Greetings friends of @silverblogger, I hope you have a happy weekend. This is my entry for The Silverbloggers Chronicles - Prompt #24 - Family holiday traditions. Christmas is my favorite time of year because of the celebration of Jesus' birth and its beautiful colors. The streets and shopping centers are decorated with joy for this season. I like to decorate, make ornaments, and combine colors, but it also makes me sad 😢 and nostalgic for several reasons.
After my father passed away, Christmases were never the same. He always made sure we had the ingredients and food to make Christmas dinner and share with the family. Also, in this month, it was customary to paint the houses, and my father would buy us a menu that was common in my childhood: bread with mortadella and soda. It was the perfect snack when we were doing certain chores around the house, such as painting, decorating, repairing, general cleaning, among others. During these days, bread with its respective mortadella and a very cold soda were essential.
The bagpipes, Christmas carols, and traditional music in general that we usually hear at this time of year in this country make me sad. My father also liked bagpipes and Christmas carols; since he knew how to play the cuatro, he would sing while my sisters and I painted.
Among the customs we have at home for this season, as in most Venezuelan households, is making hallacas together and distributing the tasks: flattening the dough, filling, tying, and my mother was in charge of supervising that the cooking was perfect, so we could enjoy the delicious hallacas at the family dinner.
Although we continue with this tradition, Christmas and dinner are no longer the same, because we live in different cities and on many occasions it is difficult for us to get together due to economic factors.
I remember that at this time of year it was a lovely tradition to prepare hallacas and eagerly await the night to enjoy the delicious dinner on December 24th and 31st to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one. Ah, those were the days! Another activity was playing with the famous sparklers and firecrackers. By the way, it's been a while since I've seen these Christmas fireworks that were so common in my childhood. I was particularly happy with a sparkler or throwing firecrackers on the ground and watching them explode. The sparklers were a wire covered in gunpowder, which you lit and it formed a star. When the gunpowder was running out, you would throw it on the ground. These fireworks bring back many memories of my childhood, when I played with my sisters and the neighbors who lived on the block. But of all the traditions, the one I miss the most is enjoying Christmas dinner with my family.
Making hallacas was a fun work adventure: listening to music, sneaking raisins while my mom was busy, haha. I was always keeping an eye on the raisins to make sure we had enough, since I knew we'd take advantage of any excuse to eat them, and ironically, they were the first ingredient to run out. With more than half the hallacas still to be made, I invited @hylene74 and @annafenix to join this Christmas initiative.
Blessings!
¡Bendiciones!
All images are my own.
Todas las imágenes son de mi autoría.
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