Traditions

At this time of year, people are getting involved in traditions.

We've already had Thanksgiving in America. Now Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years Day are approaching.

No matter when or where humans have lived, it seems like every culture has had traditional celebrations at certain times of the year.

We all also have traditional ways of welcoming babies, celebrating marriages, and dealing with deaths.

Traditions help us remember who we are, because they remind us of our past and help us look forward to the future.

While Christmas is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus (even though the date might not be historically accurate) it's also the time when we remember our own families and heritage.

For over a century my mother's family always gathered for dinner on Christmas day, but when including all the third cousins and their kids became to large for anyone to host, we stopped doing that. Now we gather in smaller family groups, but still try to keep in touch with the rest of the extended family at this time of year.

And millions - maybe even billions - of people will have lights and decorations on trees and open gifts on that day.

What traditions do you have as you celebrate?

Siblings Day

I love and appreciate my brother a lot.

The other day I thought it would be a good idea to have a holiday like Mothers Day and Fathers Day to show appreciation for our brothers and sisters.

I googled Siblings Day and, lo and behold, discovered there is such a thing. It's not officially recognized by the US government, but many states recognize it.  The date is April 10,  so it's coming soon.

I think it would be a good idea if Siblings Day became something we all celebrated - at least everyone who has a brother or sister or more than one child.

Children tend to quarrel and compete with their brothers and sisters  even if they love them. It might be helpful to have one day a year when they were expected to list the good things about their siblings and maybe even make cards or gifts for each other.

For adults, that would be a good time to connect with the brothers and sisters they don't contact often and share some memories. For those of us who are still in contact with our brothers and sisters Siblings Day is a great time to express our love and appreciation for them.

It's too bad there aren't appropriate greeting cards for sale, but maybe just sending "Thank You" cards would work.

Maybe if we spread the word and enough people celebrate that day, cards will become available. And Siblings Day will become recognized by our government in the USA and perhaps even in other countries.

Even if only a few of us get involved we can make people in our own families feel appreciated.

So why don't we all mark our calendars for April 10th and plan to celebrate Siblings Day this year?

School Year

Some kids have already started back to school and most others will be doing that soon.

The school year was different when I was a kid back in the 1940s and 50s. In California, which was proud of having the best schools in the nation, all public schools started the day after Labor Day and ended the second week of June. In between we attended classes Monday through Friday every week except for two days off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's Day, and single days off for Washington's birthday, Lincoln's birthday, and what is now called Memorial Day. We also had a week off at Easter.

In those days it was okay for schools to celebrate Christmas and Easter because they only talked about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, which weren't considered religious. The Jewish kids in our school were sometimes upset that Santa Claus never brought them presents, though.

It's interesting that now some public schools discuss religious holidays of many different faiths, but still only mention Santa and the bunny when they talk about the Christian holidays. Others avoid mentioning any of them.

School calendars have changed in many ways and now there are year-round schools, charter schools, and different school districts have different calendar schedules. And now many students are home-schooled, which used to be illegal in our state when I was a kid.

Some Things Haven't Changed

I'm writing this on the Fourth of July and thinking of the way this holiday was celebrated when I was a kid. In those days children lit firecrackers in the daytime and roman candles after dark, and even the little ones played with sparklers. Where I live now all those things are illegal because of the serious danger of fires.

But other things about the celebration haven't changed. There are still parades where people hand out flags and play patriotic music, people still wear red, white, and blue, and families still gather to have barbecues and picnics.

And, even though the fireworks are all professional now, people still sit outside in the warm darkness, calling out, "Oooh," and "Wow" as they watch the beautiful colors light up the sky.

I hope our grandchildren and great grandchildren will still be able to enjoy celebrating this summer holiday in traditional ways when they grow up and have kids of their own.