My New Project (or Pipe Dream)

With the Easter season upon us, as with every holiday, family traditions are born and continued. I've been thinking about all the traditions (holiday or otherwise) in my family and as a result have come up with a new project. I want to write a book on the traditions in my family! I'm not sure if I'm going to do it as an e-book or a published piece but I am very excited about it. I'm hoping to make it about not only current traditions but also past ones, like how when my grandmother was a girl her family would always have waffles on Sunday. While the project seems simple enough, by broadening it to include past traditions that older family members knew I'm opening it up to be a bit of an undertaking. I plan on writing down all the traditions past and present that I know of as well as asking family members (like my grandmother) what traditions they had growing up or knew of that their parents and hopefully, grandparents had. This little weekend project is going to be bigger than I originally thought, but I'm excited and hopefully a keepsake for all (and future generations) will result. I haven't heard of anyone making a "traditions book" (at least not in my family) before so I don't have a real template to follow. I guess I'll go by trial and error and see what happens. I have found internet resources to help me though, among them:

The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox (link is to excerpts from Google Books)
A List of Ideas from Googol (I use the items as a way to jump start my memories, but they are meant as a guidline for creating new family traditions).
Family Routines and Rituals by Barbara H. Fiese (link is to excerpts from Google Books)

I'm still in the preliminary stage (as in, I-haven't-even-started stage) and am mainly just collecting resources at the moment, the three above being just the ones I found online today. I also plan on looking at mine and my mother's (my father doesn't have one that I know of) baby books because there are many traditions in there. What I have the project broken down into at this point is:
  • Holiday traditions
  • Everyday traditions
  • Past traditions
  • Seasonal traditions
  • Weekly or monthly traditions
  • Traditions based on where we grew up (for example, going to the local Farmer's Market every Wednesday)
  • Miscellaneous

Comments

  1. Leah--I'm posting a comment as the author of The Book of New Family Traditions, and I'm hoping to get you to consider an author's point of view on this. While it is legal to search my book using Google, I hope you will think about the fact that my book is the result of years of research, preparation, interviews, writing and personal experience. In my ritual research, I've talked to hundreds of families. I earn my living from my writing, and you can buy this entire book for a little more than $10 on Amazon. I'd feel much better if you'd borrow it, free, from your local library (many libraries carry it), because at least the library has honored the author's work. All that aside, I commend you for your plan to put together a book about your own family's traditions. This is a terrific idea and I believe it will bring you much joy.
    Meg Cox, www.megcox.com

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