This week in my religion class, we talked about rituals and I was intrigued by how ritualistic the holidays are in regards to family traditions. So, in the spirit of Easter, I’ve decided to think more about my family’s annual holiday traditions and why I love them so much, but more importantly, why they’ll never get old.
I’ve found that as the years pass, I’ve never gotten tired of being “Santa’s helper” and handing out the gifts, or going to the same St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the competitive Easter egg hunts (which have honestly become significantly more challenging) or the Thanksgiving day game at good-old Marshfield High School.
Traditions are at the core of holidays which seems to be why I love them so much. I can easily give a play-by-play of each family gathering because every year the traditions stay the same. The same family members arrive and leave at about the same time. The food is always, relatively, the same (which I’m not, at all, complaining about). The topics of discussion reflect, very closely, to the ones at the last holiday celebration.
This may sound boring as the thought of doing the same thing over and over again generally is. However, in this case, such traditions are better considered exciting. Every year, I look forward to the way that even though everyone is growing up and living out their own lives, when we come together as if nothing’s changed. Sure, the youngest cousin is now in college and others are getting married; aunts are getting promoted while others are retiring; siblings are seeing each other for the first time in months after moving out of state; family members have passed on and others will be born.
But with all this change, I find sanity in the consistency of holiday traditions. I know that I can always count on grandma’s delicious Irish bread, the discussion of how school’s going, the warm hugs, the classic “So do you have a boyfriend?” question, the candy that you eat too much of before dinner, a good throwback story and most importantly seeing my whole family together.
When life seems to lack the comfort of tradition I look to family holidays to find it. Sure, it’s important to grow and change with the modernization of society, but these traditions are something I’ll always have to come back to. Even when we all grow and divide into the smaller families of our own, I will find my own “Santa’s Helper,” bring my nieces and nephews to the parade, create intricate Easter egg hunts for my children and one day hopefully I’ll have the chance to watch my grandchildren play in their Thanksgiving day football games.
Tradition brings us together; it unites us in loving memories and reminds us of the past that connects us. I believe that without these same old holiday traditions, such celebrations would actually be boring. It’s exciting to enter the familiar home of your loved ones and anticipate the good times to come, but it’s even better when you leave content and knowing your prediction was correct. The world around us is ever-changing, but these traditions keep us frozen in joyful and loving moments to last a lifetime.
