Holiday Traditions

Holidays are fixed sometimes by the constitution and sometimes by cultural traditions when routine work is suspended. Traditions are customs and stories handed down from generation to generation.

As a child the greatest of holiday tradition was the one that arrived bang on the middle of rains, the birth of Lord Krishna celebrated in my part of the world in great aplomb. We have 5 traditional sweets made with one salty snack. People would dress up in weird costumes and turn up at the doors. There would be dancers dancing the tiger dance or the unexplainable dance from the movies.

All the performers would meet at the temple square on the last day of festivity where the chief monk would gift them money, honour the best troupe.

Every ethnic tradition has its own holidays and traditions do’s for it.

My community the major one is the one for the festival of lights or deepavali. For me the rush begins about a week in advance (fortunately it does not dawn on me until the actual festival is on.) where there is frenzied cleaning done.

Its like a treasure hunt for lamps and lanterns. The festival begins with cleaning of the water storage resources and honouring them, that evening one single dish is cooked as tradition to go with routine dinner,the next day is actual oil massage and hot water bath, new clothes and fire crackers.

Off late since Christmas to new year is a real holiday in the sense we have no socio-religious stuff to attend to, my husband’s side of the family has made it a tradition to meet at their family house for the year end. This is fun as all the family members turn up.

The best holiday tradition by far is the knock-out nap on Sunday.