The Importance of Holiday Traditions

Day 96 - Passover is an 8 days holiday. When I lived abroad we only celebrated the first evening and that it was business as usual. But here it is very different. It is celebrated all over the country and it is basically a week that almost no one works, or even if they do  - it's part time. Many work places are just closed for the week, all schools are closed and so everywhere you go you see families traveling, on or from their destination. It is very special to someone who lived abroad for so many years. You just feel the holiday in the air, even if you don't do anything. There are special foods for the holiday and things you are not allowed to eat and stores are not even allowed to sell it, so they cover it up, like breads and cakes unless they were prepared a certain way. Luckily we live in a mixed city and so I go and buy all these things in the area of the city where they do sell it, but in other places it is actually a problem if you don't want to follow the ancient rules. When I left the country many years ago, I was very vocal about disliking this attempt to force non religious people to follow the rules by not selling the products, but after living abroad for so many years I can also see the beauty of the tradition, and I understand it's importance. this is what makes us one nation, one people even when we live thousands of miles away, we keep the same rules and follow the same tradition. This is what kept it alive. Those religious people who follow and keep the tradition, who transfer it from generation to generation. The non religious families disseminate very fast and within generation or two will disappear, if living abroad. Like in my own family - my oldest daughter is not celebrating any of the holidays, something I hope will change as her daughter will grow up, same true for my son. And you see it in so many families, when you live abroad, and especially if their partner is from a different culture, they will lose contact with the tradition. This is the real price of moving abroad, many souls that are lost to our nation. Them and their future generations.

I am thankful to that realization, that even though I am so against the religious control, I can also see the importance of these traditions. I am thankful to be here for the first time in 22 years and to enjoy this special holiday feeling. I am thankful for this very special holiday that I got to spend with family and friends. I hope my family will be here to celebrate next year.