We know that Samhain is about honoring our ancestors but did you know that October is Family History Month? When I found this out rather recently I thought how wonderfully ironic that is. We don’t really have any departed ancestors that my children have known so it makes it kind of hard for them to understand their connection to the departed loved ones that Odin and I talk to them about. That’s part of why, in years past, we have focused on celebrating our nationalities at our ancestor feast. We do talk to them about departed ancestors but I’ve never put it into the context of a family history project. Our youngest is still too young for a lot of family history talk, Loki is only four, but Lugh is seven and I think this year we’re going to talk more about family history during the course of the month. I have digital copies of a fair amount of family photos, some going back to the early 1900’s and since the boys love to look at photos I’m going to start off by showing both of them the family photos. Lugh will be able to grasp some of the family relations but that will be over Loki’s head, still he can enjoy the photos and understand that the people in them have some connection to him.
I’ve been working on our family history for a couple of years now and I think it’s time for Lugh to see some of my work. The photos will be a good starting point but I don’t have photos for everyone. I figure if I relate the older generations of ancestors to the oldest living relatives our boys know then he’ll have a point of reference he understands to work from. I’ll try to make it more than just reading a list of names where I can. Lugh is interested in the military and both Odin and I have long family histories of military service and I can use that as a point of interest for him. I also have some short stories about some of the ancestors that I can tell him to try to make the person more than just a name. I’m not going to get long winded with things or get into details like birth and death dates or even where most of them were born because he has a limited knowledge of geography. The point isn’t to overwhelm him with details but to give him an introduction to his ancestors.
Lugh loves to help me cook and about two years ago now I compiled a family history cookbook. The intro to the book is a short family history and in it I put any family recipe that I could get from older relatives. With the recipes I included details like what time of year the meal was traditionally served and some other little family tidbits. He may enjoy flipping through the cookbook with me and learning about where some of the recipes come from. Then he can pick a recipe that he wants to make with me either one day during the month or for our ancestor feast.
Lastly I’ll tie it all back into Samhain and re-explain to the children that it is a time of year when we celebrate our ancestors and where we come from. They know this, but repetition helps to reinforce things and this year they’ll have a little better understanding of who their ancestors were.