Americans of diverse backgrounds celebrate winter holidays with joyful traditions and tunes. Dances like the one above in New York mark the Chinese Lunar New Year, which occurs between mid-January and mid-February with the first new moon of the lunar calendar.
These photographs capture celebratory moments, including songs and dances, similar to those that will occur across the United States in the coming days and weeks.
Shneur Wagner is joined by family as he holds the first candle to be lit on a menorah ice sculpture at the Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The ceremony on the first day of Hanukkah 2023 (December 7) featured prayer and singing. The eight-day Hanukkah holiday commemorates a victory by a small band of Jewish fighters over an invading army, a victory that allowed the Jewish people to rededicate their holy temple by lighting its menorah.
Malliciah Goodman, left, and Ben Garland — who at time of this photo (2016) played for the Atlanta Falcons professional American football team — serenade U.S. Army veteran Fernando Zephyrine at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta. Christmas, on December 25, honors the birth of Jesus, with gifts, songs and tree-lighting ceremonies.
Revelers celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas. Americans commemorate the beginning of the new year with time-honored traditions including special foods, parties, fireworks and midnight kisses.
A woman dances to djembe drumming in Boston during Kwanzaa. The seven-day festival, from December 26 to January 1, celebrates African heritage in African-American culture through music, dance, poetry, storytelling and art.
A woman drums at a sunrise ceremony celebrating the winter solstice at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver. Winter solstice celebrations mark the return of the sun following the longest, darkest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, around December 21 or 22.
A version of this story was published December 13, 2022.