Sometimes, it is interesting to think about how and when children come to understand the meanings of the various holidays that their families celebrate. Of course, much of the understanding (or lack thereof) comes from how “into” each particular holiday a child’s parents are. For example, I am not sure whether Dylan understands a whole lot about Christmas because my husband and I have not been overly focused on teaching him about it. He understands Thanksgiving more, because that is our favorite holiday.
St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend, and at not quite two and a half years old, Dylan James Delaney is getting a wee bit of education about this holiday and about his Irish heritage. By my estimates, Dylan is approximately one quarter Irish because my husband is one quarter Irish and so am I. I’m not quite sure exactly how or when I started explaining St. Patrick’s Day to him but I think it was about a week ago.
One night, I was reading to him before bed. His book of choice that evening was his “Children’s Encyclopedia”. He likes to look through it and he asks me to tell him about pictures that look interesting to him. As he was flipping through the pages, he came upon a picture of the flag of Ireland and asked what it was. I explained it to him, and told him that two of his great grandparents had come from there. I also told him that his Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, aunt and uncle had traveled there.
Since St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, I also explained to him that there is a holiday that celebrates being Irish. I talked about our “special dinner” that we would have – corned beef and cabbage. Our cat’s name is Patrick, and Dylan calls him Pat Pat. He has decided that his world, St. Patrick’s Day is called “Pat Pat Day”. It is so cute. Yesterday, he received a St. Patrick’s Day card in the mail from his great aunt. He really likes it and carries it around the house. Today, he “helped” me prepare the corned beef and cabbage (we’re celebrating early because my husband works on Saturday) by washing the dishes (playing in the sink) as I peeled the vegetables and filled the crock pot. Five minutes later, he was wondering whether the “Pat Pat Day” food was ready yet. So, I am not quite sure how much of what he understands about St. Patrick’s Day, but the beginnings are there.
Photo by jdurham on morguefile.com.