Keeping Traditions Alive

Yesterday, my aunt who lives in the island sent me a pack of native delicacies
It was a leftover from the day's religious observance of "Nisfu" Shah'ban a month before Ramadhan

Nisfu is a season of remembering the dead
By visiting their graves and pour water on their headstones
And offering prayers and foods for the dead loved ones led by an Imam

It is the counterpart of All Saints  Day in Christianity
A tradition that has been alive since its beginning and practice until now in traditional  Muslim communities

I have been observing it in our home every year since mother passed away
It is a practice that is pass on from generation to generation
From grandmothers to Mothers and to the granddaughters in succession
To keep it alive

But this year I was not able to observe it because of the pandemic
And just asked my aunt to do it on my behalf
I haven't visited the grave of my mother for many years now
The distance and an incident from the past has prevented me from going

My father's  grave is in the city and we used to visit it every year  after  his death in 2016 except  this year
Being a daughter I realized it is my inherited role to keep this tradition in the family going
And pass it on to my nieces when their turn have come

There are traditions  that we cannot stop its practice and perpetuation
Despite the wave of change brought by modernity and other factors
Because it is deeply rooted in our belief
Which becomes part of who we are