I’m not losing my French, it’s just that language is highly cultural. This is my excuse—a valid one, mind you—for not always being able to explain many North America traditions in French.
How can you translate something that doesn’t actually exist in your home country? Most French are familiar with Halloween or Thanksgiving (thank you, Hollywood!) but “Boxing Day” or “Tailgates parties” aren’t that famous outside North America.
During my first few years in Canada, I discovered and attended social events and traditions I didn’t even know existed.
Baby Showers
In North America, baby showers are a popular way for young parents to celebrate a pending or recent birth and to get baby-related gifts, such as toys, clothes or basic supplies.
Baby showers are typically a surprise for the mother-to-be and are often hosted by friends or even coworkers. Some women choose to wait until the baby is born to celebrate while others don’t mind throwing an early party. The father-to-be is supposed to be aware of such preferences and give the go-ahead for the baby shower—but he may not be invited, some parties are women only!
Boxing Day
This public holiday in most of the Commonwealth is celebrated right after Christmas. It’s a day off… unless you’re a retail employee, because it’s a “shopping holiday.”
Stores typically offer huge sales and lineups can start forming in the middle of the night to snatch doorbuster deals. The most popular items on sale are invariably retail electronics.
Casual Friday
Along with the popular initialism “TGIF” (for “Thank God it’s Friday”), casual Friday is a common way to celebrate the upcoming weekend. Many workplaces give their employees a break from a more formal dress code and encourage them to “dress down.”
That said, the level of casualness really depends on the workplace—in some, jeans and hoodies are acceptable, while others expect “business casual” attire. Check how your coworkers dress before showing up wearing ripped jeans!
Halloween
This spooky holiday celebrated on October 31 is now famous worldwide. It’s huge in the United States and Canada where it’s taken very, very seriously.
Jack-o’-lanterns are carved and displayed behind windows or on porches for weeks before the event, and giant boxes of treats (candy bars, chips, etc.) are bought to be handed out on Halloween Night. Kids get to go trick-or-treating while teens and adults usually attend Halloween parties.
Potlucks
A potluck is a communal meal where guests bring dishes to share. It’s often the preferred setup for informal school or work gatherings because it makes meal planning easy and food costs are shared among participants.
Popular dishes include cold salads (with couscous, pasta, quinoa…), chili, mini sandwiches, cookies, cupcakes or loaf cakes.
Prom Night
High school graduation parties (“prom”) are a big deal in North America. Students typically dress formally and attend a school dance or dinner party with their “prom date.”
Watch for prom dresses showing up in stores around May and teens shopping around for their special night. Similar traditions exist around the world but not in France—we didn’t have formal high school or university graduation parties.
Tailgate Parties
This social event is held on and around the open tailgate of a vehicle, usually in stadium or arena parking lots before a game or a concert. The point is to party—i.e. get drunk—before the event starts and share cheap food instead of paying $10 for a hotdog once inside the venue.
Tailgating is mostly a U.S. tradition, but Canadian fans have been known to brave the cold to party before NHL or CFL games.
Thanksgiving
This statutory holiday celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada is the time to give thanks at the end of the harvest season.
Canadians usually enjoy a traditional family meal during the three-day long weekend—roasted turkey with stuffing, oven-baked yams (sweet potatoes) and pie is the typical menu.
We had a potluck for one of our wedding parties in Canada, but it turned out to be a hard thing to explain in France. Now we just start with the history of the “potlatch” among the West Coast Aboriginals, since that’s how I’d learned about potlucks in school.
So would you have wanted to go to a prom if you’d had one?
Well, looking back I find it kind of sad that we didn’t celebrate graduation at all. That said, I’m sure prom can be stressful for teens and considering I wasn’t exactly in the popular group I may have skipped it. Who knows…!
Great thing about blogging is that I have learned much about other cultures.
Same for me! Especially North American culture. Blogging actually helped me adapt 🙂
My bf does causual Friday, regardless of what the others do … no one has never told him anything so my guess is that he’ll keep on doing it 😉
In France? I guess it depends on the industry. Banking is always conservative while IT is more relaxed for instance.
I pretty much know most of this before I came to the United States, but one I didn’t know at all: tailgate party. I found the concept very bizarre. I mean, before the game, people would go to the parking lots of the stadium and with their pick-up trucks, their portable barbecue grill, their coolers, they would have a party! I was like, really? And their clothes all match the sports teams too! In fact, I was surprised that even in college football matches it would happen, that the university already planned for it by installing portable toilets and trash bins!
I was surprised how “big” were sporting events generally speaking in North America. Sure, Europeans like soccer and take the sport seriously but events around it (except maybe when France hosted the world cup in 98) are not as big.
so…. when’s your baby shower day? :p
just kidding! 😉
Ah yeah… not yet, not yet! I’m way too young for that 😆 (bad excuse)
I always thought casual Fridays were only in Calgary but now I find that they’re across the country. Prom is unfamiliar to me. In high school we just called them graduation parties. I heard the term in American TV shows and a friend told me that they use the term in Ontario. I’ve never heard of tailgate parties. But I do know about “scalpers” “scalping” game tickets.
I know that you celebrate April Fools in France because when I taught at a French School in China the students stuck fish on my back (a tradition we don’t do in Canada). I’m guessing there’s no St. Patrick’s Day, though it’s not a big deal here. Valentine’s Day?
We celebrated St Patrick’s Day in Brittany where I’m from, probably because we are close to the UK and well, anything involving drinking is worth celebrating in Brittany!
Valentine’s Day is kind of celebrated too, much like in North America. But I’d say most people don’t care although there is a lot of marketing around the event.
One of the teachers I worked with in France was kind of surprised that we have a holiday like Thanksgiving that revolves around being thankful and not getting presents. I always found that funny.
That is funny! I find Thanksgiving is a beautiful holiday actually… I like celebrating it in Canada.
Potluck dinners, also called Covered dish dinners are a staple for church events where a meal is served.
I know that the day after Christmas is called Boxing day in the UK and commonwealth countries but I don’t know why it is called “boxing” day.
In the USA Thanksgiving day is celebrated the 4th Thursday in November. It is a traditional time for families to gather for a big meal, often with a big roast turkey. It is accepted as a time to count your blessings and you are correct, it does not involve gift giving.
Proms (short for promenade) are celebrations of high school graduation and are occasions to dress formally and dance. It is probably the first (and maybe the last) event where girls wear formal dresses and boys wear rented tuxedos.
I think someone once told me it’s called “Boxing Day” because of the fact that post-Christmas, a lot of people have tons of boxes at home (from presents). Not sure whether the explanation is valid!
Salut Zhu,
You are taking me back home :))
Sigh… France doesn’t have any of this(Though Boxing day, I am aware of but, it is like “after Christams clearance sales”).
I don’t care for Halloween but Thanksgiving is a a hard one to skip.
D & I try to do a few side dishes on this day, but it is not the same. You need family or at least friends around the table.
Yes; baby showers are most often “female only” My cousin’s wife had her baby shower and she gave birth the next day! I had to explain the tradition to D… I said that the females(I included), would have you guys stay in a bar or at out to the stadium for sports!
Bises x
Thanksgiving is definitely a big deal for most North Americans and I can imagine it’s hard not to celebrate it properly in France. I never really did it the traditional way in Canada but I grew to like it a lot. It’s a not break before the descent into Fall and Winter too.
So interesting to hear about North American events from somebody outside of North America. As I grew up with all these, there’s nothing special about them to me. I didn’t realize that a potluck was a North American thing though, I thought it was such a good idea that it would be found all over the world.
I agree! But I had never heard of potlucks before coming here. Come to think of it, I wonder how French deal with these kind of gatherings…!
i love casual fridays. i think casual fridays should be extended to every day of the week. i’d go to work in my slippers if i could.
I love wearing jeans and I miss them. That and funky tshirts, nothing offensive but not business-like.
you won’t wear your ‘take this job and shove it’ tee to work?
I do have a tshirt that says “the art of conversation is like, kinda dead and stuff”. It always makes me laugh 🙂
Oh we have baby showers in India too, and it can become quite a religious affair in some areas. Last week we had a baby shower at work for a male colleague. It was kinda weird. 😀
Really?! Never heard of that before! What did you get him? Breastfeeding pads…? 😆
I like the idea of casual Friday!
I love it 🙂 Especially considering I never have clean clothes at the end of the week!
Hi Zhu,
I was just reading your article on Casual Days. I saw a woman wearing a tee shirt that said “You Are Just Jealous Because The Spririts Talk To Me.” She looked normal but she had a seat all to herself on a crowded bus.
Cheers!
Oh, wow, that’s quite a statement! 😆 Good way to get a seat on the bus though… maybe that was the point?!