Holiday means a lot of fun, the family gets to gather, having good food, visiting places, and whatnot. It always makes me feel great to see different cultural rituals, family traditions during holidays.
I miss the warmth of holidays so much. The more we mature the different it feels, no? Now holidays are full of responsibilities. I don't mind that. But not being with the family sometimes make me feel down. Like during this pandemic we celebrated four festivals without our family.
Anyway, moving to talk about my family tradition.
Festival time means 'Mom's cooking'. This is what I miss most. My mom used to prepare roasted chicken the day before the festival. At night we used to help her prepare the chicken and other food for the next day. I feel like I can smell our kitchen. Then going back to sleep late at night and waking up early in the morning is also part of the big day.
We used to serve food early in the morning to my Dad and my brother before they leave for the special festival prayer. We used to wait for them to come back and then we eat the roasted chicken with rice flour roti. These were our special food items for the holiday. Then we used to have some special gifts/money from my parents for the day. We used to have a little chit-chat and then proceed to the day.
We didn't use to go outside to dine out because both of my parents were Govt officials. So their time at home was more precious than going outside.
You may notice all I use is 'Past tense'. Because things are not the same anymore. My Dad passed away 11 years ago, my mom live alone, I live with my husband far away from my mom. Now, I spend holidays with my husband's family. I'm well welcome there and they also have some good traditions like cooking together with the extended family. But I miss how we used to celebrate the big day when we were younger, before my marriage.
Time changes and so does our life. I accept that.
Now what I'm doing will be my son's memories. That's my inspiration. I try to make some special food, do something special like some gifts, go outside, have movie time together, and so on to enrich his memory.
Have a good day, everyone.
I think that happens to most of us and that is life. We move out from our parents, some go far away and we can only be together during special occasions, but then at times, we still cannot come together because of commitments or other things.