Saturday, March 24, 2012

13 ways of creating fun and frugal family traditions for Spring Equinox.

(If you wish to pin this to Pinterest, my pin is here...)

Holiday traditions are wonderful. In my family there were some traditions for Christmas, a couple more for Easter and Mayday, something for Midsummer and nothing much for the rest of the year. We didn't celebrate All Hallows' Eve, Pentecost or any other of the Christian holidays.
When I grew up I found myself fascinated by the equinoxes and solstices. There's something matemathical about these things... it makes the Creation to a giant clock, and I have always marked these days in some manner. Then when I realized I am a Pagan, I found the days in between these quarter days... All Hallows', Candelmass, Mayday and Loafmass... To my big surprise the Autumn feasts are not being celebrated... There is no harvest feast in Finland. There used to be Michaelmass, but that's for Autumn Equinox, but nothing for Loafmass...

About a decade ago I noticed that while Christmas is made into a BIGGIE on the internet, the rest of the Pagan sabbaths are virtually ignored. Sure, Beltane and Samhain are big, but... it's like participating in an event within the Pagan community is enough. There are no Lughnasadh-mad people out there trying to promote the ideals of for example Lughnasadh to the whole world.

So - my dream is to reach a world where every Pagan holiday is celebrated a month before the day and during 12 days. Just like Christmas.

Now, I have been a "bad" girl, and let things go without doing much about it. I have been collecting information and writing my books on Pagan sabbaths for the last 15 years, and it doesn't show in my home. If I cannot change myself, how could I even think of changing someone else, and not to talk about the whole Pagan community! No, I have to be the change I want to see, Gandhi was correct in that. I have to step up to my expectations and create a "holiday all year long" home.

Most of the holiday traditions are new, not even 100 years old. People create their own traditions by combining how things were done when they were children, how they wished things were when they were children and what is practical and suitable in their lives at the moment.
You don't need to have a family history of generations behind the tradition and you don't need to stay by the traditions of your own religion. After all, Christians never did, and see how well it went for them...

So - 13 ways of creating fun and frugal family traditions for Spring Equinox.

I will be posting more about each of these later, but here's the "master list" ;-)

#1
Re-enacting the Spring Equinox stories by acting or creating a diorama

#2
"Elf on the Shelf"

#3
Countdown calendars.

#4
Make greeting cards together

#5
Prepare the holiday goodies with the family.

#6
Make ornaments and decorations together.

#7
Take a walk in the nature

#8
Sing together 

#9
Play holiday themed games.

#10
Make the Easter tree the centerpiece of your home during the season.

#11
"Ostara daily" scrapbook

#12
Pick one of the silly, odd, unusual holidays celebrated during the time of the countdown and make it a tradition.

#13
Scavenger hunts, egg hunts and treasure hunts.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love this list! I'm to make sure to share it on the FB fanpage and my parenting groups I'm in.

Ketutar said...

Oh, thank you! It gladdens me :-)