The nature of traditions

What makes a holiday special? Most holidays have a religious or inspirational significance. This is the reason for the holiday itself, which is obviously important to you, but on top of that, it's the traditions that you renact every year that give you the warm, cozy feelings. These traditions involve the people you see and celebrate with, the foods that you cook only during that time of year, the special little traditions that you have in your family and that you grew up with.

A peculiar thing happens when you adopt a religion or custom that is not originally your own: you have to start from stratch. Technically I suppose I could bring out the candy canes early and tell my kids that Sa'eed Claus came last night with a bunch of gifts... but I think it's obvious why that's problematic. The traditions of my past don't apply to this new-to-me holiday I celebrate with own little family.

I am always looking to find new traditions to help make Eid my own. I try to give my house a nice, fresh clean before Eid comes. We decorate the house with colourful decorations. On Eid morning, we have a big huge breakfast (the first real breakfast in a month) usually with my hubby's family, but in MN last year I did it myself. I am thrilled because this year I started a tradition that I always had in mind for my kids and me: the baking of COOKIES.

This is the first year that Maymuna was really up to the task, though last year she did help a bit in decorating. We gathered together this morning and the 2 grandmothers, great-grandmother, Maymuna and I whipped up about 18 million odd-shaped, brightly-coloured, fabulous, egg-free, dairy-free shortbread cookies. Yum! Maymuna enjoyed herself immensely... Here are the pictures from our first Eid Cookie Baking Frenzy.