[Poll] Celebrations

[Lady Vulpix]

I've just had a conversation with an ex-TPMer about what each of our families celebrates, and I thought it would be interesting to find out what other families do. Let's see how similar and how different our traditions are.

So, what celebrations bring your family together throughout the year? And what do you celebrate without your family?

If you want, you can also describe what you do on such occasions.

In my family, we gather for New Year, Pesach (Passover), Father's Day, Mother's Day, Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), Iom Kipur (Forgiveness Day) and birthdays. Usually the celebrations consist of rather large gatherings and a lot more food than we can eat (we usually end up giving away the leftovers). The time and the menu vary per event.

As for celebrations with no family, besides friends' birthdays, weddings and the likes, we have end-of-year meetings. Every social group, study group, workgroup or any other kind of group wants to meet at some point during or near December (these meetings can also take place in late November or early January, but it's rare). And my workgroup at university has end-of-semester dinners, which means we have dinner together twice a year rather than once.

Who's next?

[Telume]

I usually celebrate New Years, Christmas, Thanksgiving... and birthdays.

Usually for New Years (the countdown) we take a piece of paper write down everything that happened that was bad put them in a baking pan, take it outside and burn it. So that it doesn't happen next year.

We also toast to the New Year, with a little wine.

For Christmas we usually have a big dinner the night before (Noche Buena) usually consisting of Congris and pork. And for b-days it varies because sometimes my dad makes his awesome lasagna or we go nuts buying things for the person or (making them.)

[Fett One]

My family always gets together to celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kipur, Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah. My uncle handles Thanksgiving and my aunt handles Yom Kippur. My mom handles the other 3.

[Drusilla]

We, as a family, celebrate Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas... Maybe New Years, but it's not a big deal for me personally. It's just the start of a new month as far as I'm concerned.

Without the family, I acknowledge the solstices and the equinoxes (one of which happens to be my birthday), and the rest of the Wheel of the Year when I remember. I'm not too stringent when it comes to the pagan holidays; religion isn't a very big deal for me.

[Jeff]

My family gathers at my grandparents' house New Year's day, when we usually eat lasagna for dinner. The next holiday for us is Easter, when we have the usual festivities (egg hunt, ham dinner, lots of candy). Then it's Mother's Day, then Father's Day, then Fourth of July. All are celebrated pretty much the same, with hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, only Fourth of July also includes sparklers. After that, it's Thanksgiving, when we have turkey, and exchange names for Christmas presents, and then of course, we get together for Christmas too. New Year's Eve is celebrated at our house with my grandparents and my aunt and her kids, and whatever friends anyone brings over.

We also get together for major birthdays, like my grandfather's 75th last year, and my cousin's 1st, and my grandparents had their 50th anniversary last year, so we had a party for that. And yeah, there was also my sister's wedding. So yeah, 2009 was a big year for celebrations in my family.

[abunaidesu]

Funerals are the only time we bother seeing each other.

:(

[mr_pikachu]

This depends on your definition of "family." If you mean my parents and grandparents, we typically see each other around Christmas and (part of) the summer, as well as miscellaneous weekends and such when someone visits someone else.

If you mean my extended family... well, we see each other at the occasional wedding/funeral. Last year one of my cousins came into town for a brief visit, too. Aside from that, I don't really see them much.

If you mean my girlfriend, I see her daily. :)