But I still resemble Tevye just a little, waving my hands over my head in the village of Anatevka whilst shaking my belly and belting out a good Yiddish ditty.....and like him ...I am a sucker for tradition.
Families make their own traditions.....some are handed down from generation to generation...... Others develop of their own accord .
Traditions maintain continuity and promote stability.
and they can give you the feeling that you have just been visited by old friends
That is the positive aspect of tradition
.......comfort..........
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| Depressed pumpkin |
Now at this time of year two traditions are visited here in out small corner of North Wales. The first is a family dinner, which my sister terms warmly as a " harvest Supper". We are all meeting up tonight for that, each sibling responsible for a course at the dinner.
The other tradition is the making of the Halloween pumpkin which will sit on the kitchen window for a few weeks before the 31st, warding off evil spirits from the cottage boundary.
Now, I am not a lover of Halloween.....it's gone all too Jamie lee Curtis for my liking....but I do like preparing the pumpkin' s sad little face a good few days before the event.....
It sorts of bookends the finish of summer and welcomes the start of winter.
Now what traditions does everyone adhere and welcome?
Excellent results in your weight loss - very well done, Sir! How much more are you hoping to part with? Don't forget that Winter is a'coming and skinny folks feel the cold. ;)
ReplyDeleteYour poor, sad pumpkin . . . aaawwwwww Did you have to live with that sad face for weeks? I've never attempted pumpkin art, but my youngest son and grandson are getting to be real professionals at it. They draw complicated designs first and then carefully cut them out. As grandson gets older (he's nearly 9 now) it's getting to be a strongly-fought competition each year, with several pumpkins adorning the front of their house.
I have another 28 bs of angry fat to go rambler x
Deletepersonally, I don't do anything special. I live each day as it comes.
ReplyDeleteA M there's a lot to be said for that my gal
DeleteFor some strange reason my daughter seems to be trying to create a tradition in our household of belly rubs. Quite often I come home from work and I'm greated by my eager little 21 month old who runs up to me and then lifts her shirt, then pats her tummy and says "belly". Then I have to lift up my shirt, pick her up and our bellies have to touch, whilst saying "belly rub" otherwise she yets quite upset.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a problem at the moment but I've these terrible visions of walking her down the aisle, getting to the end and hearing her say "belly rub!"
I miss read your entry and thought you said your daughter was 21 years old! I did think it all strange for a moment
DeleteI think that's adorable - now!
Deleteas much as i love fall, i am not into all the halloween gore and such. i just bought 4 pumpkins to have a carving night for all of us. it is always fun to see what each person does.
ReplyDeleteWith THE WALKING DEAD returning to the uk on Friday, I was going to do a zombie pumpkin
DeleteGoodness, is it that time of the year again!
ReplyDeleteI shall ask Marcia to get in a pumpkin, I can always make a nice soup out of it and let Alex to the carving.
So many traditions are created and maintained merely for the delight of children and I like that. In Germany, as kids, we had Sankt Nikolaus where on the eve of the 5th of December we used to place our slippers at the foot of our beds. If we had been good children, the following morning we would find our slippers stuffed with chocolates, marzipan and lebkuchen. Had we been naughty children then Schwartze Peter (Black Peter), Sankt Nikolaus' Moorish assistant, would fill the slippers with coal.
I need to revive that tradition for Alex and, thanks to you for reminding me, start a new tradition of carving pumpkins.
I kind of like that German tradition......... I suspect I would receive a sack of coal
DeleteWell done, but don't now go and make Winnie jealous.
ReplyDeleteCan't afford to keep up ANY traditions. Even the half dozen Xmas cards I get just remain in a pile. But 'IF I WERE A RICH MAN' there'd be tinsel 'n bunting 'n mistletoe 'n holly everywhere, not forgetting a tall fairy-lighted tree with a glittering fairy on top, flashing wand in hand.
But as for Hallowe'en, it wasn't even marked out in the calendar when I was a kid - before the American influence came over and it took off..
Go one ray... Get a pumpkin carved...
DeleteI am sure you could make judy Dench 's face out of one
swedes are cheaper. pumpkins seem to be super expensive this year
DeleteNo sad little pumpkin faces here John - a beaming one, which sits on the sill until it begins to wilt. Hallowe'en is my birthday and although the years are passing scarily quickly I still have to keep my end up.
ReplyDeletePost a picture of yours pat! We can compare veg
DeleteArguing...
ReplyDelete.......and?
DeleteGreat job on the weight loss! I know how hard that is.
ReplyDeleteEvery year we spend the first weekend of Octobe tucking up the place for winter. It comes long and cold here. The camper gets emptied and put in the back yard with a tarp tied up around it. All the summer patio furniture gets put in the shed and the leaves get swept up. The wood pile has been stacked since early summer and all the canning is done.
This weekend (Thanksgiving here in Canada) we will push back the furniture and set up two big tables for our family turkey dinner. Our three grown children, two of whom are married, five grandkids and several more assorted foster kids and any single folk who would like dinner come for a feast of food and craziness. I have been cooking all week - mostly in the evenings when I get home from work, so we can have one of the few gatherings in the year when we all get together. They have started to make their own traditions, but I like to keep a few of mine too :-)
Hope you have a great feast with your family!
You too!
DeleteI hope you start a blog with the photos of your dinner
To avoid traditions!
ReplyDeleteHave you turned into Yoda susie?
DeletePumpkin carving is the only thing I've ever enjoyed about Halloween. I haven't done it for years. I'll have to see if I can find one to carve here in Fuengirola. The rest of the "holiday," I can live without... well, except for eating left-over candy. Do you give out Scotch eggs to your favorite kids?
ReplyDeleteNo..I eat them V e r y s l o w l y in front of he little buggers
DeleteEvery year, the kids come round to ours on Christmas Eve, and will do this year too. When the oldest was just 7 or so, he said he must have dinner with us that C.E., because it was 'tradition'. It doesn't take long to instate traditions.
ReplyDeleteThe best traditions become so because they are fun
DeleteWe have always left children's shoes behind the door at New Years Eve for Father Time to put money (coins) in them. Apparently its an old Lancashire custom.
ReplyDeleteI have decorated with colorful mums, a scarecrow, and many pumpkins. Also have bought several bags of candies for the little ones who trick or treat here. Your Harvest Dinner sounds wonderful! So proud of you for your weight loss. I have my 4 month Dr. apt this coming and I have a feeling I will be scolded into shedding many pounds and getting back on my exercise. Diabetes is a pain in the rear!
ReplyDeleteFirst, congratulations on the additional weight loss! 2nd, now I have an urge to watch Fiddler on the Roof again. Finally, I do believe you have diagnosed the true cause of my depression! Not just that I'm isolated in a small town (which I do love) in Iowa, but that I'm not with my family for the Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings and dinners. But this year I will be! Perfect daughter flying out here Nov 11, then we drive with my cat and other precious belongs to Savannah where, on Nov 15, I can claim the key to my new apt. I'll be there for grandson's 4th birthday, and later Thanksgiving. I haven't seen any of my family in 3 years! Oh, also I notice that you currently have 647 members; I seem to remember when you were hoping to reach 300 or 400!
ReplyDeleteNancy in Iowa
My traditions have all fallen by the wayside and I couldn't care less.
ReplyDeleteGood on the weight loss - just remember that as you age... your skin size will not decrease and your thighs may end up hanging around your knees... ;-)
Well that's telling me!
DeleteI pay the taxman every month? I think that is as much of tradition that I can take right now.
ReplyDeleteother than I always put my chilli seeds in on boxing day
I like your traditions.
ReplyDeleteAll of our traditions have died a slow and painful death I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteI'm making a new tradition. I'm going to get in my car on the holidays and see something new, not sit around and listen to relatives compare ailments and medications.
ReplyDeleteI think traditions died when my marriage died because divorce kills families. I have 60 pounds yet to lose. Be gone, 60 pounds! Ah, that was easy.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Even though OB now realises the Father Christmas he visited a couple of times when younger is a commercial invention by the Coca Cola company, he still likes to leave a glass of whisky and mince pie by the fire on Christmas eve. How he''s supposed to get out through the door of the woodburner I don't know.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on you loss of pounds! I'll send you a sketch idea for card after the weekend. x
I always make a pumpkin pie or two every October.
ReplyDeleteI like tradition and I love Halloween - - but you're absolutely right. All of the quaint Halloween traditions have been trampled and forgotten in favor of a Jamie Lee Curtis Hollywood Halloween mentality.
ReplyDeleteI like your depressed pumpkin. Here in the wilds of Texas it's still too hot to carve a jack-o-lantern. The pumpkin would rot long before Halloween.
Your weight loss is truly impressive. Congratulations (and a few guilty thoughts about the effort I should be making).
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned on my blog that you would like some cast-off feathers. Do they have to be coloured ones - which are rare, or would feathers from the cockatoos (white and lemon) suffice?
New slippers every Christmas morning......love it!
ReplyDeleteBah humbug! lol
ReplyDeleteI must say that pumpkin pie is a tradition of sorts around this house this time of year.
Waste of good pumpkin; there's children in Africa (and so on in 1970s parental vein...).
ReplyDeleteThe only tradition I have is The Walking Dead season premiere tomorrow night (here in the states), ha. Congrats on the weight loss, I'm doing the same as well, down about 10lbs. We do make pumpkin bread frequently this time of year. I guess that's a tradition. Maybe it's time to make a tradition huh?
ReplyDeleteHaven't had many trick or treaters come to my door since moving here, so i now buy a bag of candy/sweets i really like and enjoy them if nobody stops by.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, i preferred to draw faces on the pumpkin rather than carve them. After the holiday, Mom or Dad would sccop the innards, roast the seeds, and use the pulp for pies.
US Thanksgiving is in November, and i do like Thanksgiving. Between Thankgiving and New Year's i bake a bit and make several apple/cranberry pies.
No traditions here. Never knew that pumpkins were to keep the bad spirits away.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your weight loss, John. That's fantastic!
Just Christmas, but even that is too commercial for me.
ReplyDeleteAs a good atheist lad, I traditionally celebrate Easter, Christmas, Harvest Festival, and anything else associated with a good FEAST.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally, my sisters and I took it in turns to 'do' Xmas - however, with the addition of a couple of new daughters-in-law (almost), the dynamics have somewhat changed so I was hoping to be sitting in front of my telly on the day, with a turkey dinner-for-one on a laptray....no chance say my children 'We'll all just come to you'!Sheesh.....!
ReplyDeleteI just did a post on all my favorite things about Halloween. Carving pumpkins is near the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteI just did a post on all my favorite things about Halloween. Carving pumpkins is near the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is my favorite holiday, because it's about food, friends, and family, quite like your Harvest supper, with none of the Christmas stress (God, I'm dreading that).
ReplyDeleteI do still really enjoy Halloween, though I miss the old days when kids would trick-or-treat at night, not this middle of the afternoon organized bullshit they do now.
I like your Jack o' Lantern, by the way.
Is that what they are called Eric......?
DeleteWell you learn something new every day
Ooops, congratulations on the weight loss!
ReplyDelete