Although not raised strictly religious, my family celebrated the Christian holidays with gusto. Our religious involvement amounted to a prayer before the meal- a song sung slightly off-key; you may know the tune: "O the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseed. The Lord is good to me. Amen. Amen. Amen, amen, amen. AHHHHHH-men."
That was it for us. Well, an occasional church visit here and there, but less than I can count on one hand, probably.
But when we were little there was always lots of cookie-making and treats-a HUGE chocolate Easter bunny, stockings stuffed with candy and trinkets. Dresses on Easter and a delicious brunch with pancakes or something like that; our special family tradition of homemade pizza on Christmas eve, and presents from family, then more presents from Santa in the morning. And somewhere in there more pies and treats and desserts. Over the years as mom grew more healthy, many of these things disappeared.
Now when I go home for the holidays there is no candy anywhere and if we want dessert of any kind we have to go buy it ourselves-times have changed a bit. But the one constant, the thing that will never change, is Christmas music.
My parents own an unholy amount of Christmas music.(awhile ago it was records) They would play them NON-STOP for days and hours and hours in all the days preceding the big day. At no point were we allowed quiet time, or other music time, at least until bed time. Suffice it to say, I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas music.
I LOVE it in November. I am lukewarm to it in the beginning of Decemeber, and by about the 25th, I am ready to strangle myself. And still, all this is memory and fondness. All this is tradition.
And when I became a Bahai 3 years ago, I remember wondering whether or not I would ever feel about the new holidays in my life as I do about the old. And honestly for the last couple of years, each new holiday I have celebrated has felt somewhat empty-of memory and tradition, at least. And empty of reverance, too. Because I am coming to this in my adult life, the child wonderment and association do not exist in my connection to these many and numerous days.
But thanks to life and friends, I am starting to feel it a little. I am completely cognizant of the fact that having an actual family to share these days with will help immensely in my being able to develop a connection. I look forward to that time in my life for sure-when my own little children are learning about the history of our Faith and the wonderment in their eyes shines on my heart a little, when we can create our own familial traditions based on joy and beauty and reverence. And maybe a pie or two and some chocolate. Who knows?
What I do know is for the last week straight I have had another song stuck in my head. It's not 'Chestnuts Roasting' or 'Santa Claus is coming..' or 'Away in a manger'.
It's a rather maddening little tune that goes to these words:
Do you know what we remember?
On the 12th day of November?
We give thanks to the land of Ta
For giving us Baha'u'llah
Ring the bells
and sound the horns
This is the day when
he was born!
1 comment:
This is a great post.
When I was little my mom made up all kinds of traditions for Ayami-ha and Naw Ruz. She would hide butterfly clips all over the house for us to find and we would listen to William Sears' Ayyami-ha record. She also had a sign that would hang over the fireplace and we would pile all the presents on the mantel. Hmmm, I may have to make my own blog post about this....
Also, I like that song. Can you tell me the tune next time I see you?
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