Students' Paragraphs Describing Holidays

I teach English writing to Ph.D. students in a major Asian University. The assignment was to write an in-class paragraph in preparation for their final. The prompt was to choose one of the holidays we had discussed in the last 10 weeks of class: St. Patrick Day, April Fool’s Day, or Easter. Each of my class presentations had been a powerpoint discussing  origin and cultural celebration. For all holidays I give secular and religious aspects and they are all short. It is always surprising to see what is actually communicated. I have close to 80 paragraphs and they are interesting for many different reasons, but I thought I would share two paragraphs.

“My favourite holiday is Easter, because I think it is a gorgeous festival. Easter originates from a Bible tale, which is about the death and the resurrection of Jesus. People celebrate this holiday in many countries. The signal of Easter is rabbits, candy and colorful eggs. Dr. Ann told us that she would paint eggs with her family. I think people will be cheerful and relaxed on that day. Besides, Dr. Ann delivered us some candy with a logo of rabbit, which is quite interesting. I am looking forward to go abroad one day to enjoy this funny holiday.” This might be a reasonably good representation of their understanding.

The following is more confusing to me….and I know I did not cover some of this, at least for this semester's holidays. haha “The most important day in St. Patrick Day, April Fool’s Day, and Easter, I think is Easter. It’s a big feast in US. Children wear interesting clothes and knock neighbor’s door asking for candies. What impressed me most is the beautiful eggs. They are painted very colourful and show the imagine from humans. People dance and sing songs on streets happily with laughing and yealing. I remember if a family does not have child might be tricks by children. Nowadays people always live in their own world with their telephone, without chating with others. It is a good thing. What’s more, it is a holiday for a nation. I think Easter stands for a tradition in US. Americans would keep the tradition in the future.”  Oh well.