“Ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention. If you stand together and process a thing before your community, it holds you accountable. Ceremonies transcend the boundaries of the individual and resonate beyond the human realm. These acts of reverence are powerfully pragmatic. These are ceremonies that magnify life.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer from Braiding Sweetgrass
One gorgeous fall day in 2023, we put our tent up and told the kids we were camping in the backyard. This, of course, incited great enthusiasm from the kids as they peppered us with questions. “Why are we putting up the tent?”, “Are we sleeping out there!?”, “Can I bring my stuffie to the tent?” and various other childlike questions.
We had been camping before, but it had been quite a while since we had gone to a campsite. Funds had been very tight that year with the loss of my husband’s job and we decided to make a weekend of camping in the backyard. Our main incentive to do this was because I had been learning about the Biblically mandated feasts in Leviticus 23. We were going to celebrate by sleeping in a tent!
Now, my husband and I both grew up in conservative, Christian homes. We were regular church attenders, Christmas and Easter celebrators and church volunteers. We were basically following those footsteps for our family. We had never heard of the Biblical feasts outside of something that was part of the Jewish culture. We had definitely never celebrated them. This was our first campout to celebrate them!
Exodus 23:14 “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me.”
But the year 2023, had torn down many of the foundations we had been standing on. The walls we had built for our family were literally crumbling down around us. Physical home, finances, family and church home had all recently been crashing down. What remained was Jesus and a desperation for something different. This campout was the beginning of many new traditions for our bedraggled family foundations.