Memoirs Q4: What are some of your Most Cherished Childhood Traditions?

The automatic response here would be Christmas gatherings. We ould - back in the days, make sure we were together for Christmas. At the least, as a family. But since our family could not get together for Chirstmas, we'd spend the eve preparing for Christmas - even at times going to midnight mass, so when we got home in time for the midnight hour, we'd eat of our Chirstmas feast. This would usually have ham, fruit salad, possibly pasta, and ube halaya which I would have been responsible for making.

Then on Chirstmas day, it would a trip with my dad to our Lola's place, or a relative's where everyone else would be gathered together. to continue the Christmas celebration with my dad's side of the family.

But the nice thing about Christmas, which is why it was my favorite tradition, was the carols that would permeate the airwaves in radios and malls - okay, maybe not so much the malls - except for COD and it's displays. The setting up the tree, and at an early age, I wanted to help set it up, so my mom taught me how to fix the lights before they went up the tree. That was my role. So when the tree went up for all to admire, I could say I helped via making sure the lights were all working and blinking. Oh yeah, not forget the presents. As kids we looked forward to presents, and were either happy with what we got, or disappointed.

Because of all that, the other traditions could not hold a candle to Christmas.

Holy week, for example taught us about Christ's sufferings. But as a kid, a;; I rememebr were that TV and radios would go silent. We would have to fast from a meal - taking on just bread and water, if needed. Plus abstaining from meat- at least until Easter Sunday. Sunday would be celebrating again - sometimes with an egg hunt in the gardens, later... these eggs would be turned into chocolate eggs - as opposed to the hard boiled eggs (I mean, one can eat only so much hard boiled eggs - but chocolates? No such limits. And because things were kinda boring for a few days, Easter wasn't as fun to look forward to.

Oone tradition my dad instilled in me was the love for reading books - I would read a book about the Hardy Boys, and once this was finished, he'd offer to get me another one. I later transferred this to my kids... a trip to the bookstore at around payday, and they could choose any book in the bookstore for me to buy for them. In my dad's case, it was coincidental perhaps... in mine, it was deliberate as I wanted my kids to enjoy reading.