I think two practices(you can also refer to them as traditions) have, amongst others, but chiefly strengthened our bond as a family. One of them happens to be devotion time - like holding morning prayers together. It isn't just the prayers though, but usually, particularly on weekends, during the gathering, we visited issues that concerns us individually and as a family, made plans, cracked jokes in-between, received rebukes/criticisms, got advised and then held our hands together in prayer. It was always satisfying, and it made me feel warm, always. We still maintain it as it's still effective.
The other one practice is eating. My entire childhood and teenage days, aside from my lunch, I seldom ever ate alone.
My earliest memories of my childhood and food are filled with us-my family - eating together. Back then, evening meals were mostly fries and egg, drank with Pap, which we all consumed from the same bowl(during the cold or rainy seasons) or eba with soup, which although, we did not eat altogether, yet we ate in groups.
We are a large family. There's eight of us-myself, my parents, and siblings. Then on different occasions, usually, we had a relative or friend(s) of my brothers who were over at our place. With that lathe number of people, it was almost impossible to eat eba and soup together. It would be a mess plus would be uncomfortable. And since we couldn't afford to eat individually, cause, think about it, with that large number, and for an average family, if we ate separately, a pot of soup would barely see us through a second serving. So, my parents and I ate together, and the others were served in groups of twos or threes. However, we ate almost at the same time. There were occasions, though, when everybody had to eat from a big bowl or tray and that was usually depending on the kind of meal.
Mostly, we ate together. It was fun and filling. Still is.
And frankly, we do this 3verytime that we're together. Meal times are mostly around the same time for everyone. Typically, when the food is ready. I'm home now(should be in school though, but that's, by the way), and I get to eat with either a sibling or my parents if I choose to. Everyone is back in their different cities and for the full house. It's been months since January since we had a family feast. It may be until the year-end break before we do so. Regardless, every time we find ourselves together, whether it's just a few of us or all of us, we share our meals.
And nothing is stopping me from passing down this habit. It will be common practice in my own home. Cause, I'm so sure it would feel weird to me if I had my meals differently - particularly when loved ones/family is present. It's now a part of my lifestyle, one that has eaten deep into my core and i don't see myself letring go.
Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!