World Festival Passport: Holidays Around the World

World Festival Passport is a holidays around the world unit for ages 5 to 10, built on 60 illustrated festival cards. The festivals come 15 to a region: Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa and Oceania. Alongside the well-known ones like Chinese New Year, Christmas and Day of the Dead, the deck includes Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, Inti Raymi in Peru, Meskel in Ethiopia and the Pasifika Festival in Auckland.

One card, three levels

The front of each card shows a picture, the festival name, the country or region, and three small culture clues, such as a full moon, mooncakes and a moon rabbit. That’s Level 1, Find It, for ages 5 to 6: name the festival and find the place on the map. The back holds Levels 2 and 3. Discover It, for ages 6 to 8, gives one line each on a tradition, a food and an activity, plus a “What would you do?” question. Tell the Story, for ages 8 to 10, is a short paragraph on why the festival is celebrated. Each back also says when the festival falls, noting when the date moves from year to year.

Four ways to play

The guide plans for 1 to 4 players and 15 to 40 minutes at a time.

• Quick Match, 5 to 10 minutes: draw 10 cards and name each festival and its country, one point each.
• World Tour, 15 to 20 minutes: pick a region and work through all 15 of its cards, finding each place on the map.
• Festival Detective, 10 to 20 minutes: cover the name with a mystery strip and guess from the picture alone.
• Passport Challenge, ongoing: answer a card’s level question to earn a stamp, with badges at 10, 20 and 40 stamps and a certificate at 60.

Using it with a class

The parent and teacher guide suggests World Tour as a four-week unit, one region a week with the map on the wall, and pairing younger and older readers on the same card. Its notes explain that religious festivals are described neutrally, and point out that some dates, such as Australia Day, Waitangi Day and Thanksgiving, mean different things to different people. A two-page quick reference lists all 60 festivals with their country and timing.

Printing

The cards print 4 x 6 inches, fronts on one sheet and the matching backs on the next. Print double-sided and flip on the short edge, or print single-sided and glue each front to its back. Cardstock works best for the cards, and regular paper is fine for the passport, map and journal. The cards fit 4 x 6 photo sleeves if you want them to last.