So, why, when I just drove past a Christmas tree lot, did I have an urge to buy one? Not a big one. One of those kind of table top sized guys. With maybe a star on top and some white lights around it.
I think maybe it has to do with tradition. In my nuclear family we had some Ayyam-i-ha traditions, like decorating and baking and stuff like that. I remember getting really excited about seeing the Ayyam-i-ha decoration boxes come out of the attic and choosing where to hang them and all that. I think my mom was the one who kind of kept those early traditions alive. With her gone, it's not the same. I don't have living children to pass these things on to, and doing them by myself seems a little anticlimactic. My brother has 3 kids, and we do celebrate Ayyam-i-ha. I look forward to that, and I like it, but they are kind of making their own traditions. Which I'm all for; families doing things in ways that are important to and work for them is totally the way to go. And to be fair, some of the stuff they do is a lot like what I did as a kid. Maybe I'm missing having someone to do things the way I would do them? I dunno.
But somehow, this year I feel like I'm missing out by not being a part of the zeitgeist of Christmas.
1 comment:
That has happened to me a time or two. Can't explain it, but have definitely felt it. Not this year though. In fact, I got tired of people assuming I celebrate Christmas everywhere I go. "Merry Christmas!" People would wonder what was going on if I said to them "Happy Ayyam-i-Ha and they don't celebrate it.
It is harder for me to get into the Ayyam-i-Ha spirit since my kids are grown up and nobody else in my family really does the Ayyam-i-Ha stuff even though most of them are Baha'is. It helps to have the whole country practically celebrating the same thing as opposed to a few people. My Baha'i relatives all do more at Christmastime than Ayyam-i-Ha (with the exception of my parents). But it's like folks are done celebrating by the time February rolls around. I mean we have so many holidays in our country....Several in a row too...Halloween (too much candy), Thanksgiving (eating too much), Christmas (buying too much), and it isn't February yet, but already there is Valentine candy in the stores! By the time Ayyam-i-Ha rolls around people are partied out. Sad :(
Boy what a ramble....sorry
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