Family Traditions

I've been thinking a lot about family traditions a lot lately, in part because I've taken it upon myself to ensure an organized family gathering at Christmas (a project I love, by the way). The questions du jour: which ones to I want to pass on? Will I be throwing the baby out with the bathwater by not participating in some because of their religious and/or commercial aspects?

My favorite holiday is Christmas. Or perhaps I should say "was". As a child, the busyness of this season excited me more than any gifts I received, and I relish the idea of Christmas baking. There were advent wreaths, school and church plays, caroling, yummy food, staying up late playing all kinds of games or just busting with laughter with my siblings over some trivia we had learned from a game we had played. And, there was a spiritual aspect - the idea of this small being, born to change the world (well, common terminology is "save", but I have little use for that).

So, even today, I get excited. When I was stationed overseas with the Navy, I missed out on spending Christmas in any sort of meaningful way. Then, I got married, and we had our own little traditions (that were somewhat commercialistic and selfish, to be sure). Now that son is in the picture, and every action and inaction has such a huge meaning, I need to reframe traditions in terms of our little family.

My first response is to have nothing to do with them altogether. In part, because I no longer share the faith that gives them deep meaning, but also because they have been bastardized and create want or excess (depending on where you are in the economic spectrum).

My second response is to create new ones by discovering the roots of my old ones. It is my understanding that many of the christian holidays were adaptations of pagan ones, and so I am on a quest to discover the true meaning behind such holidays as Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. We did not celebrate Halloween growing up, I never really understood it. I also never understood the relationship between eggs, rabbits and Easter, either, since my family's tradition was strongly religious. Apparently both rabbits and eggs have to do with fertility, and Easter is in the spring, before everything gets fertile and starts growing. Who knew?

Because I understand that traditions and celebrations make our lives meaningful, I seek to include them in my life - they are also fun for children, with all the crafts and songs and stuff (which apparently I haven't outgrown!). So, like myself, my child, my family, ever evolving, I suppose that our family traditions will also evolve over time.