This holiday season, departments on Grand Valley State University’s campus have been working year-round to make religious holidays besides predominately Christian ones (like Christmas) more visible on campus.

“Christmas doesn’t catch anyone by surprise. It’s everywhere,” said Andrew Plague, communications and project coordinator for the Division of Inclusion and Equity. “But it’s important that we don’t let holidays that are equally as significant catch any audience by surprise.”

GVSU has a diverse religious makeup, with 60 percent of students identify as Christian. Despite this, the “holiday season” is largely filled with Christmas carols on the radio and an endless supply of Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations in stores.

Though GVSU doesn’t push these holidays on students, the university strives to show the significance of other holidays on campus. Another thing to consider is how the values and themes within different religions overlap.

“I think the richness of our religious diversity on campus and in GR is represented through the diverse holidays we have,” said Katie Gordon, program manager of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and coordinator for campus interfaith resources. “Each holiday that various religions and secular traditions have represents similar themes in different ways. I think these are beautiful and we all have something to learn from them.”

To Gordon, a lot of emphasis within many religions is placed on the theme of good winning over evil and “light versus dark.” Especially when winter comes and the world physically gets darker, the holiday season is a light source that people of all religious backgrounds look forward to celebrating.

“Holidays remind us that there is hope and I think that while some people find that in the Christmas tradition, it’s present in a lot of others as well,” she said. “I would encourage more people to learn about the various religious holidays that their neighbors celebrate.”

GVSU is taking initiatives to learn about all religious identities on and off campus. The Kaufman Institute pulls together an interfaith service learning council every month to continue bridging gaps between Grand Rapids’ religious peoples. These bridges can be formed between places like a Christian reformed church to a mosque.

The institute also hosts an interfaith Thanksgiving which makes efforts to connect community members with their other religious neighbors. Though Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, many religions practice rich teachings on gratitude, another overlapping theme throughout the holiday season. The goal of many departments on campus is to recognize and bridge these values and in the process, bridge relationships between communities.

“It’s a time, regardless of your faith or religious background, to reflect on the year,” Gordon said. “It’s a time to celebrate the work we’ve done and our relationships with each other.”

Part of this work is developing GVSU’s multi-faith calendar, which can be accessed on the Division of Inclusion and Equity’s website. It features a multitude of religious holidays with descriptions of each and how they’re celebrated. The department also notifies other departments on campus of major holidays at the beginning of the school year and asks that no significant events or tests are planned on those days.

If students would like to request time off for religious reasons, the Division of Inclusion and Equity’s religion inclusion policy is available for reference on its website.