Traditions

Learning to appreciate the variety of cultures in the world, in our country, state and hometown is an important part of our Social Studies curriculum. Appreciation for cultural differences can, after all, help us all get along just a little bit better, maybe even a lot better. An interesting way to help children gain some of this appreciation is to allow them to share the customs, the traditions, they and their families enjoy and respect. In this way we can raise the “respect for others” bar in our classrooms.

Well, my family does not have any unique traditions, nothing that culturally just jumps out at you and makes you say, “Wow, that is so cool, now I understand you so much better!” We celebrate all of the usual “American” traditions;

Thanksgiving: we eat turkey

Birthdays: we eat cake

Halloween: we eat candy

Fourth of July: we eat barbecue

Hmmm, lots of eating. I’m feeling a little bit boring. We must be special in some way, there must be…

I’ve got it; we celebrate Egg Day!

About 34 years ago, my (then) boyfriend’s grandmother (he is now my husband and she has, sadly, passed on) introduced me to the tradition of standing an egg on end on the first day of spring, the Vernal Equinox. True believers philosophize over the unique gravitational pull caused by “the sun’s equidistant position between the poles of the earth at the time of the equinox” which affords nearly equal amounts of daylight and sunlight.

I just think it’s fun to do.

So every year, at or near the time when spring arrives (this year on the East coast spring arrives at 12:30 am on March 20th) I stand eggs up. Everywhere. From the time I get up in the morning until I can’t get them to stay any longer. And I have been doing this for 33 or so years now. So that’s a tradition, right?

A couple of year’s ago I had this funny class who related everything I taught them to an episode of Sponge Bob. They named that egg Rodger (there’s an episode for that) and so now, each year, in Mrs. Scannell’s class, we await the coming again of…

Rodger!

 

We now keep Rodger with us until he slips away. Then we mourn him with a simple ceremony and say good-bye.

So in honor of culture and traditions and comings and goings everywhere; here’s to spring, we welcome you now and thank you for bringing us Rodger!