My family has some unique traditions. For one, we always have scavenger hunts for
birthdays. This started when the kids
were three and could recognize numbers.
They followed the trail of numbers to the stash of birthday presents! It
has become ever more elaborate! My 18-year-old had a four-hour scavenger hunt
with six friends that included dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, a visit
to a game store and a bookstore, and dessert at a different restaurant. (Yes,
there were clues hidden in the fortune cookies!)
Another tradition in our family is to have the not-Greek
relatives (my side of the family) join the Greek relatives (yep, my husband’s
side of the family) for Greek Easter, which is rarely on the same day as Easter.
We put together a fabulous egg hunt for the little ones, with every child
receiving his or her own assigned color making the hunt more “fair.” Then we play the red egg cracking game. The
objective is to be the last person with an uncracked egg. Each person selects a
hardboiled egg that has been dyed bright red, and an opponent. Opponents bash their
eggs against each other. The winner
moves to the next round. Strangely, one egg always cracks and the other never
does. You learn quickly that eggs are strongest at their tip. (What? You didn’t
know that eggs have tips?)
There are so many more traditions. We always celebrate Pi
Day by having two pie courses for dinner on March 14th, say
shepherd’s pie followed by apple pie. Mother’s Day is actually grandmother’s
day, as mom futzes in the garden. But perhaps our quirkiest tradition is
backwards leap year. Instead of
receiving gifts for gift giving occasions we give them. This means we are particularly busy around our
own birthdays, between making or buying gifts, wrapping them and preparing
birthday cake! (Yes, I am planning a scavenger hunt for mine, though that is
not until November!)
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Newenka DuMont
