Barnehager og høytidsmarkering En gjennomgang og diskusjon av begrunnelser knyttet til manglende markering av ikke-kristne høytider

This article is based on a 2010/2011 survey on religious festivals in kindergartens in the Norwegian region Helgeland. We discovered that only holidays of Christian origin were marked, despite it being a curricular requirement that kindergartens mark festivals from all religions represented among the children. In this article, we examine and discuss the reasons given. We find that kindergarten teachers are uneasy marking non-Christian festivals. In addition, they also claim that some parents of kindergarteners do not want their festivals marked. We apply migration theory in the discussion, and conclude that not marking the festivals of children from religious minorities is unfortunate for both minority and majority children. Minority children lose opportunities of positive identification and recognition. Majority children are precluded from learning about other religious festivals than their own and thereby from expanding their cultural repertoire. We also find that parent involvement is a key factor in succeeding in this area, as one of the main obstacles for our informants is the lack of personal relationship to the festivals. They lack the personal resources to give the children an authentic experience when it comes to non-Christian festivals.