Holidays All Around—

I always find it amazing to look around my neighborhood every year and find the multitude of overlapping holidays that tend to fall around the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa time.  It’s also pleasantly amazing to see that almost every year another holiday from across the globe seems to be added to the growing list of holidays celebrated around this time.

 A few days ago the five-day Hindu festival of Diwali, a celebration of lights and the Indian New Year, just wrapped up.  Following closely after this festival comes the Muslim holiday of Eid Ul-Adha— not as well known as Ramadan, but still quite a big deal in my faith.  Since Muslims follow a lunar calendar, the date of our holidays change each year, which was always difficult to explain to teachers back in middle-school and high-school when we were pleading for a day off to celebrate.

While Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, celebrates a month of fasting, patience, and prayer, Eid ul-Adha marks the end of Hajj (the ritual pilgrimage to Makah in Saudi Arabia that Muslims must undertake once in their lifetime if they are able to).  Pictures of the Hajj often flash on the news channels around the time of this holiday where throngs of people dressed in white appear to nearly mesh into one another as they circumvent the Kabah (a black square structure at the heart of Makah believed to be built by Prophet Abraham and his son way back when).  The purpose of the pilgrimage is essentially to reenact what the Prophet is believed to have done years ago and to stand shoulder to shoulder with other Muslims from around the world with no dividers of age, race, wealth, or status.  Whether or not you complete the Hajj, every year Eid ul-Adha marks a great celebration to the end of the 8-day pilgrimage and is viewed as the Feast of Sacrifice, where everyone who is financially able to should provide meat and food to those who are in need. 

Eid Ul-Adha falls on November 16^th this year and we’ve already planned the family festivities.  In order to give our children a sense of the holiday, we usually make projects related to the Hajj, do our own little reenactment play with family and friends, teach our kids about giving charity and food to those who are less fortunate and really just appreciate the quality time we can spend with those we love.  Substitute lamb for the turkey, a mini-Kabah for the decorations, and detract Santa, Black Friday madness, and the Christmas tree and you’ve essentially got the formula for a very similar holiday. 

Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Eid ul-Adha or any other holiday this season, the main ingredients are still the same.  It’s all about the family, the friends, and the remembrance that whichever faith you choose to follow—it is always worth being celebrated. 

Happy Holidays to All-- wherever your holiday may fall!  J

          -Suzy Ismail

To ghoul or not to ghoul…

We had been living in our new house for one month, childless at the time.  As we stepped out of our doorway, dressed to go to a good friend’s wedding, costumed children descended upon us seeking treats.  Not even aware we had stumbled into trick or treating territory, we apologized to the little darlings and proceeded to our car.  “That’s not the way to start out in this neighborhood,” our new neighbor greeted icily from the street.  Mind you, my husband was in a suit and I was donned in an ankle length velvet gown, clearly overdressed for Halloween.  Needless to say, the experience left a bad taste in my mouth that no amount of York peppermint patties could erase.

Growing up, I happily trick or treated.  Back when we all us kiddies had to do was set out at night by ourselves and the scariest thing we had to worry about was whether a razor blade had been inserted into our apples by some sick freak.  It was good, clean fun and the neighbors were excited to see us.  I don’t regret my days of Halloweening.

My husband is an ex-Jehovah’s Witness who grew up studying the less than Godly history of Halloween.  He knew things I had certainly never known.  Things I never would have thought to look up.  As our kids came along, we had to make a decision.  We chose not to celebrate.  A decision made between us and God.  A decision that is different for each Christian.  We certainly have a number of Christian friends who partake in the sugar laden festivities.  One is an ordained minister who actually used to stage a haunted house in his own home each year as an outreach to the community.    

But I certainly don’t want my kids to sit home and listen to laughing children run past our house, their bags stuffed gleefully with sugar, corn syrup, and artificial colors.  So, we leave long before our nosy neighbor is out and about and have family fun time with the kids.  This year we hit the local farm market for a hay ride and pumpkin picking.  And instead of making jack-o-lanterns, we’re going to roast up and puree those pumpkins to make pumpkin muffins.  Then we’ll toast up the seeds for a healthy snack.  And yeah, we even picked up some candy, just nothing me or my husband liked (smart thinking from the fat chick). 

So to those of you who celebrated, I hope you all had a blast.  To those of you who didn’t, have no fear.  You are not alone. 

     -Suzi Ryan

Halloween Precipitation

“‘Twas the day before Halloween and along with their dad, the kids just kept arguing if Halloween was bad.”  My six-year old son had come home from school in quite a huff announcing that we should never “precipitate” in Halloween.  After asking a few more questions about what he meant, I found out the word he was looking for was “participate.”  Apparently, he felt very strongly that not only should he not get dressed up or trick-or-treat on Halloween, but that we also needed to put up a sign on the door explaining why Halloween was “wrong” and not pass out any candy.

Long before our children were old enough to utter “Hershey Kiss,” my husband and I made the conscious decision that we would not endorse Halloween nor do the whole “trick-or-treating” thing because of what the holiday was essentially celebrating.  Because our children are enrolled in a religious school, we found full endorsement from the kids.  The older ones whole-heartedly expressed that they had no desire to get dressed up and go door to door asking for candy when they had plenty of the good stuff at their finger tips.  It also helps that my kids are somewhat terrified of the spookier costumes and won’t even go near a party store with costumes hanging up front.

So, the debate raged on about whether or not passing out candy counted as celebrating Halloween.  My nine year old daughter saw nothing wrong with passing out candy, but my son believed that would be “precipitating” which was just as bad as celebrating.  In the past, if we happened to be home on Halloween, I’d usually pull out a bowl of candy and have the kids give some out to whoever came knocking because it seemed like the nice thing to do.  Even if we weren’t celebrating, I wanted the kids to know that if a neighbor comes to your door asking for something, then you should help (this is why we are the go-to family whenever girl scouts cookies, little league chocolates, or useless candleholders are being sold for any possible fundraiser).

                We still haven’t come to a clear resolution as to what will be done tomorrow.  Since I will be out of the house speaking at an event for most of the day, I’m going to willingly let my husband field this one.  After all, while a little “precipitation” may not be a bad thing, lots of it could lead to some pretty terrible flooding. 

For those of you who are celebrating the holiday, “Happy Halloween” and for those of you who are not, have a wonderful weekend! J    

     -Suzy Ismail

The Little Things...

As I stare at the blank open document and wonder what thoughts or random musings I should sprinkle upon it today, I take a long and drawn-out sip of lovely morning coffee and hear a contented little sigh escape from my happy lips.  And then it hits me… I don’t need to wax and wane about some monumental topic.  Sometimes it’s the little things in life that mean the most. 

I know that line sounds like something I stole off a Hallmark greeting card (no, I don’t mean the ones that play gaudy music and have bawdy bathroom humor birthday wishes—I mean the other kind with the clichéd rainbows and butterflies sending get well wishes your way--- although the singing bathroom humor ones often spout more wisdom than the others).  Anyway, I swear I’m not posting about rainbows or butterflies or even the little smiles our kids’ might put on our faces with their out-of-place innocently funny comments (now there’s another post just begging to be written).

The little things I’m talking about are that first sip of morning coffee, that tiny bite of dark chocolate cake that you may think twice about and then sink your teeth into with utter abandon, or that extra few minutes of sleep that you squeeze in once you’ve hit the snooze button seven times more than you should have (but subconsciously you know it’s okay because you’ve set your upstairs alarm clock to be 10 minutes fast just in case).  The funny thing though, is sometimes it takes some serious stepping away from the good stuff to know how good the stuff really is (not necessarily breaking up with the chocolate or coffee—but maybe just taking a break).

A few weeks ago, my mind, body, and soul went through the annual “break” of Ramadan.  Yep, it’s that month of fasting that many people know has something to do with Muslims, but aren’t quite sure what it entails exactly.  It’s the month where no food or drink is allowed for observant Muslims from sunrise to sunset every day.  Since the Islamic months are based on a lunar calendar, the month of Ramadan changes every year.  This year the month began in mid-August with sunrise tolling in at around 4 am and sunset extending past 8:00 pm.  Difficult to go through all those hours with no food and drink, you ask?  Yes… and no.  The food and drink are the easy parts after the first few days of your body adjusting to a different intake level.  It’s the spiritual part that’s a bit trickier.  The Muslim fast is about more than just learning patience and self-discipline; it’s also about focusing on the good things you’ve got in life and realizing that others do live without the basics every day.  It’s quite an eye, heart, and pocket-opener on an empty stomach.  It’ also amazing how changing something simple like an often mindless routine of eating and drinking can completely change entire perspectives, thought processes, and actions.

As I reach over for another “ahhhhhh” sip of my French vanilla flavored coffee, I realize that the little things don’t seem so little when you’ve taken a break from them.  Mixing things up and stepping away from routine is such an awesome awakener when you’re stuck in a rut.  Funny, but I’m suddenly feeling a serious craving for a bite of dark chocolate cake.  Looks like a great time for another “ahhhhh” moment. J

  -Suzy Ismail