a similar fashion there are pictures of beautiful churches from all over the world. I love how the story shares the special things at the Orthodox service and how each church celebration can still be different. 

I am always fascinated by the differences in how Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter (and Lent) compared to the churches I been. The fact that Easter is often a different day than ours to begin. It is often a week later, but sometimes it is not. Then for Lent they give up many things and during Holy Week it is even more extreme. I remember my Greek friends mentioning not wearing leather during Holy Week, because it comes from an animal. This book gives so much information in such a fun way and helps to see how others celebrate holidays differently. 

Activities to go with this book would be making the red Easter eggs and/or the sticky buns shaped like bunnies. I did not do either of these though. Sorry!! However both of these books share a new culture with different takes and a disabled girl in it as well. I love the diversity!! The stories are wonderful too. 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators. 

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors

HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild

PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs

GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies

SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press

BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press

2018 Author Sponsors

Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina

Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo,  Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles,  Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen,  Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing  Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham  Author Natasha Yim

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

I am a CoHost, so be sure to check back on January 27, 2018 for the amazing link party where all the reviews are shared!!

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