As a student studying abroad, festivals and birthdays can create mixed emotions. You're excited about potential new places, new people, and/or new independence, but you might be feeling a little gentle pull of nostalgia - the comforts of home, the joy of familiar laughter, the scents of family and friends preparing and enjoying festive meals together. However, celebrating significant events and milestones while studying in a new country can be your best, most memorable, and most transformative experiences as a student.

Turning distance into creativity

When you're far away from home, celebrations become less about getting things perfect and more about putting in an honest effort. A Diwali away from India may mean hanging up fairy lights along the window of your apartment, or making your favorite dish with the ingredients available to you in another country. A birthday may not come with the family party, but the friends from around the world that gather to bake you a cake together in a tiny shared kitchen can feel perfectly special—if not more so.

During festivals or birthdays, it is perfectly natural to feel homesick, but a few ritualized ways can help alleviate that feeling. A single diya, the same songs that your family plays back home, cooking your family’s favorite meal, can all be a nice way to keep you anchored in your family’s traditions from home. Simple rituals can appear to be insignificant, but they can also take on a symbolic value that connects you to belonging and cultural continuity.

Technology as a bridge

Luckily, technology brings you closer in miles. Families can now join birthday celebrations over video, cutting cake, ‘together’ across continents. During holidays, students may light a diya or decorate the tree while all the time keeping their family on a live call, shrinking the miles. Some students even plan surprise virtual parties with friends from home - coordinating the songs, games, and meals together in real time.

For many families, technology also becomes a way to carry on traditions. Whether it is looking for home-style recipes online or learning through video calls with family, students can recreate the taste of

Finding home in new places

One of the most beautiful things that can come from an abroad experience is the ability to create a ‘second family’. Where roommates, classmates, or fellow international students assume the role of brothers, sisters, or cousins for those special days in our calendar year, e.g., a potluck dinner for Eid, a surprise birthday cupcake in the library, spending Christmas with friends from various countries and cultures, to create an incredibly special memory.

The experience of celebrating the joyous occasions together creates bonds that often last a lifetime. It reminds us that as much as we may miss our families back home, we are never completely alone - we always have the positive feeling of connection with us.

Carrying traditions in small ways

During festivals or birthdays, it is perfectly natural to feel homesick, but a few ritualized ways can help alleviate that feeling. A single diya, the same songs that your family plays back home, cooking your family’s favourite meal, can all be a nice way to keep you anchored in your family’s traditions from home. Simple rituals can appear to be insignificant, but they can also take on a symbolic value that connects you to belonging and cultural continuityThey are not replacements, and they become your own personal traditions, which you will carry with you no matter where in life you find yourself.

Celebrations of growth

More than anything else, celebrating in new spaces teaches you to grow. It reminds you that joy can be cultivated anywhere with the right spirit, amazing people, and a little bit of effort. It fosters a deeper sense of gratitude for the ways that family traditions help you to find happiness; while also helping you develop new ways of creating happiness.

The emotional truth is this: when you make it home for festivals, the celebrations feel that much more special. Being away makes you appreciate them even more - every moment feels like a gift.

So, although being far away can weigh heavily on you at times, these celebrations overseas are not simply about marking a moment in time. They represent developing with resilience, celebWWrating camaraderie, and discovering that home is a thing of not just a place, but also in the love and joy that we carry within ourselves.

(The writer is a CEO & Counsellor, AAera Consultants)