HONORING OUR ELDERS : Family Traditions Contest by @sultnpapper
@sultnpapper
A Dash of Sult N Papper 08/01/20> CONTEST : It’s on Now!!! $100 HIVE in Prizes
The Family Traditions is a writing contest. As @sultnpapper states, there are not many rules. Just make a fantastic post, both in terms of content and visual effects, i.c. formatting and images you include.
Below are my Family Traditions that I absolutely love to share with anyone who will listen.
THE BEST LITTLE FAMILY REUNION IN EAST TEXAS. That's what it's billed as. And, I'm not joking. Just ask anyone around those parts who's visited in the past 20 years.
Besides having our traditional face painting for the kids, music, bar-be-que cook off, moonwalk, raffles, bingo, and reunion lotto scratch off tickets for the adults, we have another tradition that holds the families groups together. It brings them back annually for a 3-day weekend reunion event to celebrate our heritage.
We call the Family Tradition: HONORING OUR SENIORS.
We do this in two ways:
Family Reunion Friday: Maintaining the Family Cemetery
and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6 (King James Version)
This is one of the two family's teachings that guides us annually to perform this beautiful tribute to our ancestors. So, on the weekend of the reunion that Friday, all adults bring their tools and clean the headstones, remove fallen limbs and debris, and maintain the grounds inside and around the cemetery.
That the final resting place for our seniors who recently passed and all other ancestors from the preceding four to five generations will enjoy a clean, freshly manicured environment to rest. And it looks beautiful after new flower arrangements are placed.
Family Reunion Sunday: Honor Our Seniors Day
Exodus 20:12 (King James Version)
This is the second of two family teachings that guide us on Sunday of family reunion weekend, our Senior are the most important family members at the reunion. They get their own seating area with covered tents. We have young adults cater to them the entire time they are in attendance. We have a souvenir booklet with their names and ages indicated. And, they are honored with a poem recited and special gifts distributed to each. We gave a special crown for all seniors over the age of 100 years.
We start with 100 years old and above. Several years ago, we have a beautiful young lady who was over the age of 100. She took the crown for 12 years until she finally left us to receive the ultimate Crown.
Next we have the 90 - 99 age group. Then 80 - 89 group. We continue this until we get to age 65. If we have any seniors who are ill and can't attend, we mail them their gifts and remembrances of that year's reunion. It's a fun day with laughter and celebration.
I'm proud to say that the Family Tradition of Honoring Our Elders was my idea, together with one other family member who began the practice many years ago. The year 2020 will be the second time in its 30-year history the reunion weekend will be cancelled. The first due to a tornado several years ago; this year due to COVID-19.
However, we have trained our young adults to continue on and never, never forget our Seniors. We also knew that one day, we would be sitting under the shade being catered to. Now, I call that reunion planning!
Thanks,
@justclickindiva
Happy rest of the week everyone with whatever your endeavors.
SOURCES:
a) JustClickindiva's personalized PHC signature created by and purchased from PHC.
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) Separator Lines Free ClipArt Belt from Public Domain Vectors & ShadedLine from ClipArt-Library
e) All Tribe logos used with permission of Tribe Discord Channel admins.
f) Video of The Terminal Discord created and donated by @sgt-dan to The Terminal Owners for its use. Permission granted by The Terminal admins to use herein.
g) HIVE gif created by @peakstudio for Hive users. Used herein according to guidelines.
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A tradition I totally believe in,
though live too far away from My family to participate in...
Corpus is far from NY / NJ!
However the family has all kinds of social get togethers - regularly!
The other part,
Honour Thy Elders!
Again 100% My belief,
as well!
Have a Great Week!
👍🏼🌅👍🏼
Really interesting, we have a similar tradition like this honoring our seniors but we don't have any specific day. My family tradition is a little bit different but the overall concept is the same as yours.
Thank you for sharing your tradition with us...
That's a great tradition. We also honor our elders (it seems just a matter of course to me, but obviously isn't) and their resting places.
Like you our 2020 was cancelled due to CV19. We've talked generally whether to switch to odd numbered years (2021) or just wait til 2022. I'm guessing that decision will ultimately come down to our most senior family member-as it should.
Thanks for a great post and a truly wonderful tradition.
You know, we had the same discussion. It seems like annually sounds like a long time to plan, but it comes around so quickly. It's upon you before you know it.
I would think so too that it would be automatic. But you wouldn't believe the cemeteries I have seen and heard about that go into disrepair and neglect. It's a shame to lose your history like that. So, it's not automatic.
And as far as honoring your elders. I've heard of that not being done either. It really comes down to every family deciding what's important to them, then deciding the best way to go about making it happen to the satisfaction of all involved. Of course, when planning, you'll never please all the family all the time.
Thanks for the engagement. Take care.
Well @justclickindiva, this is (personally) probably one of my favorite entries so far into the Family Traditions contest by @sultnpapper! I love that you honor your seniors and such a beautiful thing to maintain the grounds in and around the cemetery! 💖
!tip
Thank you so much for stopping by and bringing such heartfelt words to me. I appreciate your thoughts that you liked our family traditions. I know all families have something similar, and no one is more special than the other. The aspect I like about ours is that other family members send in donations each year to upkeep the grounds and to purchase appreciation gifts.
That's why every quarter, I try to give back to them by distributing a family newsletter telling them what has been happening in our community, who has deceased, marriages, anniversaries, births. The family is widespread across the U.S., so this information makes them feel close to the event, just in case they miss it. That's what one family member told me.
Take care and have a great weekend ahead. And stay safe you and your family.
I APPRECIATE THE TIP.
You are welcome! I do love what you and your family are doing! Honoring your family here as well as the ones that have passed on. Wishing you a wonderful weekend as well! 💕
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I knew you are a big family person and I know that you do a lot of work for these , I call them events we talked about how many people your family count and I have very little, so I like the traditional things going on in such a big group and I am loving the fact that the deseased been taken care of even when leaving for the lord. Than my blog isn’t that good, but we don’t have them traditions. Thanks for taking part I hope you will win @sultnpapper this is a good one
What an awesome way to honour one's elders @justclickindiva! When we visit the cemetery, which is hardly ever I confess, it is so sad to see the neglect as our local authority does not care much about maintaining these places any longer plus it's not safe going on your own as we often hear of people getting robbed when they go on their own to tend to loved ones' graves.
Yours is a wonderful tradition!