Holidays and traditions you now secretly love from your host country

There’s a specific seasonal custom here I now genuinely look forward to — less about the tradition itself and more the warmth of everyone doing it together at once.

Same, did not expect to care this much about a holiday I’d never even heard of a year ago.

A food tradition tied to one specific date — I do it every year now completely unprompted, which surprised me more than it probably should have.

Christmas in the middle of summer, at the beach, with a barbecue. We don't celebrate it as a religious holiday, but the kids' school did a whole summer Christmas concert and our neighbours invited us for lunch, and now it's become a family day for us too. My eleven-year-old calls it "beach Eid", which I think is a lovely mix of both worlds.

Thanksgiving in October here. I'd only known the American version from movies, and now I cook for my housemates every year. The pumpkin pie took me three tries.