"Diwali is next Saturday?", asked the older one. "when we are going to paint the diyas?"
Growing up, the smell of my mother making sweets and savouries marked the build-up to the festival. In my house we paint diyas.
Two years back, I'd bought a stack of the earthern lamps for the kids to paint. It was an inexpensive way of keeping them occupied, and the were thrilled when their lamps were lit on Diwali. Painting diyas has now become a family tradition.
Traditions! They give so much pleasure. Why then are we so unwilling to invest in creating them?
7 comments:
How lovely! Wishing you and your family a very very happy Diwali.
Beautiful! Investing the time is worth it, isn't it? Have a happy Diwali.
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Are those your diyas? Love the colours. Quick - get painting so you can light candles and feel happy... What a lovely tradition!
I was just thinking to myself how much trouble it is to decorate for Hallowe'en, but how excited the kids get doing it. I need to start tending to our traditions.
I'm enjoying learning about yours...
Thank you for another glimpse into your life so far away from me! Traditions are what hold us together; they are our link to the past and our message to the future.
Elspeth
Funny that I was just thinking this same thing recently. I have an uncle who is very sick. I was thinking of the traditional italian christmas eve zappoli he makes and none of us know how to do it. I try my hardest to hold on to the "old world" because I feel very comfortable in it, but I would imagine some traditions fall to the side because other generations find them non-relevant. I am determined not to let that happen with my neices. I only have cats and they don't care :-)
@ dipali - Thanks, and wishing you a very happy diwali too.
@ Elizabeth - yes, it is, and thank you.
@ Fiona - the painted ones are the ones my son and I did. We light them a few hours from now!!!
@ Heather - the window between when the kids are old enough to know and too old to care seems so small, it is worth spending time on them then.
@ Elspeth - that is such a wonderful way of putting it!
@ Lisa - lucky neices to have an aunt like you. Not all traditions may be relavant, or even fun, but the ones that give pleasure and fill our memory banks, we definitely should try holding on to, don't you think?
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