This is a list of major holidays and their signs. As with non-everyday words, there is not a standard way to do most of these signs. Your deaf friends will know this version of these signs even if this is not the way they do them. Have them teach you the preferred way for your area.
Words taught during this lesson:
Holiday or Vacation
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Hanukkah
Kwanzaa
New Year’s Day
Valentine’s Day
Easter
Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
Memorial Day
Halloween
If you would like to watch the video with the captioning, click the Closed Captioning [CC] button in the video player window.
Hello! This is LearnSigns.com lesson number 19. Nineteen.
I am going to talk about HOLIDAYS. HOLIDAYS – You take your 5 and put it right here at your chest. And this is VACATION. I think of it as the farmer standing around with this thumbs in his overalls. And then he is kind of relaxing. VACATION on HOLIDAY.
We just celebrated THANKSGIVING. THANKSGIVING. You do THANKS and then GIVING all together. THANKSGIVING
Next is CHRISTMAS. Now many of these have different ways you can do them. I am going to show you a couple of different ways for some of them, though there might be many, many more. So, CHRISTMAS Here are the two ways that I have seen. CHRISTMAS. CHRISTMAS. It is like DAY except it is backwards and then it has the letter C instead of D. CHRISTMAS. You will also see this. CHRISTMAS. Take the C and it is facing forward and you roll it back toward yourself like you are opening a door. Except with just one C. CHRISTMAS
HANUKKAH. HANUKKAH – You are showing the Menorah. HANUKKAH
KWANZAA – Is similar to that except you are using the numbers 3. KWANZAA
NEW YEAR. NEW YEAR.
NEW YEAR – Now you say HAPPY NEW YEAR. You also do that for MERRY CHRISTMAS. MERRY CHRISTMAS. You just do the sign for HAPPY.
VALENTINE
VALENTINE – I do it this way. The V, just draw a heart with the Vs. VALENTINE
EASTER
EASTER – This is one that you will see many different signs for. EASTER. I do it like SUNDAY with the letter E. EASTER
And these are the types of signs that you really should find out from your local community. What it is they use for these holidays. But these will be some basic ways to do it. Most of the Deaf you meet will know these ways even if they don’t do it that ways. So EASTER is one way to do it. That is the way I like.
MOTHER’S DAY
MOTHER’S DAY – You just do MOM, MOTHER DAY. Simple as that. MOTHER’S DAY
FATHER’S DAY – Same thing except you do FATHER. FATHER’S DAY
MEMORIAL DAY
MEMORIAL DAY – It is like you are looking back. I’m using both hands you can do it with one hand. Look back day. MEMORIAL DAY
HALLOWEEN
HALLOWEEN – You are drawing the mask. HALLOWEEN or you will see it like this, HALLOWEEN like you are playing peek-a-boo. HALLOWEEN – cover it up.
Alright, we will go through it again.
HOLIDAY or it is also the word VACATION.
HOLIDAY or VACATION
THANKSGIVING THANKSGIVING
CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS
HANUKKAH
KWANZAA
NEW YEAR – This is just the two signs NEW and then YEAR. NEW YEAR
VALENTINE
EASTER
MOTHER’S DAY
FATHER’S DAY
MEMORIAL DAY
HALLOWEEN or HALLOWEEN
Of course there are many, many other holidays throughout the year. These will get you started. These are kind of the big ones. You can ask the Deaf around you how they do these HOLIDAYS.
This is LearnSigns.com lesson number 19. Nineteen. If you will go to LearnSigns.com/19 I will have the list of the vocabulary words there so you can read through that as you watch the video.
Missionary working with the Deaf. Started learning sign language in 1988 and have spent much of my ministry training others in how to minister to the Deaf through local church ministries.