[image source](Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay)
Every family in Africa has at least one tradition they practice; they must have logical reasons, understand the reason for it and know when to do it. The location might vary but the time is usually the same. My family has a few as well; would you like to know about them?
This is my entry for Hive-Learners weekly featured content, "Holiday Tradition Misunderstood."
Christmas is one of the most important vacations in the world today. Works, companies, firms, schools, and other spheres of life observe holidays and allow workers to break from work during this festive celebration period.
Family members make trips home from different parts of the country where they are before December 24; otherwise, they won't get to enjoy Christmas Eve with their family.
The pattern of holidays in my family is like this: family members from different states come home every year to see the family once again. Since it is a yearly occurrence, the tradition has been passed down from generation to generation.
If you ask me if all members of the family do the same, I will answer by saying no. Not everyone can attend due to the distance and location but most will.
People will come home with different gifts to present, and that could be at an expensive cost. Those gifts are not cheap but people still buy them. I want to assume that the weight of value they credit to the receiver is the driving force behind their purchase.
One strange thing is that this might be the only time of the year that someone in your family will gift you. I don't yet understand why. You might not be able to get any form of help from them until the next festive period.
I sense that one of the reasons is that they spent too much during the festive period by buying expensive gifts that they should have bought a little earlier. Some of them became broke after the festive period and could not help but lay low till the next year.
What makes my family unique? I mean a tradition that my family has been keeping for a long time, which is the focus of my writing.
Every festive period is an opportunity for me to meet different people, some whom we've met somewhere in a place before and we do not recognise each other. Some who we've never met before, some who are just connecting to the family after a long time.
There is a family meeting and it used to be in large numbers. Extended family members come together to introduce each other, interact with each other and get to know each other more than ever before.
The arrangements start when the family secretary calls the name of each adult and you introduce yourself, your origin, your parents, and your children.
This is done, and if you've yet to have your name in the register, your name will be added. We discuss matters arising in the family and other things. We dine together and there will be contributions towards any family projects at hand and the next meeting.
Once you register your children, it is your responsibility to know what is going on with them, just in case they are not present at the meeting.
You'll have to call them or give excuses on their behalf, make payments on their behalf and get their food as well.
In conclusion, this has helped foster corporate peace and interaction in the family. The more we know each other, the more we care for them. We don't want to fight people until we know where they are coming from.
It gives the initiative that no one is a stranger and we are connected one way or another.