Family Traditions in my family disappeared when my Mom passed away. So, currently I can only tell of those past traditions. It is funny how as time goes on and generations come and go that past traditions mean less and less. Maybe it is because there are fewer people in families today or maybe the current generations are too busy with their own lives to invest in traditions. I don’t know the answer. I just know it is true.
The family tradition I will name first is one that I quit following. The tradition is called Decoration Day. Decoration Day is always the Sunday before Mother’s Day so people must honor this day by decorating and cleaning graves before Mother’s Day. Anyway, on this day all graves of families are cleaned and fresh or new flowers replace the old ones. My Mom & I would do this every May before Mother’s Day. I enjoyed the time with her more than the work, but sadly I didn’t realize this til she passed. She told me one time that when she left this world that I would need to continue the tradition. I did this for a couple of years then stopped. As I write this I realize that I need to honor her wishes and feel bad that I haven’t so this May I will begin again this family tradition.
Another tradition was eating black eyed peas, greens, and cornbread on New Years Day. The peas represent coins, the greens represent paper money and the cornbread represents gold. Some say eating 365 peas for each day of year brings luck. I guess leap years you need to eat 366 peas or is it 364? Either way, whose counting?
Next on family traditions is the tradition of taking the Christmas Tree down before the start of the New Year. I suppose this was to symbolize not bringing anything old into the new year.
Moving along would be the tradition of buying a new outfit to wear on Easter Sunday and white was an acceptable color at this time of year. You better not get caught wearing white until Easter Sunday or after Labor Day. This was a fashion problem if you did, similar to wearing socks with sandals. I am not sure why this was, but it was and we adhered to it strictly.
The next tradition was making homemade ice cream the first day of summer. This represented the end of school and the beginning of summer. I loved this one because families gathered together so it was a play date with cousins and of course the ice cream made it super sweet.
I cannot remember others except the gathering together at Thanksgiving where stuffed eggs had to be on the menu. I cannot remember why this was, but I always got appointed to make them.
Oh yes, I almost forgot about the yearly family gatherings. Every year during summer months my Dad’s side would gather at my grandparents house or a park to celebrate my Grandma & Grandpa. Being a large family and scattered everywhere made this feat difficult at times, but it happened and I loved it. So many cousins to play with, and the food? Well, I am a very finicky eater, not eating food prepared by others unless I know them very well. Cleanliness thing, I suppose. And not all people are my standard of clean, family or not.
The last tradition is Christmas Eve dinner at the local steakhouse on my Mom’s side of the family. All would gather at the steakhouse on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas together. Christmas Day was spent with extended family.
I’m sure there were more, but I cannot recall them right away and thinking about these traditions makes me sad since they happen no more and all those that carried the torch so to speak or kept them going are not with me anymore to celebrate. I give honor and respect to those that did carry the torch for so long.
When God Speaks 
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