There may forever remain multiple who, when, and where questions about the origins of the lesser-known July holiday celebrated on the 24th—National Cousins Day. While some admit the history of this commemoration is “shrouded in mystery,” others jump fully on board to celebrate this family-ties-specific special day, queries about its history set aside. And why not? Another reason to celebrate family, and I say we can’t have too much of that or too many designated days for doing so.
Weren’t we a cute bunch of cousins?
For many folks, first friendships sprout from cousin connections as wee ones roll about the floor together in Grandma’s living room after Sunday dinner and discuss matters of grave importance while strapped into side-by-side car seats in Mom’s or Aunt Betty’s sedan for a morning of runnin’ errands. Built-in playmates that morph into gettin’-into-mischief-together teenage buddies who end up being lifelong friends whose children will repeat the process creating a bounty of close second cousin connections.
Cousins are a treasure, indeed.
So, whether this year marks your first or twenty-first time celebrating National Cousins Day, don’t let Thursday, July 24th go by unobserved. Choose something simple, a more elaborate endeavor, or something in the in-between category. Just do something that day—anything that relates to or involves a cousin connection.
Christmas gathering – December 1971. Twelve of the then fourteen cousins posed mostly willingly. A couple youngin’s were wrangled into both pictures.
A few years later . . . The older guy cousins being all cool with their siblings off camera to the right sunbathing on a used-only-for-this-special-purpose mattress tossed in the yard.
Let this list of suggestions spark your ideas for creating a memorable day. Then, consider the options that will help you launch a year-long plan for celebrating those awesome cousin connections.
- Remind your favorite cuz of how much their relationship means to you.
- Share a fun cousin memory with a friend, your spouse, kids, or grandkids.
- Share a cousin memory with the cousin(s) involved!
- Pull out the photo albums and stroll through the cousin adventures that marked your growing up years.
- Text or better yet, call, a cousin you’ve not communicated with for a while.
- Arrange a meet up with a cousin, or two or three, for a before-work bite, a lunch hour rendezvous, or a relaxing sit-down dinner. Or do all three. You have to eat anyway, right?
- Challenge your cousins to come up with: the longest-ago memory, the most hilarious memory, the incident that got ya’ll into the most trouble. How about recalling together the “thing” that none of your collective parents ever found out?
- Look for lost-connection cousins on social media and reignite those connections that time and distance may have interrupted.
- Dig out the paper-version of your family tree or log into the online family records and absorb the heritage captured within its branches.
- Or, get started with a record of your family’s history. Remember, a family tree starts with one person, you. Fill in what you know and commit to dedicating a bit of time each week or month to filling in the branches.
- Create a private “Cousins” Facebook page. Take advantage of the at-your-fingertips ease of staying in contact via the internet.
Hubby’s cousins . . .
Beth Steury, Author 