One day I was at H&M with my mom and little brother and we were standing in line. When we got to the cashier,  I heard a kid around eight years old talk to his mom about Christmas:

“Mommy it’s Christmas!” the kid said. 

“I know sweetie.”

“How many presents are you going to get me?”

“I don’t know but I’ll get you some.” 

In this example here, a kid is asking how many presents he’ll get on Christmas. And the worst part was that he was giving his mom the puppy eye look. He doesn’t care about the fact that Christmas is about family. He’s 8 years old and he should know that Christmas is about family. 

I think that some people think that traditions/holidays are just about presents and good food, but that’s not true. Traditions are really important beyond presents and good food. One way that traditions are important is that you have something to look forward to.  It helps a lot of people because some people experience some hard life challenges. When my Nani(which means grandma in Hindi) fell, I was really scared and worried that it may affect her life really badly later. But it was around the time of November and winter break was coming up which meant that it was almost time for skiing! I celebrate Diwali because I’m half Indian and I always look forward to it because it’s one of my favorite traditions and I’m almost guaranteed 4 rotis(which is an Indian bread). I celebrate Holi and I always look forward to it because I get to throw colored powder at my mom and brother and I get to celebrate the beginning of spring. I “celebrate” DEAR day(a thing at my school which means Drop Everything And Read) I love to read and spending the day reading, in pj’s and going to the book fair at our school is really really AWESOME!

Another way that traditions are important is that it gives you a feeling of belonging to a community. When I celebrate Diwali and my Nani tells me stories about the people in her puja(basically it means her prayer area)  it makes me feel like I really belong in the Indian community because I get to hear about stories that Hindus usually tell to other Hindus. Celebrating DEAR day makes me feel like I’m not the only bookworm that occasionally reads during her recess. I see other people on DEAR day that don’t usually read and are reading and it makes me feel like I won’t be judged just because I read a lot.  When I celebrate Holi, it makes me realize that I’m not the only one that’s ambushing my little brother with colored powder.

The final way that I think that traditions are important is that you are able to connect with others. Like when I cook with my Nani. I love to help her cook and make samosas and I feel really connected with her because I get to know her secret on making samosas!! Or when it’s DEAR day, I get to feel really connected to people that love to read like I do and I get to talk to other people that are reading the same book(series) as me. On Holi I get to connect with my family when we have fun and celebrate this fun holiday together. 

This is really important because if you don’t realize how important traditions are, then you’ll just expect Santa to come to you every year and you’ll greedily open your presents without even caring that instead of being greedy, you can slowly enjoy the opening and the time that you get to enjoy with your family. 

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